TESTED: Achilles GS-328 Race Tire
by Steve Rockwood
I've driven on a lot of tires, some of them horrible, some of them great. All of them have been DOT legal. Until now. When we were approached by Achilles Tire to try out their new GS-328 racing slick on Project G20 Racecar, we predictably jumped at the opportunity.
All of us who've been to a track see the slicks on the 911 GT3s and other expensive race gear and drool. With those tires, we often think, we could conquer the world and wipe the floor with the competition, but no way they'll last, nor could anyone that doesn't have a race hauler and pit crew afford it, right? Luckily for the everyman, Achilles has stepped up to the plate and introduced their GS-328 slick at an everyman's price point, and it was up to us to see how they performed.
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| Team CRE has been running the Achilles GS-328 on their ESR Class “Catfish” CB01-R for their successful 25 Hours of Thunderhill endurance race. |
Currently, the only size offered for our 15″ wheels was the smallish 19/57-15, which was exactly gibberish to me until I did some research. Translated to US-centric tire sizes, these are basically the equivalent of a 195/50-15 tire. Reading it directly, this is a 19cm wide tire that is 57cm tall, designed for a 15″ rim. For even our relatively lightweight G20 (2500lbs with driver and a full tank of fuel), these tires were still a little undersized. This size would work perfectly under a Miata or CRX, especially given the gear reduction from the shorter tires, and the available 24/61-17 would've been much better suited to our car and its weight if we had 17″ wheels available.
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| Giving up 35mm of section width to the 225mm tires we usually run, the Achilles GS-328 had its work cut out for it. Doubly so when you consider that all of our competition runs 245mm tires. |
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| The 24/61-17s that Team CRE was sporting would've suited our relatively portly G20 much better than the 19/57-15s we ran. However, we did not have any 17″ wheels available to mount the larger size. |
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| Never seen this sort of sizing convention before? Neither had we. Roughly converted to US-centric sizes, this compares to a 195/50-15. The 19 refers to width in cm, the 57 refers to the height in cm, and the 15 refers to rim size. |
