If your daily lap of the Internet includes stops at sites thick with autocrosser created content, you likely have heard all about the new BFGoodrich G-Force Rival. While it is true that this is a very good tire, almost certainly the next evolution in what an ultimate high performance street tire can be, the fact of the matter is, a new hot street tire has become old hat in our world. In the nearly 15 years of Street Touring we have seen no less than a dozen tires be “the one to have.” There was even a time when the BFG KD stood atop the pile. So while a new tire may not be new news, the approach BFGoodrich has taken to introduce this tire certainly is. And that approach strongly suggests that even if the Rival will not be around forever, BFG intends to be here for the long haul.
It started with an email, inviting me to New Orleans to attend the BFGoodrich® g-Force™ Rival™ Tire Experience in January at the newly constructed NOLA Motorsports Park. My assumption, as the Communications Manager for the Tire Rack Solo Series, was that long time autocrosser Peter Calhoun; now the Motorsports Manager at BFGoodrich was inviting me to allow for networking opportunities within the motorsports world to help SCCA grow the sport.
Within days my travel was arranged and it was revealed that I would be staying at the Ritz Carlton in the French Quarter. This reinforced my feeling that this was a typical launch event that I happened to get invited to. I have worked in automotive brand marketing for a decade. I know the tricks. When a company chooses to put guests at the Ritz, they want to make an impression, they want sizzle. My expectation was that this would be top clients, movers, shakers, journalist and a handful of automotive insiders who could help get the word out. I was flattered to be invited. I assumed I would know few people in attendance, perhaps a Tire Rack employee or two.
As the event approached, my Facebook feed revealed that a handful of autocrossers were descending upon New Orleans. This was my first clue that this was not a typical launch event. Autocrossers have long been used in testing by manufacturers who want to determine which compound is preferred or how their next new tire stacks up against the competition. However, it is quite unusual for autocrossers to be invited to a launch event, much more to one of this scale.
The event kicked off with a cocktail reception in the courtyard of the Ritz. As expected, I saw Mike “Junior” Johnson, the owner of Evolution Performance Driving Schools and Andy Hollis, a frequent contributor to Grassroots Motorsports and a well known tire tester. But there were more. One by one, the courtyard filled up with familiar faces. There were set-up aces like Guy Ankeny, longtime ST competitors like Ian Baker. This year’s National Champions form STC and STU, Jeff Wong and Tristan Littlehale were there. There was also the expected representation from the Tire Rack, as well as representatives from series like The Ultimate Street Car Challenge and Skip Barber. For every face I did not know, there was one I did. It was not always the ones I was expecting either. Certainly there was a premium put on talent and experience, but this list was not built on Solo celebrity, these were the drivers who have been battling in the Street Touring classes, they were testers, innovators and early adaptors. BFGoodrich treated this group to dinner in the French Quarter, and the majority it seemed, retired early enough to be ready to go at Tuesday’s 7:30AM call time.
The event itself was to be held at New Orleans Motorsports Park, which required a bus ride. My group, the Green Group included Ann and Andy Hollis, Neal Tovsen, Mike Johnson, Kevin Dietz, Darrin DiSimo and Guy Ankeny. We arrived at the main building and were seated in a room with screens, theater lighting, display tires and a small catwalk and stage. This is usually the domain of well-polished spokes models, complete with a headset mic and a thousand dollar pant suit. Not the case. Instead, we heard from brand managers, tire engineers, a BFGoodrich tire tester and the drive experience lead, Terry Earwood. This too represented a departure from launch event norms, these were not actors working from a script, we were hearing from the people who made this tire happen, in their words.
Their words told us about a new approach to Ultimate High Performance (UHP) tires. This tire was built to not only beat the competition; it was built to outlast it. The design wrapped the tread blocks further around the sidewall than other models. This allows for tread contact, as opposed to sidewall contact, in heavy cornering. The tread blocks themselves were cut at greater than 90-degree angles so that under load the tread blocks would effectively be bolstered and flex less resulting in building less heat. The corners of the blocks are also rounded to better distribute the initial loading and reduce cupping or feathering. In fact, this was the focal point of our presentation. Performance was addressed, but the real message was the durability and consistency of the tire.
As I listened, the true purpose of this program became clear, this was not about sizzle, this was about steak. BFGoodrich has a new tire, and in launching it, they are looking for one thing- credibility. They wanted flash, excitement and energy, but they also wanted credible voices from within the autocross world to tell their story. These are the voices that have steered the sport to previous tires, and as a result the sport has pushed those products into a wide variety of applications. The reality is, autocross has become the informal testing grounds for performance street tires. We push these tires to their limits and in doing so we produce a mountain of information about the characteristics of each. We know which tires are best for heat, which works best in the wet and which will respond best to cars of varying weights. Typically, we learn these things first and that information permeates through the world of LeMons and ChumpCar racing, track days and events like One Lap of America and the Ultimate Street Car Challenge. What BFGoodrich did was invite the organic influencers to test their tire.
Our testing began with a short autocross in Subaru STis. We were comparing the Rival against the Toyo R1R and the Hankook RS3. Unlike other programs I have done where the hero goes last, we were asked to drive on the Rival first. Two runs on each tire, and then one more on the Rival to get a final impression. My first impression of the Rival was that the turn in was fantastic. We were told that initial testers tended to take out apex cones due to unexpected crispness. I confirmed their findings. However, in the middle of the corner I found the car harder to point than the other two with my AWD pitch and punch driving style. This, in and of itself may actually be a good sign for the Rival, as that style relies upon being able to get the rear of the car to slide on entry and then powering out of the slide and the corner. The grip of the Rival, though, held the rear more in check, making rotation more challenging. Given an opportunity to tune tire pressures and alignment so that the additional grip of the rival was working with rather than against me, I think I could have found a bit of time and much more comfort on the tire. Still, the quickness of the tire to respond was unique. Typically a street tire needs a moment to take a set before you can give the next input, usually throttle. The Rival seemed instantly ready for what was next, which was usually throttle.
Our second exercise was a skid pad, utilizing MX-5 Cup cars and three BFGoodrich Tires, the Comp 2, Rival and R1S. Despite this was an all in brand fight, this was by far the most eye opening exercise of the day, and with the most consistent results amongst the testers. We did have g-meters in the car, and as expected pulled about .1 g more as we moved up the line. What was more impressive was the range displayed by the Rival. By range, I mean is how much latitude the car gives you to work with between over driving and under driving. On the Comp 2, too much throttle would cause the car to walk away from the center of the skid pad. A lift and it would come back. On the R1s, too much throttle would bring the rear out and induce a brief, but easily correctable slide. Theses two tires had a specific way they wanted to be driven, the preferred method was clear, and easy to find. On the Rival, however, there seemed to be multiple correct answers to the question of how to get around the skid pad. Once you got to a speed where you really felt the tire working, and then squeezed a little more throttle, the sensation was that the car dug in harder. It would eventually give up, and develop a push, but the distance between the point of working and the point of giving up grip was extremely impressive. What this means, unlike several of the current top ST tires, the Rival feels very forgiving. More forgiving tires tend to reduce the penalty for each error made on course. A miscalculation on entry speed can be better managed and a sloppy input can be better absorbed.
Next we went to the big autocross course, featuring the BMW M3, and this time just the Hankook RS3 as a competitor… and stopwatches. Though a gentlemen’s agreement was forged not to share times, the tendency was to be a few tenths quicker on the Rival on our 2nd runs on the course than we were on Runs 3 or 4 on the Hankook. Unlike the STi, I felt the Rival was perfectly suited to the M3 from the start. The course featured 4 major braking zones and the difference in confidence under braking was extremely stark. Two of these zones were curved. When you braked on the Rival, despite the curve, the car felt composed. As an example, Because of the curve, my instinct was to brake early to allow for space to gradually slow the car. I found I was able to go deeper in to the pedal sooner than I expected and ended up at my entry speed considerably before the apex each time. On the Hankook these zones were very nervous. It could be done but it was not as confidence inspiring or as repeatable. The Rival also stood up very well to the heat of back to back to back runs. While the Hankook really needed the heat to work, the Rival seemed very consistent run after run. Unfortunately, the Bimmers did not fair as well. The brakes did not tolerate left foot braking and overheated, so we did not get the final run on the Rival, but for the most part, it was not needed. The differences were clear, while the pace was just a slight edge for the Rival, the difference in the ease with which you could execute was meaningful. This is significant in an autocross setting in particular because the nature of the sport does not allow for many do-overs. We all felt the Rival gave us the better chance to get it right the first time.
Our day ended with a little automotive dessert; 2 laps on the road course in a FR500s Mustang on both the Rival and the Falken Azenis 615. In the interest of full disclosure, I was nervous. I have little seat time on track and none of it in anything like this. We started on the Rival and by the exit of turn 1 I knew I would be fine. It was easy. Braking was predictable and stable. I could put the car exactly where I wanted it on entry and power delivery was easily managed and consistent. After two laps I pitted and I moved to the Azenis car. Just like on the Rival shod car I knew exactly what I had by the exit of turn one. I put the right wheels up on the curb, but unlike the Rival which held that fine, the Azenis instantly gave up and slid down the curb. My focus immediately came up; my grip tightened and felt my adrenaline start. I was really looking forward to the two laps on the Azenis. It is a tire I know well, and having just run my first laps ever at NOLA, I wanted to explore my newfound comfort with the track. Instead, the laps felt like work. I had to think about every input of steering, throttle and brakes. On the Rival, I was not casual, but I was able to relax and enjoy the experience, there were no nerves. The feeling on the Falken was similar to sitting on the start line as it starts to rain. Logically I knew the grip should be about the same but I never felt sure of what I was going to get..
Many questions remain about the tire. To fully answer them it will require real testing, on prepped cars. I suspect this is a tire that will result in significant set up changes to be optimized. Until that process has played out, we won’t know where exactly this tire fits into the pantheon of Street Touring or Road Tire tires. However, there are a few things we know. We know that this tire’s initial feel is consistent with a competition tire. There were several times where comments were made that it felt like a R-Compound, or was a “R-Comp for the street.” While I would agree with that concept on feel, we also know that this tire does not wear like a R-Compound, or even most UHP tires. Several of us looked at the tested tires at the end of the day and the Rivals looked great. In fact, they looked like a fresh set of scrubs, ready to go. The competitive tires looked chewed on, there was some feathering and there were definite differences in how the edges wore. We also know that BFGoodrich is making a commitment to the sport. They are stepping up their program as the official tire of SCCA and offering a product based contingency program for Solo.
The Rival is an impressive tire; make no mistake about it, but that is not the real story here. The real story is BFG is back. Two decades ago BFG was a king in the sport. The original R1 is still invoked in conversations about what a stock class tire should be. Now, when it is time to launch their latest and greatest, BFG turns to autocrossers not only to test their product, but also to be their brand ambassadors and tell their story. The marketing surrounding this tire, and all BFGoodrich products, is that BFG is your ticket to Playground Earth. The concept is that the right set of tires will let you play with your car anywhere you want regardless of whether that is on track, at an autocross, a spirited mountain drive or just your daily commute. This is similar to the foundation principle that the Street Touring and Road Tire Classes were founded. History has suggested this to be a false premise when ultimate timed performance is the measure, but it is my opinion that this tire shows the most potential to date of a one tire does all solution. While it may or may not be the absolute fastest tire on all cars in all conditions, it is that rare package of a tire that is fun to drive on, has long lasting wear characteristics and comes from a company that is dedicated to supporting our sport.
