Hankook Ventus RS2 Z212

I'm back for the final review on the Z212, as they are nearing the end of their useful life.

Great, great tires. Good for either spirited use on B-Roads and trackdays. Just watch the pressure and you'll have a blast with them. Their limit is found much easier than the standard semis one might use on track, but even on limit they are progressive and let you play a lot. I would prefer them to overheat a bit later though. Generally, they are more sensitive to overheating and external temperature than I would prefer. But again, the pressure is the key.

Braking is awesome. Same is the feedback you get.

I wouldn't recommend them just for commuting, their sidewall is stiff. Road noise isn't that bad though.

On wet conditions they are OK, although now that are worn aquaplaning can be an issue.

After 24,854.24 miles the front ones are worn out so, I substituted them with the back ones. Hopefully, they'll last a couple of months so I'll change all of them together.

Too bad I can't find them in this size any more.

I got these to use as a combined track/road tire in order to replace the TOYO T1-Rs (on the road, size 205/45-16 on my everyday 16x7 wheels) and TOYO R888s (on track, size 195/50-15 on 15x6.5 wheels), because I got bored of wheel changes plus I tend to seek the pleasure of cornering pretty often on mountainous roads.

After a Track Day with these and many good milleage on B-Roads I can definately say that they are really a bargain. They handle a bit worse than the R888 on the dry (either on track or on road) but they reach optimum temperature faster without overheating (unlike T1-R), although they can handle pretty good even if cold. Braking is equally strong with the R888 and what I really like is the progressiveness they provide. Also, they are quite quiet on the highway (much unlike the R888; a bit more noisy than the T1-R), but the stiff sidewalls remind you that this is a sporty tire on every bump on the road (much unlike the T1-R, pretty much like R888). Performance on the wet is astonishingly good, I expected much more hydroplanning, but they are not to be trusted at high speeds.

Till now they have aprox. 6000 miles under their belt and wear till now is minimal to my delight.

Fantastic tires - still great even though the price has gone up 70% since I first got them.

Used as every day road tires (although after last winter I am using Hankook Icebear W300s as a winter tire Nov-Mar this winter).

Grip in the dry and warm is fantastic - I haven't used a R888 (or similar), but for road use I can't imagine they'd be much better, and they are miles better than the Falken 912 I used to use.

Grip in the cold and wet is their downfall - aquaplane easily compared to a normal road tire, and slide easily if it gets chilly. Still not unsafe or anything like that, just something to bear in mind.

Seem to give good progression (bear in mind this a FWD road car, so can't comment on power oversteer for example). Also do not squeal!

Feedback is good, and the stiff sidewall helps turn in.

Comfort is OK - same as the ZIEX912 I used to have.

Tire wear is more than acceptable - I commute 70 miles a day on them to give you an idea.

Ok, so I finally got a couple lapping days in with these tires.

1st Day. Bremerton Raceway (road course). 2 - second gear corners, the rest are 3th or 4th gear corners. 1.2 mile course with 1/2 mi front straight and series of turns made from cones on the return 2/3 mi. Heavy braking needed down front straight without too much time to cool (hard on brakes.) No elevation changes.

Weather conditions was mostly rainy with the afternoon drying up.

In the rain - Very little traction with an abrupt break away point. Had to really tip-toe through the corners. Braking wasn't too bad. Hydroplane was surprisingly fine (still hydroplaned on big puddles at 80) Needed to run much lower psi to get some traction back.

When the track started drying up, great dry grip, but as soon as I went over some wet areas, it was totally jekyl and hyde grip. Had to make sure most of the apex was complete and pointed in the right direction before hitting the wet.

In the dry - felt like good grip. But I had become so accustomed to driving in the wet, that it took a long time to acclamate to the dry grip. So tough to report.

2nd Track Day. Pacific Raceway (road course). 2.25mi course with lots of elevation changes and varying corners. Two back to back downhill heavy braking zones. 2 - 2nd gear corners and the rest are 3rd gear. 9 turns total.

Very grippy tires. Lacking communication. I had a hard time feeling the tires breaking away. But once it started breaking away, I had to catch immediately or it would run away. Some screeching when it was warming up. But once warm, too quiet. Couldn't tell what was going on.

With two people in the car, tires got greasing 1/2 way into the session. I had to slow my pace down to cool things off a bit because the tires were getting dangerously greasy. By myself, tires got greasy 2/3 into the session but never got into what I felt was dangerously greasy.

Conclusion.

These tires seem to be very grippy even when cold. They warm up very quickly and provide good performance. But once hot, they give little warning of breaking away and it is much harder to catch slides if you let it go too long. For road course, they don't seem to be able to sustain their performance as things get really hot.

I'd probably have no problems running them at Bremerton Raceway as it's tougher on brakes. And the "back side" is like a super fast auto-x track. But at Pacific Raceway, I would try something else.