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Vorshlag Review of the BFGoodrich "Rival" Tire

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  • Vorshlag Review of the BFGoodrich "Rival" Tire

    Vorshlag Review of the BFGoodrich "Rival", their new 200 Treadwear Tire



    As many of you have read already, there was a new tire designed and released in January 2013, adding another member to the 140-200 Treadwear Tire Wars. This tire joins many other popular tires in the 140-200 treadwear "Extreme Summer" tire category. The Rival was designed primarily as a dry weather tire, as noted by the large and blocky tread blocks, with three rows of blocks up to 265mm widths and four rows of blocks for widths above that. The unique features of this tire include exceptionally long wear, a large breadth of section widths ranging from 205/50/15 up to 335/30/18, and prices that are extremely competitive with today's 140-200 treadwear tires. Being 200 UTQG rated, it is legal for the largest number of competitive events as well.



    The new BFGoodrich Rival tire model was a well kept secret. When I received an invitation (as "an opinion maker"??) to go to the launch and testing of this tire, the name of this new model was a complete surprise to me. I had heard about the upcoming Dunlop Direzza ZII and even whispers about the Bridgestone RE-11A, but this Rival was an unexpected surprise. They were flying 70-100 people known in the autocross and road race "street tire" circles, media types, and some of their dealers, out to New Orleans on January 21st-23rd for the press release, technical talks, and a lot of test driving on this tire and several key competitors. This included direct autocross and road course testing at the new NOLA Motorsports Park. Who was I to argue? After returning from the first 2013 NASA Time Trial event at MSR-Houston on Sunday, I hopped on a plane early Tuesday morning and flew into New Orleans...

    Freebies, Swag and Buying Opinions?

    Before we get started, I've been asked by several people, "did they buy a favorable review with this event?" So sure, this BFG launch event cost a chunk of change to put on, as they paid to rent the track, bring over a dozen cars here to drive (plus used half a dozen FR500S race cars that the track already had on hand from its rental fleet), and paid for all sorts of food and drink to the "opinion makers" they invited. They also paid to fly dozens of us to New Orleans, paid for hotel rooms in the Ritz Carlton, gave us some hats/jackets/swag, and let us romp around a road course and autocross courses in their cars, all day, for free. Will this "buy" the opinions from all of the people that were invited to come??

    Vorshlag picture gallery from this event: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...G-NOLA-012312/

    No. Not everyone, and the opinions were all very unanimous, from what I've heard first-hand and read online. Sure, while posh treatment might temper what some might say, I don't think it affects everyone, and least of all me. I've received some nice treatment from several tire companies over the years, with invites to arrive-and-drive events from Hankook, Yokohama and many others, free trips from Bridgestone, and free tires from Yokohama, Bridgestone, and Kumho. I won't let a bag of swag, comped tires, or a free lunch change my opinions or the testing I've performed here at Vorshlag or elsewhere, though. Even if a tire is free, I will say my honest opinion of it. If that tire is fast, I am going to buy it and recommend it. If we put a part on our cars and it sucks I'll point it out, so others don't make the same mistakes I have (of which there are plenty). People like Andy Hollis were there, too, and I know for a fact he doesn't give a fig about sponsorship or freebies - he just wants to WIN. I've seen him run two different brands of tires on opposite ends of the same car, to suit his needs. So there will be some honest opinions about this tire out there, with some first-hand impressions that you can really trust.


    I have a been to many tire company sponsored arrive-and-drive events, including Yokohama (left) and Hankook (right).

    Who Is This Guy?

    If you know who Terry Fair is, and have followed any of my build threads, then the next few paragraphs are not worth reading (rehash). Please skip down to The BFG Rival Launch Event, bolded below.

    What is an opinion if you don't know who is giving it, or know their racing/testing/engineering background? I will talk for just a minute about my background with street tires and competition events. If my Facebook pictures from the BFG Rival event are an indicator, this written review could end up just about anywhere. So let's see... I started autocrossing in 1987 and ran street and R-compound tires throughout college. Being a starving engineering student I tended to stick with street compound tires, as these provided the best bang for the buck... kind of like how autocross was more affordable than open lapping or wheel-to-wheel club racing. Since Texas A&M Univ. is located right next to a road course (Texas World Speedway), I was able to enter a number of PCA HPDE events, racing around the road course there through college, and I corner-worked many of their events just to get free track time. I even worked out at the track for a while, testing cars on track for some oil additive companies. We also set-up several 1.4+ mile road courses and called them autocrosses out at the Riverside Annex, in our autocross club (TAMSCC).

    Note: All of my competition during that period were in higher powered RWD cars, with a few exceptions. I never did go for light, FWD cars, so my opinions and experience regarding tire use on those cars are limited. Even in college we "tested tires", pooling our meager resources and swapping cars at practice autocross events, where we each often took 50-75+ timed autocross runs in a given day. We learned quickly which tires were fast and which were hype. Two other students in TAMSCC and I also created a sort of unlimited, "street tire only" class in 1991 that we called Super Street Modified. We kept it to 275mm and smaller widths and 200+ treadwear, and this was quickly the largest class at our monthly auto-x events. College students and drivers from Houston and Dallas and Austin alike flocked to this class, where the tire widths and compounds kept spending and horsepower in check. Think of a mash-up of SCCA Street Mod blended with the tires similar to Street Touring. We would regularly have 25+ entrants in this class, and we pushed the limits of 200 treadwear tires long before the SCCA created their Street Touring classes around 2003, and before their Street Mod category existed.


    Left: Racing in STU at a ProSolo in 2006 on Yokohama AD07s. Right: Solo Nats in 2007 on Bridgestone RE-01Rs.

    After leaving college with years of racing in various autocross classes and track events on R-compound tires, I came into the Street Touring autocross classes in 2004. I started co-driving a friend's 1997 BMW M3 and we raced this car together from 2004-2007, netting some good trophies at Nationals and my wife taking two wins in STU-L in the car. Then we jumped around from STS, STX, and STU in various cars up through 2011 - mostly 2700-3400 pound RWD and AWD cars, almost always with more than 300 whp. Noting the popularity of "racing on your street tires", we developed dozens of Vorshlag and AST suspension parts on these chassis, usually racing on street compound tires ranging from 140-200 treadwear. During this period I raced and tested on Falken, Dunlop, Hankook, Yokohama, Bridgestone, Toyo, Pirelli, and Goodyear brand tires, often on more than one model from those brands. And to be completely transparent, my wife and/or I were sponsored drivers for both Yokohama and Bridgestone at various times.


    Racing in two LeMons Endurance events once again brought me back to 200 treadwear Dunlop Z1s (left) and Falkens (right).

    In 2011, two different 24 hours de LeMons teams asked me to co-drive in their cars, which I did and had a LOT of fun. This is an endurance wheel to wheel road racing series made for "$500" cars, similar in many ways to the ChumpCar series. These two endurance series both require 200 treadwear tires, so I was running on the Dunlop and Falken tires that the two teams chose. Then in 2012 I ran a couple of Optima Challenge qualifier events, where I was once again on 200 treadwear tires that I had to buy, as that is the limit in that series.


    Left: 7 of the 9 events BFG sponsors are ones that we have entered. Right: Optima Challenge's autocross+track+speed-stop format is a favorite.

    The Optima series' 200 TW requirement was a difficult change, as I had been free to choose from 140-180 TW tires for years while running with SCCA in Street Touring - but we made a compromise and found a tire that we thought might be suitable for the wider sizes we needed on a heavy, 430 whp car. Unfortunately the 295mm Nitto NT-05 we chose was mostly a dud, but we still won the autocross portion at a Optima event and placed 3rd in the road course, so it wasn't a total loss. After having spoken about the downsides of this tire many times, I vowed to come back and run more of these Qualifiers in 2013 on better rubber! So I've been really watching the 200+ treadwear category with interest since early 2012, as this is the minimum treadwear number in Goodguys, ChumpCar, LeMons, ASCS, and Optima OUSCI events, and these tires could be used in any class that required 140 or higher treadwear.


    I have already test driven and/or competed on all of these tire brands in 2013, plus some more

    I also ran several NASA events in 2010-11 on street compound tires, to keep the points down enough to be able to stay in the TTB class, before ditching that idea and jumping into TTS (now in TT3). So that's my brief history with competition events on "street tires". I guess you could say that I was racing on 140-200 treadwear tires before it was en vogue? And I've been doing it on what many consider to be the heavier end of the autocross spectrum (2700-3500 lbs), with a lot of Time Trial and endurance W2W road course experience on these tires as well. Not the typical FWD Honda Street Tourer, or the typical R-compound-only autocrosser background, so if your tire uses sound more like mine, then maybe my review of the BFG Rival or any other tire I've tested/raced on will resonate more than others?

    I don't know if that matters or not, but I just wanted to put that out there. I tend to distrust most of what I read on the internets, and I rarely trust the opinions and "reviews" about racing related products when I know nothing about the reviewer.

    The BFG Rival Launch Event

    So I arrive at the New Orleans airport to find a driver and town car waiting to whisk me to the Ritz Carlton hotel down in the French Quarter. Yep, they sprung for some fancy digs. Warning lights were sounding in my head and I thought "Man, this tire must really need some help". I was the first to arrive that day at registration and I got a key to my room and a bag full of BFG swag then headed up to my suite. Damn nice digs. In my room, I found a "top secret" engineering document that was "accidentally" left there. Pretty cute, but I took pics of each page and posted them on Facebook. You can see them starting here.


    Click here to see 10 pages from this "confidential report".

    There was a group already out at the track testing that day and I had to wait until Wednesday to get my hands on the cars and tires offered up to the second half of the tester group. With 7 hours to kill before drinks and dinner at 6 pm that night, I went out to the French Quarter and made a day of tourist attractions, excellent food and wicked drinks. At 6 pm I came out to the courtyard where they had an open bar, and saw friends who had arrived and introduced myself to many others in attendance. I met folks from Michelin/BFG (the latter company being owned by the former, so there is some crossover) and got to meet famous people I had only seen on TV, like the owners of Detroit Speed, Inc, Kyle & Stacy Tucker.


    Left: DSI co-owner and Optima competitor Stacy Tucker Right: Incredible meal at Arnaud's.

    Then the group meandered down the French Quarter to Arnaud's restaurant, which was closed for the night for the BFGoodrich party. More drinks, excellent food, and great dinner conversation with some folks from Tire Rack and Jimi Day of FM3 Marketing - the group that puts on several of the OUSCI Optima events, including the Qualifier we ran in Arlington last year - so we had met before. Turns out our dinner groupings were to be the same for our four groups during Wednesday's testing too.

    Heading to the NOLA Motorsports Facility

    Waking up Wednesday morning early, complete with a well earned hang-over, we poured ourselves into our assigned buses and rode out to the brand new and club-style 50 Million Dollar road course facility known as NOLA Motorsports Park. I have never been to this facility, but it is on my 2013 race schedule, May 4-5th, when NASA Texas heads there once again for a race weekend. I couldn't wait to get a peek at the road course and grounds.



    Wow, I have been to a lot of "club tracks", but this place was NICE. Palm trees, manicured lawns, huge clubhouse, covered paddocks and lots of garages. And they were still expanding it, with new construction underway all week while BFG was there.



    And everywhere you looked, BFG had tons of banners and giant blow-up tires, and a tractor trailer laid out with all of their livery. Goodness gracious they went all out here.

    Vorshlag Picture Gallery from the BFG Rival Launch: http://vorshlag.smugmug.com/Racing-E...G-NOLA-012312/

    We piled out of the buses and saw the cars we were to drive that day, all lined up. Judas Priest, that's a lot of cars! This was an impressive list, from light RWD roadsters in the MX5 Cup cars, to the AWD turbo Subaru STIs, to the RWD sports coupes that were the E46 M3s, and the solid axle brutes in the FR500S Mustang race cars. All were fitted with the same sized tire, likely for logistical reasons (245/40/18 was the choice), but strangely enough it worked.


    Our cars for the day.

    My queasy stomach wasn't ready to drive yet and we had hot breakfast waiting inside the gigantic clubhouse cafeteria. Wow, this was outstanding food, especially considering this was "track food". We clustered in groups and scarfed down nourishment and then I slid into the conference room and outside to take some pictures with my Nikon.



    After I snuck out for some pictures, we were summoned back inside for the technical show about the Rival. They explained the rubber compounds and tread patterns used in the Rival and why. Explained about better dry grip and exceptional wear, which remained to be seen. You can see each slide from the lengthy slideshow and presentation, with no fewer than 5 presenters, starting at this link.



    This wasn't boring marketing drivel, it was interesting engineering background about the tires from internal BFG test drivers, engineers and test drivers from Skip Barber. They talked about tire testing that had been performed on the Rival against some key competitors in the 140-200 UTQG market, such as Yokohama, Dunlop, Toyo, Falken and Hankook.


    Many more slides from the presentation can be seen starting here.

    (continued below)
    Last edited by Fair!; 02-08-2013, 07:50 PM.
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

  • #2
    Re: Vorshlag Review of the BFGoodrich "Rival" Tire

    (continued from above)

    Skid Pad Test: BFG Sport COMP-2, Rival and R1-S

    Our group of eight started the morning with skidpad testing. There were three identically prepared MX5 Cup cars (from the Skip Barber school) on the skidpad, each mounted with the same size, but different model BFGoodrich tires. First we started with the Sport COMP-2, then hopped in the car mounted with the Rival, then the car with the R1-S. These are the three latest additions to the BFGoodrich "g-Force" line of tires. The Sport COMP-2 and R1-S were introduced in 2012 and the Rival was new in 2013.


    We drove identical MX5 Cup cars on these three different BFG models.

    This was supposed to give us a feeling of the "family" of BFG tires, all of which use similar carcass and compound technology, but which have different tread patterns and compounds. The Sport COMP-2 is their 340 treadwear "sporty" wet-dry tire. This g-Force Sport COMP-2 tire has been "chosen by the Ford Racing High Performance Driving School at Miller Motorsports Park and Skip Barber Racing for their schools and race series", so it does have some competition cred.

    I am going back to my live Facebook reviews to get more accurate notes, such as this entry, "Really liked all 3 tires. Sport COMP-2 made 1.05g, Rival made 1.15, and the R1-S made 1.19. All very similar in feel, lots of usable slip angle, great steering response." So I was the first volunteer in our group to drive in the skidpad and we began with the Sport COMP-2. This tire felt pretty nice and made a respectable 1.05g lateral through the skidpad, as displayed on a large display and read to me by a right-seat instructor. Very predictable, lots of audible feedback, and decent feel given the grip levels. There was a fairly large ridge down the middle of the lot and the middle of the skidpad, so it made for an unusual loss of grip at two points along the circle. This highlighted the ease of control of each tires, purely on accident.



    Next up, I drove the MX5 Cup car fitted with the BFG Rival tires. Now this felt really good, and the lateral numbers were in the 1.15g range, and it felt like it. I've data logged hundreds of autocross runs on similar grip level tires and these felt like some of the best I've driven. There was a slightly sharper steering response than the SC2, but still lots of audible feedback and it was still easy to control through a wide range of slip angles. Lastly, I hopped in the car with the BFG R1-S tires. These are purpose built competition R-compounds that are not normally used on the street, but still carry a token DOT-rating. These felt very similar to the Rival, but made more grip and had less audible squeal when pushed, which is typical of an R-compound. They were still fairly easy to control and didn't have that complete knife-edge of total grip loss I was expecting, but the range of usable slip angles was definitely narrower than the other two BFG tires. I hadn't raced on BFG R1 tires since the 1990s, and I cannot say I remember every aspect of those tires 10-15 years later, but these felt nice and probably share little if any technology with their previous R1 tires.



    I spent much of the latter half of 2012 at autocross and track events on Kumho V710 and Hoosier A6 and R6 compounds of "race tires", and these R1-S tires felt pretty similar to the A6 and maybe a tick sharper than the V710. I later found out this was the only test with the R1-S, which was to be expected (as this event was supposed to be all about the Rival). I got out of the last car and immediately looked up the R1-S sizes, and made a note to ask the BFG engineers the differences between the R1 and R1-S tires - and to ask the marketing folks about NASA contingency (more on that below). I also looked back at my pictures of the Rival sizes from the press briefing, knowing pretty quickly that I needed to get a set of Rivals on my 2011 Mustang in a 315mm size, to at least test before I go to another Optima qualifier event. Also looked to see if any larger 17" sizes were in the pipeline, for use in our 4th gen Firebird V6 ChumpCar (which has 17x9.5" wheels). From the TireRack Rival size page, it looks like the 295/35/18 and 335/30/18 arrive in April and the 315/30/18 rolls out in June. Gotta see when the next Optima Qualifier event is after that! Largest 17" size is a 255/40/17, so that kinda kills it for our ChumpCar use. Balls.


    Subaru STI Autocross Course with BFG Rival, Toyo R1R, and Hankook R-S3

    Our second event was driving on a small-to-medium sized autocross course on asphalt, the sun was out, and temperatures were creeping up into the low 70°F range already, so jackets were being tossed aside. The surface was supposedly the same "track asphalt" that the road course was paved with, and while this might seem outlandish for a parking lot, this is a fifty million dollar facility. After driving on it, this wasn't just some junky parking lot asphalt, it had some GRIP.

    So we were finally on a real autocross course, with bigger and more powerful AWD cars and tires that I was very familiar with. These GR chassis STIs were all shod with 245/40/18 sized tires that included the BFG Rival, Toyo R1R and Hankook R-S3, all mounted to the same 18x8" wheels. I had autocrossed in the STX class with our Mustang on the R1R and R-S3, fighting to control 430whp with a narrow 265mm tire (which was hopeless!), and had settled on using the Hankook for much of 2011 and into 2012. This was after our private Vorshlag/AST tire test in April 2011 and subsequent testing of the R-S3 in two different sizes on the same car, shortly thereafter. Great prices, lots of sizes (which top out at 285mm widths), great grip, good wear, but they always lacked the sharpness of say... the Yokohama AD08 or Bridgestone RE-11. So I had used the R-S3 in 2011-2012 and was anxious to see it back to back against the Rival. I had used the R1R in 2011 as well, also on the Mustang, and I felt at the time it was too heat sensitive, had dead steering feel, and had horrific wear.


    Photos of Vorshlag testing on Toyo R1R, Dunlop Z1 and Yokohama AD08 (April 2011).

    The STIs all seemed relatively stock and identically prepared, with what looked like stock ride heights and felt like soft-ish spring rates. These weren't at all "STU prepared" like so many AWD Subarus I had driven in the past, and it showed. Lots of lean, roll, and sluggish throttle response. These cars needed coilovers, camber plates, exhaust work and an "ST Tune" in a bad way. But they were all equally prepared with the tire pressures all set to 32 psi on each car, so off we went.



    Here is my Facebook mini-review: "Wow. Huge differences. The Toyo had the absolute worst turn-in response. Awful. The RS3 was a good bit better but transitional response wasn't as good as the Rival. The BFG had the best response of them all and was much more progressive at the limit. Winner = Rival. 2nd = RS3. Distant 3rd = Toyo". No major surprises there about the Toyo, which felt just as awful on these cars as it did on my Mustang. Maybe these work on fly-weight Hondas and Miatas, but they should seriously STOP making the larger sizes so people don't screw up and use them on bigger/heavier cars, where they simply fall apart. This is a poorly designed R-compound that they've slapped a "140" treadwear rating on. Its no wonder that this tire was almost banned by the SCCA for Street Touring use.

    There were no timers at any event that day, much to my chagrin, but we could tell relative differences in the performances from each tire with our built-in "butt dynos" as well as observed RPMs at various key points on the courses. I have seen timers missing from many arrive-and-drive events lately, probably to keep the self-proclaimed Senna's from putting cars into fences? So we started with two laps in the Rival car, and I was again the first driver in our group to take to the course. I've been to many tire company sponsored events and I haven't been kicked out of one yet, so I didn't hold back one bit when I drove these cars. Each car had a 2nd seat instructor, chosen from the Miller or Skip Barber schools, and most of them made comments of "I see you've done this before!" or something, but again - I wasn't looking for their approval, I wanted to abuse these tires and see what happened. They mostly took the hint and let me drive, which was nice.



    The cars and tires were already warmed up, as we were the 2nd group that day to take to this course. The BFG Rival tires felt great, especially given how mushy and sluggish a 2008+ Subaru STI is in stock form is (not a knock, just an observation - these cars totally wake UP with the suspension and tuning improvements most autocrossers in STU do to them) - with plenty of understeer to test the limits of grip. After getting a feel for the course and the tires in two runs, I was ushered into the R-S3 equipped car. These tires felt pretty different after coming out of the Rival car, and I was a bit surprised. I kinda liked the R-S3 when driven by itself on my own cars, but it was more sluggish when I tried to change directions in the fast transitions. Nowhere near the ultimate grip and the speeds were lower into the key fast portions of the course, and harder to reign back in once you over-taxed the tires. I pushed them even harder on my 2nd lap and was rewarded by more noise but no additional grip.

    Then I was on to the Toyo equipped car. Holy CRAP this tire does not feel good on bigger cars. I was so frustrated with this tire when I paid for a set for my own car, and it once again failed miserably on high powered/heavier car - it was just as frustrating on the STI as it was on my Mustang. There wasn't the same grip as the Rival or even R-S3, which was obvious from the lower engine speeds I could reach in the fast offsets, but the steering response and transitional characteristics were also very, very poor in comparison to the R-S3 and especially the Rival. And then when I got out and looked the tires they were already shredding the center tread portion and graining, just like I have seen many Toyos do - and the day wasn't half over yet.


    After two of four groups that day the Toyo (left) was graining badly and the Hankook (right) was showing serious shoulder wear.

    After the two laps in the Toyo car, I hopped in the Rival car once again for one more lap, to reinforce what we already knew - this tire crushed the two others. Once again my aggressive driving was met with sharp responses, but a wide slip angle range. I noticed that I could brake later then the other two tires allowed, and as a self-professed "late braker" I appreciated this. One lap only for the 2nd time around on the Rival, and I was back to watching the others.

    When every one of our eight drivers had made their seven laps, we stopped and looked at the left front tire from each car, which on this course took the most abuse. The BFG Rival looked nearly brand new and was obviously wearing like stone, even with a third more runs on it by that point. The Hankook R-S3 was showing some significant shoulder edge wear, plus cupping the edges of the treadblocks in the center of the tire. The Toyo looked brutalized on both the edges and especially the center of the tread, where chunks were already missing. This tire might not last the day, I mused.

    We walked back to the clubhouse for lunch, which was also exceptional, and recharged our batteries (both human and mobile phone). After that break, it was time to hop in vans and head to the south end of the facility... to the beautiful 2.75 mile road course with four awaiting FR500S Mustangs.

    FR500S Mustang Road Course Test: BFG Rival vs Falken RT-615K

    After a filling lunch, we were on a bus and headed to the beautiful 2.75 mile road course. This is a brand new, butter smooth circuit with 16 turns and a long front straight. The surface is actual, proper road course asphalt, just like on their "autocross pad" where we did the STI testing earlier. But like almost everything here in the delta, the entire course was completely flat, with ZERO elevation change, no camber to the surface, and no visual cues whatsoever. This made learning the track difficult, as several of the "S" sections looked similar, and without any elevation it was impossible to "look ahead". With less than four laps on the course, few if any drivers could learn this course (that hadn't driven here before), so few of us were really pushing the cars hard.


    We ran the 2.75 mile North Track course (left) and drove the FR500S Mustangs on the Rival and the Falken RT-615K (right).

    There were six cars fitted with the test tires, again in 245/40/18 sizes: three had the BFG Rival and three had the Falken RT-615K. Many have asked me already, "Why did they test the Falken?!" Well, I can't say for sure, but... having looked at what racers are using on track at Optima events, the Falken was one of the only 200 TW tires the is actually available in sizes wider than 255mm. But then they used the 245/40/18 on the FR500S Mustang, so... who knows? I just know that there have been more than a few Optima racers using the Falken, so it is a "track" competitor to the Rival. Sure, they could have used lower treadwear competitors such as the Hankook R-S3, or Dunlop Direzza Z1, or Bridgestone RE-11, or Yokohama AD08... but Falken was apparently on their RADAR for this event, so that's what we drove.



    What is the "Mustang FR500S"? This link explains it best: "Manufactured at AutoAlliance International in Flat Rock, MI - the same facility that builds street-legal Mustangs, the limited-edition FR500S is the first race car built by Ford Motor Company on a production line intended for sale to the public. The car features the 4.6L 3-valve production V8 engine and a variety of Ford Racing performance parts, including a cold-air kit, high-capacity radiator and two-way adjustable dampers and springs." The "S" was one of several FR500 cars (read more here) and was rated at 325 hp. These were used in the Mustang Challenge/Miller Cup series for three years - 2008, 2009 and 2010. Some of these races were televised and I watched a few - and the stripe package is what gave Amy the idea for our Mustang's look. These cars were originally run on BFG R1 tires in that series, but were equipped with street tires for us to drive on this day.


    Click the picture above for a 15 second video clip of the FR500S at NOLA Motorsports Park.

    As you can hear in the quick video I shot from the starter's tower, the FR500S cars sounded GOOD and their exhaust note was hard to ignore. We were once again paired up with Skip Barber or Miller Motorsports Park instructors in the right seat and told to "hop in and belt up". Like a tool I had dragged my track helmet and gear on a plane and all around the NOLA site all day, and this was the only time I was to use it (none of the other events required helmets). Oh well, I hate borrowing sweaty loaner helmets, so I guess it was worth it.



    The 6-point harness was relatively straight-forward and the controls were all identical to the current Boss 302-S, so I had it figured out and fired up quickly. Didn't get any instruction, such as rev limits, shift points, and after our wired intercom was plugged in my instructor said "Let's go", and we were off. Seeing other drivers not holding back in the hot pits I aired it out and touched 5th gear into 1, then dropped down to 3rd and used 3rd and 4th gears in the rest of the course. I quickly realized that I didn't know this track. At. ALL. I was turning in WAY too early, and having to push wide to get back on line, but the instructor was good at letting me know where to be after a few turns and I got to push the Rival tires to the edge of grip many times - they talk to you as they are pushed and it was a very easy to drive tire at track speeds. Sharp turn-in through the "S" sections, great braking feel. Still, not knowing the track or these particular cars intimately, I was still taking it fairly easy (pushing maybe 7-8/10ths), as I didn't want to be "that guy" that dropped a wheel in the dirt.

    (continued below)
    Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
    2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
    EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Vorshlag Review of the BFGoodrich "Rival" Tire

      (continued from above)



      Luckily I didn't make a total ass of myself in the allotted two laps, and by my second lap I was catching the guy in front of me ("Hey Jimi!"), who was catching the car ahead of him. Back into the hot pits then we were swapped over to the cars fitted with Falkens. Two more laps in the second car and I'm just starting to figure out where this track goes, but still nowhere near what I would consider "good laps".

      In the FR500S, the Falkens were obviously very outmatched - now I see why they put the 615K tires on the other cars. They were sluggish to respond, couldn't brake as well when pushed, and were not making the same grip, even howling at the limit. It wasn't even close... this poor Falken was as far off the Rival as the Toyo R1R. And I'm not surprised, as the "new" RT-615K looks exactly like the RT-615 that we raced on back in 2005. By as early as 2006 there were newer, better tires than the old Falken we had switched to (Yokohama AD07 was a razor sharp, higher grip improvement to the old Falken) and this "K" compound looks like a re-hash of the old tire. Same tread pattern, likely the same carcass, and it has the same wishy-washy feel. Sure, this Falken model comes in plenty of big sizes and is 200 TW, but the RT-615K's few advantages ended when BFG dropped this Rival in our laps. Sorry...

      From my live Facebook review, "So the 3rd test was on the 2.7mi road course. Great course and the FR500S Mustangs were a hoot, even on 245s. Rival *crushed* the Falken in the back to back drives. Not even close. This is my new choice for Optima series tires, OLOA, or Goodguys autocrossing." Yep, no contest. This will become THE tire for Optima/Goodguys/ASCS events and possibly even on many One Lap of America cars and Chump/LeMons cars. We still don't know the wet characteristics, which the OLOA drivers will want to explore, but for dry running on track with a 200 UTQG minimum, this tire killed it.

      BMW E46 M3 Autocross

      Well hello there, beautiful! Now here is a car I know very well... seeing the four BMW E46 M3s lined up in what they called their "fast" autocross was a nice way to cap off the day, for me.



      We had the usual talk before we started, "please don't left foot brake because it is killing the pads by the end of each session", as apparently some of the hot shoes from Day 1 got pretty wild and crazy with the cars and smoked the brakes. But... this was the last event of the last day of the Rival launch, so I waited to drive until the very end, and asked my instructor if he minded if I "used the brakes properly"... and reminded him that I was the last driver to be in these cars... so he said "sure, go for it!"



      Before I got to drive these M3s, it looked like John from TireRack (above right) was really pushing the cars the hardest in our group. I watched his runs and tried to remember the course when I hopped into the BFG Rival equipped car. I warned the instructor "I've done this a couple of times" and blasted down the first section of the course, touching the rev limiter into the first big right-hander and then SLAMMING on the brakes. Whole course could be done in 2nd but it was at the very top of that gear in two spots. There were high speed high lateral corners, a massively decreasing corner with heavy braking beforehand, and some tight transitions that might as well have been slaloms. This course really showed the Rival's best attributes.

      My instructor, who I recognized from the Cadillac V-Lab event at COTA in December, was hooting and hollering and having a ball. "Whoa, that was FUN!" We went around for the second lap on the Rivals and I pushed it harder in the transitions - these tires can really cut through a slalom, with lots of feedback and ridiculous control at the limits. The braking was also very very good and corner exit traction was exceptional. We came around after the second lap and hopped into the R-S3 equipped car. Now normally you should go faster after two autocross laps, from learning the course and a new car as well, but the laps in the Hankooks felt and were slower. Not nearly as long into the rev limiter into the two fast sections and trying to enter at the same speeds into the transitions put the car over the edge. I had to back off on my braking points as well.



      Lap two on the R-S3 and I tried to push it, but was just rewarded with more tire howl and more slip angle, which took longer to reign back in than the same maneuvers on the Rival. This Hankook tire, which I had liked so much in STX competition, was a bit sluggish when compared to the Rival back to back. Still made lots of grip and was better than the Falken or Toyo that day, but a tick behind the Rival. This feeling was reinforced again when we got to take one more hot lap in the Rival cars at the very end. When it was my turn, my original instructor hopped back in with me and said "OK, don't hold anything back". Well hell... of course I pushed it and was so far into the rev limiter on one stage I felt guilty and used 3rd, but it was a waste of time. By the latter half of my run I caught the car ahead, which had a monster spin in the final offsets - luckily we had a front row seat to this hoonage and came into the finish laughing to tears. Great way to cap off the day.


      Left: Hankook was showing some scalloping and outer shoulder wear. Right: Rival was wearing very well.

      After we were done with this, our last exercise for the event, my right seat instructor came up and thanked me for the rides, saying "That was a real treat!" I don't know what that means, but I thanked him for working the event for two days and letting us all come tear ass around this complex! These Barber + Miller guys were class acts and they, along with the BFG folks, put on a heck of a show.

      End of Day Wrap-Up

      After the last driving events, everyone headed back to the monster sized clubhouse for a few final words. They rolled in the LF tires from the medium speed autocross event Subarus, one from all three brands tested, and showed us the final damage from the day of abuse. Then we lined up for a group picture (below, right), where I'm crouching down in the dead middle of the group shot.



      The Hankook and Toyo had about 70 runs on them and the Rival had over 90 runs, as we all got a final extra lap on them. I forgot to bring my camera into the wrap-up, so I found the below picture from another entrant at this event (likely from the day before, as the Toyo tires looked even more worn on our day than this) and added the captions and my final thoughts to that picture. This was the result:



      While in this wrap-up discussion, we discussed the obvious wear differences with the BFG folks and others at the event. The Toyo R1R, which had obvious chunking and excessive wear in the center tread section and massive scalloping on all of the tread blocks, was the worst of the lot. It wasn't from over-inflation, as you might think, since they set all of the tires that day to 32 psi. The excessive center wear was deemed to be from carcass deformation. The Hankook had a lot of shoulder wear and rolled up rubber and beveled wear on each tread block, tapering away from the outer shoulder. Lots of the dead feel from these Hankooks was potentially due to tread squirm, from starting with full tread depths. Same with the Toyo R1R, which might have had less severe wear and a bit better feel if shaved... but would have had an even shorter lifespan. The Rival wore the best, as the pictures show. "It wears like stone", many people commented. It has the smallest evidence of slight shoulder wear and the edges of the treadblocks had very small amount of beveling, but nothing like the other two. These Rivals come cast at 7/32" (which was a whole other "SCCA controversy", don't get me started) so they started with less tread depth but ended the day with more usable rubber left. Due to the large, blocky treadblocks and low "void ratio" and how they wore, I would NOT shave a Rival tire for competition use - one of the few that wouldn't likely benefit from this process.

      BFG Rival Sizes and Prices

      It appears that the TireRack is the exclusive source for the new BFG Rival, from what I was told at this launch event. They have them listed on their website, linked here. But a year or two ago TR removed their prices from these "specs list" for each tire model, and you have to click each size to see a price. Makes it a real chore to price and shop various sizes from a single tire brand. In order to make it easier to see the specs and prices at once, I created a custom version showing the sizes, specs and prices for all BFG Rival tires, as of 2/5/2013:


      Click the above picture for a full sized image of this chart

      As you can see I have highlighted the 295, 315 and 335mm sizes in 18" diameter, as those are the ones that apply to our 2011 Mustang, for use on track and autocross events where size is unlimited, but treadwear must be 200+. So we will pick from these sizes and get something either to use on some Vorshlag/D-Force 18x10" wheels or our 18x11F/18x12R Forgestar wheels. We will then use these at Goodguys, ASCS, and Optima Challenge qualifier events in 2013. I don't think they'll let us sneak into the STX autocross classes anymore (we'd probably still get beat by the much lighter BMWs, BRZs and WRXs, anyway), no matter what ST legal compound we used. Too many SCCA "banned" parts on this car now.

      So that is my ringing endorsement - I'm going to damn sure use them, as they have the right treadwear number (200), the right sizes (295-335mm), and the grip and feel and other characteristics are the best of the best, as far as I can tell. Sure, I wish there were more choices in the 200 TW game, but either the competitors are stuck in the 140 or 180 UTQG numbers (Hankook, Bridgestone, Yokohama), or their offerings top out at 275mm (Dunlop), or they just don't have the grip of the Rival.

      BFG Contingency - SCCA Solo and some NASA classes

      Tire contingency comes into play when you are racing seriously enough to be in classes where the tire companies want to entice you to use their tires. Either with cash, "tire bucks", or outright free tires for wins, tire contingency often comes into play when choosing your tires for autocross, time trial or wheel-to-wheel road racing. Why? Because tires are often the highest expense in a grassroots level racing budget. It is for me in Time Trial. We totaled up how much we spent on tires last year and it was in the five figures, for one year. Yikes! That outpaced our fuel expenses, entry fees, and any other single accounting category we have for racing expenses.

      So if you are racing a lot, you always look at how to recoup some of your costs, and tire contingencies is the big one. And luckily BFGoodrich already knows this game and came in with nice fat packages for SCCA Solo and NASA Pro Racing (see those links).


      Without any potential for tire contingencies from BFG, we will stick with Hoosier A6 tires on our NASA TT3 Mustang in 2013.

      Buuuuut..... they skipped NASA Time Trial. Peter Calhoun of Michelin/BFG told me some story about Time Trial cars being too dangerous or some such excuse, no matter that NASA TT has a spotless safety record, and has explosive growth and attendance. Bottom line is they aren't doing any NASA TT contingency, so I am back to the Purple Crack for 2013. Very disappointing, as I was looking forward to buying and testing the BFGoodrich R1-S for our NASA TT3 classed Mustang. If they change their NASA TT program, we will try a set.

      New Kids On The Block

      So that's my impressions of the Rival, but as much as I liked driving on this new 200 UTQG tire model, and as much as we learned running back to back against the Toyo, Hankook and Falken tires, there were some other key UHP tire models missing from this launch. I feel that there are a couple of other brand new 180-200 UTQG tires that need to be evaluated when looking at the BFG Rival. The Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 has a new version hitting the market in March 2013 - the RE-11A. Then there is the brand new Dunlop Direzza ZII. I have used and liked the current RE-11 and the Dunlop Direzza ZI Star Spec (that name was a mouth full), and have many laps on autocross and tracks on each. Both of those have shown to have excellent grip, response/sharpness/feel and better wear than tires like the R1R, RT-615K or R-S3. We cannot tell what sizes the new RE-11A will come in yet, but the old RE-11 went up to 325/30/19, but topped out at 275/35/18 in 18" sizes. The only info we can find is this Japanese Bridgestone website, so we don't know if it is 180 or 200 treadwear. The ZI used to also top out at 275mm in 18", and the ZII only goes a tick wider with a 285/30/18, which is a popular size for many BMWs. I wish they all made wider tires in 17" and 18" sizes.


      Left: New Bridgestone RE-11A is a possible contender. Right: Dunlop Direzza ZII should also be in the hunt.

      The Dunlop ZII was actually available about a week before the BFG Rival launch, and according to reports they had a set on an MX5 cup car at this Rival launch event. Someone (rumored to be Andy Hollis) was allowed to make some laps on the 2.75 mile course with these ZIIs and the Rival, and they put a stop watch on him... and "the Rival was 1 second faster". That's all I know. I didn't see any of this, as it happened on the day I wasn't at NOLA. I'm sure there will be some head-to-head testing very soon. TireRack also did some private testing with the Rival vs the AD08 and the Rival was supposedly faster, but again, this is second-hand information at best.

      The other tires that need to be compared that were missing from this event are the Yokohama Advan AD08 (180 TW) and I suppose the Nitto NT-05 (200 TW), if you are a masochist (see pictures below). The Yokohama AD08 comes in sizes up to 295/30/18 and 305/30/19, but again - that 180 UTQG kills it for the Optima/ASCS type events. They have excellent response and transitional feel, but can also get a little spendy. The Nittos are more affordable, rated at 200 UTQG, and come in more "big sizes"... but as I've said, I have seen lackluster performance and bad "overheating" experiences on track with this tire first hand. I have largely ignored the Kumho Ecsta XS, as I just don't have any first hand experience with these tires to say anything educated about them. From "what I've heard" the 180 UTQG rating is a bit optimistic, and the wear seen by others seems high for both track and autocross use, and I have heard other complaints of massive overheating. They do make up to 315/30/18 and 315/35R17 sizes, though.



      As an aside, all three of our sports/street cars right now have a mixture of some of these 180-200 UTQG tires. My 2011 Mustang GT is daily driven on 275/40/18 Bridgestone RE-11s - love this tire in the wet or dry. And my 2013 Mustang GT has the 295/35/18 Nitto NT-05s - meh. And my 2001 BMW 330Ci (for sale here!) has 285/30/18 Yokohama AD08s - also excellent wet or dry. My wife and I drive on one of these three cars and tires, every day. Makes it hard to go back to 300+ treadwear street tires again. Luckily we live in Texas, and never have a need for snow tires or the like, and we can and do race 12 months a year. Sometimes we will just leave the "daily" tires on, drive to the track and run an HPDE all day. That's the bonus of having 180-200 UTQG tires - you can do that!

      Note: Any picture that has a Vorshlag logo was taken by me at the event, or heavily doctored by use at Vorshlag in some way. If you re-host my pictures please leave the VM logo intact. Any other picture from the event that I have I used in this review, those without a watermark, were taken by a BFG photographer Robert Laberge, and sent to us by the BFG media folks for use in our reviews.

      Sorry this got so long, but it covered a lot more than just the BFG Rival tire. Vorshlag will be purchasing some BFG Rival tires soon and I will post up in this thread again when we get them, and of course show the results, good or bad. I have a feeling I'm going to like them.
      Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
      2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
      EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Vorshlag Review of the BFGoodrich "Rival" Tire

        Terry,
        Excellent write up...direct, and to the point, informative, and for the most part, sans fluff. I'm surprised they did not have a front driver in the mix, and allowed testing of smaller sizes popular in STS, STC, and STF. It will indeed be interesting to see how similar testing among the current popular tires shake out in future tests.
        Thanks for posting this up for the masses.

        Phil Osborne

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Vorshlag Review of the BFGoodrich "Rival" Tire

          Thread Update: Looks like Hollis' review from the BFG Rival event is up.

          Street Tire FAQ - Part II... by Hollis Racing on Monday, February 11, 2013

          Please see this link to read more from GRM contributor and SCCA autocrosser, Andy Hollis: https://www.facebook.com/notes/holli...09412972476008

          In that "FAQ" he talks about the new Street Touring eligible tires, the Dunlop Direzza ZII and the BFGoodrich Rival. He references several Vorshlag slides and pictures from our review, which is cool, and we felt it would be good to share his review in the same thread as ours. He gives his first-hand impressions and additional test data from some special testing at the event that he was part of.



          So at this January BFG Rival launch event, Andy was invited in a day early and did some on-track testing of the Dunlop ZII and BFG Rival, head-to-head on two MX5 Cup cars, on track. I refered to this testing in my Rival review above, but now that Andy has published this I felt that it needed to be shared here, to help validate my retelling of his tests.

          Andy also has more data on the upcoming Bridgestone RE-11A:
          Also on the horizon is the Bridgestone RE-11A, an update in selected sizes of their highly rated RE-11. Latest reports show this tire to be arriving in the March-April timeframe in the following sizes:

          195/50-15
          205/50-15
          205/55-16
          225/50-16
          215/45-17
          225/45-17
          235/45-17
          245/40-17
          255/40-17
          245/40-18
          These are just the "launch" sizes and I suspect there will be many more RE-11A sizes released in the coming months, just as there are more Rival sizes coming out throughout 2013. I was also told by someone at Bridgestone that this RE-11A tire would be a 200 UTQG tire, but don't quote me on that.

          Thanks,
          Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
          2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
          EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Vorshlag Review of the BFGoodrich "Rival" Tire

            Yowsa... I've been reading more of Hillis' FAQ and it is a MUST read for racers on 140-200 UTQG tires!

            Street Touring and Track Day Tire FAQ - UTQG 140+, by Hollis Racing

            Tons of empirical and subjective data on these tires, links to many GRM and TireRack tire tests (many run by Andy himself), and still very current. Read this and you will know more about these tires than most.

            Thanks,
            Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
            2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
            EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Vorshlag Review of the BFGoodrich "Rival" Tire

              Check out the video made from the January BFG Rival test event, just released:

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              Terry Fair - www.vorshlag.com
              2018 GT / S550 Dev + 2013 FR-S / 86 Dev + 2011 GT / S197 Dev + C4 Corvette Dev
              EVO X Dev + 2007 Z06 / C6 Dev + BMW E46 Dev + C5 Corvette Dev

              Comment

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