Has anyone used Kumho SPTs on the track?

I don't intend to do many track days this year so I am replacing my 245 /40/R18 Falken Azenis 615s with 225/45/R18 Kumho SPT.

The thought was the Kumhos would be better in the rain, last longer and are much cheaper.

I may do a few track days this year. Has anyone used the SPTs on the track? How bad are they? I figure they might be similar to the OEM Bridgestone tires that I used for my first year on the track.

They are a great street tire and great in the rain. I have not run them on the track but last week I was helping to set up an autox for our local PCA club and did some "test laps" in our car on SPTs. The car was wicked loose and did not want to stop, turn in and mid corner grip was ok. The other bad thing was in about 8 autox laps I took off a lot of rubber, about 2/32nds, they do not like to be pushed hard in the dry. No doubt they are better than OE but not going to be as fast as the 615, Kumho MX, RE01R, Advan etc.

I took them to Mid-Ohio last year. They did ok for my first time out. They're definitely not the stickiest and they wear like hell! I put them on last year in April, ran them for the summer including one track day and took them off in November (total about 8,000 miles). I put them back on a few weeks ago and I'll be lucky if I get to this November on them.

On the other hand, I only paid about $95 each for them, so I guess I can't have everything,

I took them to Mid-Ohio last year. They did ok for my first time out. They're definitely not the stickiest and they wear like hell! I put them on last year in April, ran them for the summer including one track day and took them off in November (total about 8,000 miles). I put them back on a few weeks ago and I'll be lucky if I get to this November on them.

On the other hand, I only paid about $95 each for them, so I guess I can't have everything,

I have over 20k miles on mine and they were at about 50%, 6/32nds, before I did the runs on them. They seem to wear great on the street but they just melt when you race on them.

I don't intend to do many track days this year so I am replacing my 245 /40/R18 Falken Azenis 615s with 225/45/R18 Kumho SPT.

heh, couldn't justify the cost of running such short tread life tires on a mostly street-driven car huh. I actually did the same, replacing my 245/40/18 RT615's with a set of 225/45/18 Falken FK452's. Already did one track driving event on them, though it was in rain, so couldn't tell you how they wear on high speed dry track pavements, though they did do quite well when i drove over standing puddles on the track at 80mph!! :ylsuper:

heh, couldn't justify the cost of running such short tread life tires on a mostly street-driven car huh.

pretty much, also due to a relocation of my job, I'll be adding about 75 miles per day to my commute so I'll be putting a lot more street miles on the car. With the wider Azenis, the car also tramlines quite a bit (our roads in the midwest are full of potholes).

Also, I was always worried about my wife driving the car with the Azenis in the rain because sometimes I like to swap cars with her because she has a fun car as well (Cooper S).

I also only paid about $100 per tire vs $150 for the Azenis 615s so I'll see how they hold up. I was able to get 13 tracks days, a couple of time attack days, an autocross and 10K street miles out of the Falkens. I'll probably do one more track day before I switch to the Kumhos.


Thanks for the feedback everyone
:wavey:

I finally got around to using the Kumho SPTs on the track last weekend. They were one year old but had full tread because they were sitting in my basement.

I ran them for five 35 minute sessions at Putnam Park on Saturday and Sunday. The tires gripped pretty well until the second session on Sunday when the left front started chunking really bad. I ended up cancelling my last session to save the tires for the drive home. I would have rotated them at that point but the left rear was starting to chunk as well.

It was very hot and humid all weekend (upper 80's).

So, if you are someone who pushes the car really hard on the track, I wouldn't recomend tracking the car with the Kumho SPTs or at least not ones with full tread on a really hot day.

^
That's pretty much how a 320 UTQG, UHP tire will react at the track.