Federal 595 RS-R Tires

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Last year I was running 225/45ZR16 Toyo R888 UTQG 100 $200ea on my 2007 NA Impreza Autocross (GS) car.
This year SCCA changes the rules, so I need a tread wear rating of 140 or higher to stay in GS.
So I decided to try some 205/45ZR16 Federal 595 RS-R UTQG 140 $79ea. from simpletire.com

I was surprised that both tires are the same width as you can see in the picture.
I'll let you know if the Federal's stick like the R888.

If they work out for autocross, I will run these as every day tires on the 818s.
I went through 2 sets of R888 last summer.
Bob

[Jeff Kleiner]

Bob,
They are a well kept autocross secret! The reason that they are not widely known in the mainstream is because they are not sold by the "giants"; i.e., Tire Rack and Discount Tire. Several of the fast guys over here run them, one of whom ran 888s for a couple of seasons and got significantly faster after switching to the Federals. They are so good that Proposal #9875 was submitted to SCCA last year to ban their use in Street Touring classes (my personal opinion is that this may have originated with one of these "giants" in particular when the lowly Federals were kicking the newly released and much hyped BFG Rival's arses!). This was ultimately denied. If they were available in sizes that worked on the C@bra I'd give 'em a go.

Are you and Mike planning to run at Columbus on Monday?

Jeff

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Bob,
Are you and Mike planning to run at Columbus on Monday?

Jeff

Hey Jeff,
Thanks for the info on the tire.
We'll be there Monday if we don't break the car. Michael wants to go Rally Crossing in the dirt this weekend.
Bob

[wleehendrick]

Thanks for sharing the info. Based on comments and reviews, I was already planning on running 215/40-17 & 255/35-18 RS-R's on my 818S for the street. They won't see much/any cold or wet weather in my climate, and they're cheap enough that even with a 140 tread wear, should be affordable for a street driven car.

[Xusia]

^My plan exactly. Those tires fit VERY well on XXR 17x7 and 18x8.75 wheels, by the way!

[RM1SepEx]

tread wear of 200 for next year...

[Bob_n_Cincy]

tread wear of 200 for next year...

Not an issue, as I don't think I can get away with running the 818 in Street class.

[wleehendrick]

^My plan exactly. Those tires fit VERY well on XXR 17x7 and 18x8.75 wheels, by the way!

Good to know, since that's what I'll be getting as soon as they're in stock!

[RM1SepEx]

818 will be AM until some history is established. I would estimate it will take 2-3 years to go to EM... and yes slicks will always be an option autocrossing an 818. As long as life doesn't keep getting in the way I'm hoping to debut mine autocrossing at Loring AFB in early August... I'm running Dunlop Direzza I will enjoy MG Greens on the DD2 shifterkart tho!

[philly15]

Funny this comes up, we were just discussing this tire extensively last weekend at one of our regional SCCA events.i was able to get a little first hand view on them. First off it seems a large amount of the people I saw with them all had lighter cars. Ie. miata, crx, etc. the heaviest car I saw was a BRZ. A large amount of those also run the toyo proxes r1r (my friend and I included on a miata) one of the guys there had a crx he won nationals with multiple times switched off between shaved r1r's and the federals. In the two runs he had with the federals he posted his best times by more than a half second. That right there tells me the federals are worth a look. Price wise too. The only thing I never got to witness is how they handle when heated up significantly. If they can last, I'll be buying a set. I saw them out perform the r1r which seems to be the tire to have, I just haven't been able to see them on a turboed 1800 lb car.

[pwnoz]

Hey Jeff,
Thanks for the info on the tire.
We'll be there Monday if we don't break the car. Michael wants to go Rally Crossing in the dirt this weekend.
Bob

I should be out there on Monday too I'll be in a blue 2011 WRX in DS.

Any way, I've heard good things about the RS-R. I've heard they're not quite as grippy as the top tires (ZIIs, Rivals, etc), they're closer to that last generation of extreme performance tires. But a great tire especially for the price. I don't remember seeing a real good comparison of them though. I did read they can overheat pretty easily so not a great option for a track car, but good for an autox car.

Jared

[tmoretta]

According to the simpletire.com site, this Federal tire model is not available in 215/ 40- 17. What's up?

[EODTech87]

onlinetires.com has that size but it will probably have to be ordered which takes a while. It took me 2 months to get my tires in but I was in no rush so I wasn't worried.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

I should be out there on Monday too I'll be in a blue 2011 WRX in DS.

Any way, I've heard good things about the RS-R. I've heard they're not quite as grippy as the top tires (ZIIs, Rivals, etc), they're closer to that last generation of extreme performance tires. But a great tire especially for the price. I don't remember seeing a real good comparison of them though. I did read they can overheat pretty easily so not a great option for a track car, but good for an autox car.

Jared

According to the simpletire.com site, this Federal tire model is not available in 215/ 40- 17. What's up?

I tied online tire first, they didn't have the size I wanted in stock.

Simpletire at least puts the availability on there web page. They had the size I wanted, got tires in 3 days shipped from Tennessee.

Does anyone know a USA distributor/dealer that has large stock on these Federal tires?
Bob

[Jeff Kleiner]

Bob,
We got yacking about other stuff before you guys ducked out and I didn't get to ask what you thought of the Federals. Soooo, what's the verdict in comparison to the 888?

Jeff

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Bob,
We got yacking about other stuff before you guys ducked out and I didn't get to ask what you thought of the Federals. Soooo, what's the verdict in comparison to the 888?

Jeff

Hi Jeff
Both events were at Columbus Indiana SCCA GS class, Walesboro Airport.
The pax percentile is the best comparison I can do.


2007 Subaru impreza 2.5L wagon NA 22mm rear sway bar. All else stock.

2-23-14
toyo R888 40 PSI cold
bobs 63.309 59.477 59.006 58.922 60.158
mike 59.054 57.730 57.798 57.694 57.130 56.915
bob pax 47.54 25 of 57 ==43rd percentile
mike pax 45.87 13 of 57 ==22nd percentile


5-26-14 (slightly shorter course)
federal 595rs-r 40 PSI cold
bobs 57.362 54.857 54.754 54.994
mikes 57.806 55.661 52.927 54.047
bobs pax 44.131 33rd of 73 == 45th percentile
mike pax 42.817 25th of 73 == 34 percentile

As you can see my pax percentile was about the same between the 2 tires.
Michael percentile was faster on the R888.

I feel the federal's had more grip.
We both were picking off a lot of inside cones with our rear tires yesterday.
The toyo's may be faster as they allowed our car to be a little loose and rotate in the corners.

We can play with air pressures this coming weekend at Wilmington or Columbus Ohio.
On a side note, Michael and I are both faster on a wet track in this car.
Bob

[bbjones121]

I just bought these tires for my Legacy GT summer rims. 225/40zr18s. $108 a piece at Les Schwab down the street from my house.

I priced out my 818 tires. I will run the same width front as I have on my legacy, so..
Front:
225/40ZR18 $108
Rear:
265/35ZR18 $142

The guy told me that these come out to almost identical radius.

[JeromeS13]

That's a very large tire for the front! I have minor rubbing issues with my 235/40/17 (24.4" diameter). Those 225/40/18 are even larger @ 25.0"...

[bbjones121]

Would i need 225/35-18s then? I can't have much difference front to back as i will be keeping ABS.

[RM1SepEx]

tire dia doesn't need to be the same for ABS

[Triathletedave]

Would i need 225/35-18s then? I can't have much difference front to back as i will be keeping ABS.

I had 225/40/18 (25.08" dia)on front to start, but there was nowhere near enough clearance. I switched to 225/35/18, and they seem fine (24.2" dia).

Dave

[bbjones121]

tire dia doesn't need to be the same for ABS

Sorry got confused between abs and traction control requirements.
If the fronts are smaller by any amount, Racelogix system will take slightly longer to realize the rear is spinning.

[Evan78]

Sorry got confused between abs and traction control requirements.
If the fronts are smaller by any amount, Racelogix system will take slightly longer to realize the rear is spinning.

If you're refering to Racelogic, their website shows a setup screen where you input tire diameter and pulses per revolution for front and rear independently, which implies that it works fine with different wheel sizes and even different tone rings on front and rear. I've never used it, but I would be very surprised if they didn't allow compensating for different size tires. Am I missing something?

[bbjones121]

That is great to hear.