Kumho Ecsta v730 Tires: Pros & Cons

[ModdedMK7.5]

Hello all,

I've been eye-balling at the Kumho Ecsta v30 tires for some time now and may potentially purchase them to replace my old Bridgestone Potenza RE71R tires for AutoX and maybe potentially doing open track days for 2024. What's making me want to choose them is their price based from Tire Rack.com. Each costing $207 for the size that I want. (245/40/18) In total for a full set of 4 will cost $828.00 (In cart). But, before I pull the trigger on these, I would like to get some opinions and feedback about them before purchasing them. I only know they are one of the top 2023 200tw tires from Grassroot Motorsports Magazine, but I want to see what everyone, that's currently running them or had ran them before, say about them. Do they warm up fast? Do they lose tread quickly? More turning feedback to the driver? Etc. Any advice or feedback is appreciated! Many thanks! (pic for attention)

 

[kep]

I love them for dry autocross, but tire life on track wasn't quite what I was hoping for. The require a little warmup to work and have a nice breakaway characteristic.

 

[krs]

There’s some pretty good discussion in the STH thread from those that have ran them.

I used them for almost a season for autocross. I liked the price point, I’m camber limited at -2.8° in the front and they wore pretty evenly, life seemed to be about the same as my older RE71. I felt they greased up quicker than my current 660’s, but I also race in a hot climate, and probably overdrive my car a bit. They were terrible in wet conditions though.

I thought about going back to them, but just stuck with 660s mid season as that was what I was used to. I never tracked in them though.

 

[SouthFL_Mk7.5]

I ran 660 on the GTI and v730 on an ILX both a half season of autox and a couple track days. Both cars first at -1deg camber at the beginning of the season and -2deg camber up front towards the end of the season. My nod goes to the 660 - lots of grip. The v730 took some heating up, never gave the levels of grip as the 660. I know the platforms were different but the 225 660s felt better than 245 v730s.
V730s are still good overall , I just prefer the 660.

 

[scrllock]

Great trackday lapping tire. They take a couple laps to warm up, but I get several good laps on them before they start to grease up. The outer shoulders wear somewhat quickly, even with -3deg up front. Overall fairly forgiving and for the price they're really hard to beat.
Awful in the wet, >60mph on them in the rain was bad enough even with full tread.

 

[victorofhavoc]

I haven't driven on them, but have sat in a students car (newbie who didn't push it hard) on track and have talked to a few others out there on that tire.

Opinions seem to range from "great cheap tire" to "i wore it out in one weekend after it greased". The people in miatas seem to have better success than those in mustangs and other crazy heavy cars. Given these cars are about in the middle, I'd bet you'd be somewhere in the middle of those two camps. All the heavier cars have moved to the new re71, ps4s or cup2 for dual duty cars, or to Hoosier(again).

My student had a GR86 modded to all hell with a "touring exhaust". The tire noise overtook everything at the track we were at. The few times the newbie pushed it, the grip was there laterally, but even the weak little GR86 was capable of spinning tire on hairpin exit. Weak longitudinal grip would explain why the heavy cars wore it out so fast.

Autox and high speed have pretty different needs in a tire. Have you considered a second tire to split the duties? You might find more usable life that way, but only worth it if you're doing 6+ events per year.

 

[mrmatto]

I’m absolutely loving them at autocross. After 1 run they’re pretty grippy and just keep getting stickier with 5-6 runs.
I rarely find them getting slippery at the end of a heat. I’ve been really happy with them so far.

 

[DerHase]

They're a weird tire to me. Initially they felt like ass (even after a "break in" procedure/event). They are absolutely terrible in the rain. I've come to not hate them as much as they've worn in a bit though.. but I do think they're at the point of heat cycling out.

However after a few auto-x and track events and the outside is worn down they felt pretty nice overall. Warm up takes a lap or two as other stated.

Dual driving auto-x in summer heat you definitely need to spray them. Single driver I did after 3 runs, but may have not been necessary.

They're back to feeling kinda "meh" with not a ton of grip. I think the 245s on 9in wheel were faster than 255s. Or my 255s up front were cycled out. (I have 6 of them, 4 245s and 2 255s that I was swapping on the front for autocross). I just recently did a couple track events with the 255s up front and grip was way down. May be cycled out (though I don't think so because it hasn't been THAT much overall). Going to run with the 245s square again at VIR in December and evaluate the friction circle from data vs the 255s.

IMO they were a phenomenal value when they were $150/tire... but my size is now $200/tire.

I had RT660s on prior to these, MIGHT go back to them but possibly shave them to 5/32s first. I wore the edges out long before the centers and having more useful tread life and with less tread squirm should make them faster or more consistent for the time I do use them.

You can search for my thoughts on them in the various trip reports, etc here:
https://www.datadrivenmqb.com/search?q=V730

In a nut shell I think New/relatively new RT660 > V730 > heat cycled RT660s.

The V730s do NOT stop from greasing up partway through a session like many claim (for me at least). The RT660s would have some fall off, but it wasn't near as drastic for me. That said, as they've worn down more, it is better, but they are still a bit slower overall. I'll see how I feel about them after my final event in December when I put the 245s back on.

Tread life is quite good overall, and definitely have shoulders that wear better than RT660s, which I flipped after every event since I have tire machines at home. Haven't had to do that with the 730s (and really don't want to because asymmetrical).

 

[SouthFL_Mk7.5]

I just ran another autox yesterday on my 245 40 17 V730 set. This time on my fully stock ‘23 Integra A Spec. I must say, these tires are great. Excellent grip and break away characteristics.

The format was that we were allowed 6 runs in a row (queue each time) and my best run was my 3rd. So yeah, some heat needed then they begin to fall off.

At 38psi they wore nicely (that’s not a nail in the groove- I checked right after the pic!)

 

[SouthFL_Mk7.5]

First time I flog these on the public roads in the rain. I can’t get them to slip or break traction. Can’t speak for performance in standing water or drenched highway yet, but I’m amazed as to the grip in transition on wet asphalt that these v730 have- granted, the sipes are still there- almost gone but still there.

 

[mrmatto]

I've also found they're fine on damp roads. But I've never had the balls to run them on the street in the rain. Good to know.

 

[DerHase]

They sucked in the rain on the street even when brand new. Hydroplane pretty easily at 60mph+. After one weekend at VIR earlier this year, I had to go like 5-10mph under the limit on the 3hr drive home in the rain.

Also see the video above if you missed it. Definitely don't recommend doing 80-90mph in the rain.

DAMP, with no standing water I will agree they surprised me that they weren't downright terrible.

 

[SouthFL_Mk7.5]

Wel, I’ve since driven these V730 in a wet monsoon we had here a couple weeks ago and they performed surprisingly well for what they are. I was expecting much worse. This is street daily driving of course.
Again, they still have the large sipes on the outer tread surface, as well as the large inner channels.
I wouldn’t go so far as calling these appropriate for wet daily, but you can get by much better than expected. MUCH better wet grip than a set of BFG Drag radials I used to drive on decades ago.

 

[Bryans12v]

Ive run these tires as my dry set for the past two seasons with great success. Track days only, no autox.

I love these tires. I can get at least 15 full days, roughly 60 20min sessions on them before wearing/cycling out. The price is great, grip is good and they wear like iron. I dont experience them getting greasy at all even in 90F+ temps.

I wouldnt run these in the rain.

Not sure if ill be using them for drys this year. May try the nangkang cr1 or hoosier r7s this year.

 

[Blade3562]

I have a set for both cars I like them so much. I love them on the track, but would not recommend for autocross. Despite being in Hawaii my first run is typically a wash because there isn't enough heat in them. If the group is over 7 cars on a short course or 4 on a long course I've lost all my heat by the time I start my next run. They are also finicky with pressure. I'm aiming for 34 cold or hot to get good traction at autocross. I think I ran 30 cold aiming for 34-37 hot at track days. I've seen over 40psi on the front side opposite corners however. You'll feel it when it happens, but I'd simply chalk that up to the nature of a fwd or fwd based AWD car. I tend to pit after the first few laps to balance the hot pressure and have had good luck. Super sketch in the rain, even worse than R888Rs.

All that being said it's the king of 200TW in my book. There's been times the tires have held when I should have definitely spun. The only other tire I've liked this much was the R888R. I wish Falken would make the 615K+ in 245/40R17.

5 autocross events, probably 200 1/4 mile passes and 8-10k street miles on this set. (Also 3 trips up Mauna Kea which they are totally not designed for.)