Falken RT660 Review - Got our money's worth with mixed street & track use!

[@naigashcreary8176]

Very informative. Appreciate the thread ware details. Learned something there. 👍🏾

[@chubby_miata]

My experience is ~ 7000- 8000 miles of dual duty with 4-5 track days on an S2000. Fifth track day the tires start to delam on the sidewall and lose a ton of grip. I ran them to cords. RS4s lasted for > 13K miles and 7-8 track days. Heat cycled out before cords. Falken 615s: 5000-6000 miles to cords. They might last longer for less aggressive driving, but they seem to hate the heat. They had the grip of 240-300 TW tires but wore much faster. Never again 615.

[@Kevaughan]

Thank you

[@ISMarco]

I'm glad to hear this! I just got a set for my Viper and will be trying them out at NCM this weekend

[@LapoftheWorld]

NCM is a blast! Fast, but technical. Enjoy!

[@wwoodcox]

Richard, the Falken Azenis RT660 also come in NSX OEM standard sizes for 1994-2001. 16" - 17"; 215/45ZR16 and 245/40ZR17. One of the few. Now if I can find them in Canada.🙂

[@LapoftheWorld]

Great info Warren! I had the thought after the fact that I should've checked the other OE sizes. 🍻

[@joshuagorman7856]

Going back to Thunderhill East course in a month to get some more seat time in my 6th gen camaro and ill be running RT660s. I do a lot of autox in scca and moved up to Cam C and was told by other camaro owners in my division these tires dont handle heat that well after a handful of laps, that its mainly an autox tire not a road course tire. Not sure if the weight being at 3,700lb causes them to behave differently but it seems the lighter cars squeeze more grip and life out of these tires. This will be my 1st time on these tires so im a little nervous about them getting greasy in that June heat

[@LapoftheWorld]

Yeah, I hate to say I don't have any 1st or 2nd hand data points for how these do for cars with more chonk. I know in particularly hot conditions, if I'm actually trying hard, I get a warm up and like 2-3 push laps before things get squidgy, and they're usually best on the 1st or 2nd push lap. Feel free to update your comment next month as I'll be curious and it might help someone else.

[@waynemillis4418]

Another great video discussing the very basics of the NSX. The Falken here in Japan is hard to get and expensive so changed from Direzza to Nankang NS2 320 treadwear for a Suzuka test in the fast group who were using 200 treadwear. Very predictable, able to keep up with the group and almost no tyre scrub. Want to try the semi slick Nankang AR1 this year.

[@LapoftheWorld]

Meanwhile Nankang seems fairly uncommon, or potentially limited sizes in the states. Those AR1s look pretty aggressive though, so I'm sure will have lots of grip.

[@daytona5.722]

Good review, that is impressive wear, they would probably wear a bit faster on my heavy car but I would consider them.

[@LapoftheWorld]

I don't know. If you run 2 degrees or less of camber and reasonably small toe settings you might get way more road miles. Track miles...yeah, weight definitely equals more wear.

[@JacobMueller]

I always wonder if the "best tire of the season" is when a mfg makes a '200' tire that's more like a 140ish. Also do you just replace the rears at 9k and then the fronts later, or are you replacing all 4 at the same time once the rears are worn?

[@LapoftheWorld]

Yeah, back when that rule came into play there were a couple of tires (maybe the Toyo R1R?) that magically got "recompounded" from 140 or 160 to 200 pretty much overnight. There's no independent standard enforced for treadwear, it's just some relative number that each manufacturer picks in theory relative to the rest of their line. With respect to chaging 2 vs 4, I've probably gotten frivolous in my old age, but I tend to swap them as a set so they're matched with heat cycles as well as tread depth. I'll keep the take offs for a month in case I need an emergency spare, but otherwise I'll sell them to some drifters for enough to offset the mount/balance, lol.

[@jaredfaidley8391]

I've got a set of Maxxis Victra VR-1s ready for this season. Always excited to hear about performance tires from trusted sources!

[@LapoftheWorld]

I'll be curious about those, price-wise on par with the RT615, and appear to come in NSX friendly sizes so will bookmark that for potential future reference.

[@jaredfaidley8391]

@@LapoftheWorld CSG Mike in the 86 community speaks highly of them and I trust the Counter Space Garage folks with everything car related!

[@agcrxturbo9577]

Great info and review. Currently looking into picking up a set for my civic ek hatch that I autocross and track sometimes. I couldn’t decide between the 615’s and 660’s but you just helped make the choice easier. 660’s it is. Thanks.

[@LapoftheWorld]

For autocross in particular the 660 is definitely the way to go. Glad you found the video useful!

[@tflo9543]

I ran a set of these for about 10k, ended up flipping to get a little more. Grip was good, noise was objectionable. Went back to the 615k, works better for my setup.

[@LapoftheWorld]

They are probably a little louder than the 615, but we didn't find it too bad in our case. Especially relative to the R888s we ran for some TT events several years ago. Those sounded like super swampers or something after getting even slightly feathered

[@RonaldHuffmanDailey]

These are about 20% more than the RT615k+ I run now - you think it’s worth it? I mainly do track / AutoX / drive to events. Got 3k & 6 track days out of my last set of RT615s. The 615s are the absolute cheapest 200 in my size, but I’ve been debating paying a little more to see if I get better grip & wear through a HPDE session.

[@LapoftheWorld]

Are they faster? Yes. Do they feel more consistent to me in a light-ish car through an HPDE sesstion? Yes. Will they 20% out-last a 615? Dubious. That said they will be the business on a light-ish Porsche (if I'm interpreting correctly) for autocross and such. I feel they deal with heat better and don't fall off as hard after a few hot HPDE laps as well. I'm not selling anything here, but they could be worth an experiment if not a long-term go-to.

[@RonaldHuffmanDailey]

@@LapoftheWorld thanks a bunch. I just bought a new set, it next go around I’ll try the 660s. Love the videos & appreciate your effort.

[@AllIsWell_22]

Thank you for the review. Have you driven these tires in the wet? Any issues/concerns?

[@LapoftheWorld]

At full tread they are better than my windshield wipers at handling lots of rain. I haven't had them on a wet track, but in >45F degree conditions they haven't felt sketchy at all on the road. As with any sticky tire it's best to tip toe a little when it's both cold and wet.

[@Kevaughan]

Wondering if I can squeeze 5000km street and 8 track days on these on an FRS. My RS4’s have served me well but aren’t fast enough to be competitive.

[@LapoftheWorld]

With that many track days it could be tight, but you at least have a chance depending on how aggressive your alignment is (mainly toe settings). The nice thing is you could potentially flip the 660s half way to even out camber wear.

[@EdwinLiu]

amazing wear/life; I've gone through 2 sets of 660s in only ~3k mi each, with near zero rear toe... still haven't found the camber sweet spot between burning through the outside autoxing vs the inside street driving, but this gives me hope...

[@LapoftheWorld]

Yeah, that's a whole separate video of playing around with a pyrometer (and a bunch of trial and error). Good luck!

[@JohnNguyenVincent]

What do you think of the advan AO52? My rears are have the inner wear and looking into getting a pair of new ones or should i do the whole set?

[@LapoftheWorld]

I know Billy Johnson had good things to say about the AO52s so I'm sure they're a great tire. As for replacing pair vs set, IMO it depends on how old the fronts are compared to the new rears. If it's only a year older, then whatever. If the fronts will be 3-5 years older than the rears you may run into balance issues just due to the age of the rubber. Definitely keep the tire brand/model the same though. I wouldn't split the set that way.

[@sqrlnts1]

I am a Goodguys autoX guy. ALOT of dudes run these and we are switching as well. Road manners be dammed.

[@LapoftheWorld]

Hard to argue with straight grip in that context 😁

[@Alexandrino_Auto]

What size are the wheels they’re mounted on?

[@LapoftheWorld]

17x8.5 in the front, 17x9.5 rear. 45 offset all around with a 20mm spacer in the rear (yes, extended studs, hub centric etc).

[@alaingomez164]

Rest in Peace PBIR you will be missed

[@richardtruong6390]

What hot pressures do you run on these tires?

[@LapoftheWorld]

34 - 36psi hot typically. The 660s seem to like a pound or two more than the 615s used to (that's based about 85% butt dyno and 15% lap time driven, I haven't done any hard testing there on the 660s. I took the actual testing I did probably 2 tire generations ago and have just iterated / tweaked accordingly).

[@gretre4560]

Do these tires hook from a dig? I need something that won't spin on me at the red light lol

[@LapoftheWorld]

They're pretty grippy when they've got some temperature and hook just fine for autocross launches with my meager ~220ft/lbs but their sidewalls are a little stiff when compared to something optimized for drag racing (and they are distinctly not very grippy when it's below freezing, so factor that in).

[@gretre4560]

@@LapoftheWorld cool thanks for responding! I have a built mini with well over 300hp and a TON of torque. Can't hook to save my life

[@LapoftheWorld]

@@gretre4560 Lol, sounds exciting. Which gen? We had an R56 for a while. Fun car, but our son out-grew the back seat so had to scale up to a GTI.

[@gretre4560]

@@LapoftheWorld same here with an R56. 2010 S but with the bigger jcw turbo, forged block, meth injection... tons of cool mods. The goal is 500hp, but if I can't figure out how hook at what I'm at, I might need to think about a rear wheel drive platform instead

[@anthonyisgro7185]

What state are y'all from?

[@LapoftheWorld]

Eastern part of Tennessee

[@anthonyisgro7185]

@@LapoftheWorld Boston

[@LapoftheWorld]

@@anthonyisgro7185 I need to get up that direction and run Palmer, Thompson, etc. Looks like a fun area.

[@sysofadown7213]

Thiccc... with 3 c's.. Im sold!