Best of Both Worlds

It’d take the quintessential calm of a tranquilized cucumber not to show the excitement I’d have at the chance of thrashing around a number of cars to gauge Hankook's latest creation's performance attributes, but nevertheless, I was as happy as a portly child with a caramel cupcake to step foot on Victorian soil with said goals in mind.

The mission at hand? With due diligence, Hankook had kindly invited Performance Garage out to sunny Sandown Raceway for the launch of their hotly anticipated Ventus S1 evo2 ultra-high performance tyre.

The brainchild of lessons learned by Hankook from supplying control tyres to Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz race teams in the German-based DTM touring car championship, S1 evo2 has been exclusively chosen as original factory fitment to selected grades of BMW’s new F30 generation 3 Series.

According to Hankook Tyre Australia, sales of this new, esteemed breed of ultra-high performance (UHP) tyres are on the rapid rise, with many motorists opting for much more aggressive tyre and wheel packages than their manufacturer so intended.

Marketing Executive, William Ng, presented Hankook’s rapid acceleration into their global motorsport campaign. Their scene-stealing finish at Australia’s very own World Time Attack Challenge this year – with Hankook-tyred cars taking out 1-2-3 in the Pro Class – greatly justifying their operation. While on the other side of the world, Rhys Millen’s Hankook Ventus F200-slicked Genesis race Coupe took overall victory with a new outright record at Pikes Peak.

“What makes a basketball fan buy the same shoes that Michael Jordan wears?” posed National Sales Manager, Ray Barr. “They want to belong, to be a part of something. Something big that they can support and get behind,” he continued in reply to rumors that the post-contract V8 Supercars could be running on Hankook race tyres in the future – especially in a multiple-tyre-manufacturer format.

This is where we came in. As V8 Race operator Greg Evans develops, Hankook had devised a course replicating a number of Australian conditions to which we would test the S1 evo2 to its limits.

A pair of VE SV6 Commodores served as our weapon of choice, with the target, a course emulating adverse conditions. A sudden lane change slalom, dry and wet lockup-braking zones, a continuous high-speed grip turn and a resistance test made up the course.

The kicker, however – one of the SV6’s was fitted with Hankook’s original S1 evo tyre, offering a blow-by-blow comparison to the updated item.

Data would also be gathered and compared between the two tyres as a further testament to the improvements of the new Ventus S1 evo2 UHP tyre.

Buckling into the S1 evo2 first, I immediately began to wonder if anyone had a suitable paint applicator to colour me impressed. The tyres offered a continually crisp steering feel with a direct and immediate attention to sudden direction changes and shifts of weight. The ability to inspire such confidence out of a family sedan only adds to the salutation. As most understand, you’re never going to find a quiet high performance tyre, though the S1 evo2 exhibited a distinctly pleasurable lack of tyre roar.

To follow would be two course laps on the original S1 evo tyre – an interesting predicament given the confidence gained from the stove-hot newer items, and the lowered performance where one had come to expect it. Wet braking in particular seemed desperately close to imitating the S1 evo2, though lateral grip was a clear compromise, with a vague feeling at the very limit and a slow recovery at the brink of understeer.

No rest for the wicked as it was straight out of the cars and a quick shuffle on over to our next victim – an Audi A4.

A stopwatch would serve as our opponent as the little 1.8L turbo worked the S1 evo2 around the Motorkhana course… which was gravel.

Quite a hard little beast to tame, the Audi needed to be kept high in the rev-range with absolutely minimal wheelspin which presented a great opportunity to get a feel for the S1 evo2’s grip

Visualising the optimal areas to maintain speed on the course, and perhaps the best way to not kill both myself and the drift champion sitting next to me.

I wasn’t sure I gave him a proper fright until his joke of “No… not Blake again. Anyone but Blake,” when I hopped in the car for a second time.

A hard nut to crack, the Audi was nimble on its feet but utterly slippery at the slightest sniff of throttle

You could hardly tell motoring journalists are a competitive bunch, with most drivers soon angling the car towards the cones of the first turn to get a snappy start

It was difficult not to feel some mechanical sympathy for the punished, yet faithful Audi. The smell of its cooked brakes filling the air, and at one point the toasty engine stalling – and the car was auto! The tyres on the other hand, hadn't dropped off in performance for a second.

Before our lunch break, you could hardly keep a bunch of petrol heads away from checking out a few toys that Hankook brought along.

The affable Greg Evans came out once more to give us our final rundown for the day – 10 laps of Sandown piloting a Hankook-slicked Commodore V8 Race car.

It’s hard not to have a newfound love of the Sandown track, it’s everything a circuit should be – fast, flowing and with a certain amount of technicality.

The cars feature race suspension, big brakes, stripped-out interior with roll cage, harnesses and race seats and of course, a pair of epically sticky Hankook slicks.

After a few sight laps in the SV6 to get the flow of the track, it was into the cars for some serious fun.

Yes sir… a racetrack + a driver’s seat + impending speed = this grin.

I’d be sitting next to a young shot-gunner by the name of Justin who’d had seat time in a Formula 3 car and was a dab-hand at open wheelers in general, they explained. He’d swapped nappies for Nomex and been racing since the age of seven.

Cornering G-forces either wreak havoc or heaven on your body (depending on your level of sanity). As always, the standard harness tightening procedure prevails. Pull the shoulder belts until you can barely breathe and it feels as if your sternum will collapse. And then pull them harder.

One would summon up a little more go from the throttle pedal that never quite came, but with some heat in the slick tyres came some great fun throwing the car into corners at vigorous speed. You’ve got to respect that grip.

Ultimately we’d caught some slower traffic as the rain started falling on the final two laps and it became a balance of keeping the car off the slippery ripple strips, while feeling the rear-end dancing around through the apex exits. Always a great way to make you smile.

While the happy laps in the slicked-up racer were good for a giggle and to prove the race tyres more than capable, the real winner on the day was the Ventus S1 evo2s and anyone who chooses them as either an upgrade to their factory OEM rubber or as a replacement for compromised 'regular' road tyres.