Kumho Ecsta PS91 vs Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 — Compared

“my turbo came with a set of Kumho Ecsta PS91 in the OEM widebody sizes that were around a year old and had maybe lost 15% wear. coming from someone who loves PS4S, i hated them. grip was subpar. it felt wasteful to toss them though since they were relatively new and had decent tread left so i toughed them out. i got maybe 2k miles out of the rears before they needed replacement just from normal street / occasional spirited driving. they are not a great handling tire and they are quite bad from a wear perspective as well. just buy michelin or even continental and don't look back.”

“Pretty terrible idea, the PS91 will not have the same heat capacity as the V730, so your front/rear grip balance will change wildly during a session. With the non-200s on the front, at least you’ll understeer instead of oversteer/spin, but not ideal. An experienced driver might be able to work around this, if you’re new, this would be a dangerous situation. Similarly, I wouldn’t mix something like a yokohama AO52, which delivers all of its grip from cold and tends to overheat within a couple laps, with something like a hankook RS4, which famously takes some time to warm up and then delivers consistent grip for a long time”

“I've only got a couple thousand on them and just spirited driving in the mountains. I think they will easily go over 10k even with a few track events. I am thinking about getting a set for my SVT focus as I autoX with that car, much easier to drive at the limit than a turbocharged S197.”

“That would tally with what this person found with the 127 variant that preceded it “Hi just for information,I asked Hankook what tread depth when new was on their Ventus S1 Evo 3 K127 tyre, the reply was 6.6 mm””

“You will love the Ventus S1 EVO3's, I purchased a set back in May 2020 for $473 delivered. In your climate driving at Texas speeds (75-85) efficiency is gonna be about 270-295 Wh/m. I just ordered a set of the iON EVO AS to try out as I have a need for snow use but not bad enough for snow tires.”

“For BMW-approved run flat tires, you should see a symbol that has the letters "RSC" in a circle next to the star symbol. (The "RSC" stands for "Run-flat System Component".) I don't see that symbol on the tire pictured, so it isn't a run flat. Hankook's model number for non-run flat S1 evo 3 tires is K127 whereas the run flat variant is K127B, sometimes referred to as the "SUV version". I only know this because of my quest earlier this year for efficient (yet still sporty) 225/45 R17 summer tires for my aftermarket wheels. In this size, the run flat variant actually has a better rating (B) for rolling resistance than the non-run flat (C) per the Euro tyre labels. This is a rare exception, as run flats are usually less efficient. Note that the non-run flat 205/45 R17 S1 evo 3 has an A rating, which is the most efficient. I haven't seen Euro tyre labels for the run flat variant in that size, but it seems unlikely to me they would have an A rating. As such, I would be surprised if MINI installed them at the factory due to the impact to range--unless they had no other option available due to supply chain constraints.”