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Once dialed-in, we settled on inflation pressures of 38psi all around. Lower pressures would have been used, but the tire's relatively narrow tread width forced us to use slightly higher inflation pressures to keep from overheating the outside shoulder of the tire. At no time did any of the usual slick tire horror stories of instantly losing grip, ultra fast wear, and horribly narrow sweet spot manifest. The GS-328 wore comparably to other R-compound tires, giving us a solid weekend of abuse without showing chords and using about half of the rubber depth. Given a more properly matched size or lighter car, these tires will last considerably longer.
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After a couple of weekends of flogging, our GS-328s still showed plenty of meat left on them based on the depth remaining on the wear holes. Unfortunately, our car still needs more negative camber is a little abusive to the outside shoulders of its tires. |
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| Despite getting extremely hot, the tires showed very little outward signs of overheating, both visibly with none of the usual blueing you see on tires after some serious floggin, and during the race, exhibiting no apparent fade. |
Overall grip from these tires was solid. Again, because they were narrower, our results must be taken with a grain of salt, but these tires offered us a solid upgrade in overall braking, straight line traction and cornering power.
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| Looking good, if a bit small, on our G20. Notice the complete lack of OPR (Other People's Rubber) stuck to them? This is especially useful as it allows the driver to detect actual mechanical problems from vibration, rather than being unable to determine if it's a problem, or just large amounts of rubber stuck to the tires. |
Subjectively, the Achilles GS-328 did quite well for itself, logging a best of 1:57.628 at Sonoma Raceway during the MPTCC practice sessions, comparing favorably to competitors running on much wider 245mm tires and full aero packages. In addition, despite their diminutive size, the GS-328s never really faded away under constant abuse, giving us lap after lap of consistent performance. Given the larger 24/61-17s, we can imagine these tires would've shattered our best times.
After running these tires for a weekend, our overall impression is that these tires offer superior grip and resistance to temperature fade, with wear levels on par with that of R-compound DOT tires. Whether you're racing in a wheel to wheel series, or just hot lapping, these tires offer an affordable alternative to the increasingly diverse field of R-compound tires available to us gear heads.
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| We really think every tire manufacturer should include a set of stickers with their R-compound tires. These managed to stay on all weekend. |
