Federal Tires

[6PAK72]

Any and all info about Federals...pre-season.

My R7 budget is busting me

[TunaNoCrust]

I ran the FZ-201 Soft at a few events last year and for the money I am quite impressed.

Grip level is greater than an R888R, but certainly not Hoosier level. I will have a better idea once I run Palmer again as I only ran the Federals at tracks that were new to me.

Wear seems to be better than A7s, probably on par with say an R888R.

Seems to be consistent through the number of heat cycles as I have one set at 10 heat cycles and another at 2-3.

Tires are very responsive to steering input with a beefy sidewall. Runs tire pressures a little lower than I would on other similar tires.

Only complaint was they did not like cold weather, probably more noticeable on lighter weight cars? At WGI they were ready to go a short way into the first lap. At the NHMS event at the end of last year, they were like rocks on the first lap...anybody behind could attest, especially Ken


All in all, they are cheap, good consistent grip, good wear characteristics...oh and they are cheap.


Jeff if you are at the test event at Palmer, feel free to try them out as I will likely be running my 10HC Federals.

[DPL8]

I ran them for the last event at NHMS last season, Once they heated up they seemed to have nice grip and after 10 plus H/C they seem to still have some life left in them.. but that first 1 or 2 laps it was like driving on ice, almost spun on me multiple times....


I ran Nankang AR1s as well and i really liked them as well..

[beatus]

I ran them for the last event at NHMS last season, Once they heated up they seemed to have nice grip and after 10 plus H/C they seem to still have some life left in them.. but that first 1 or 2 laps it was like driving on ice, almost spun on me multiple times....


I ran Nankang AR1s as well and i really liked them as well..

Given the choice of the two, would you pick one over the other? Looks like the AR1s are like $25 more/tire.

[6PAK72]

Looks like the Swedish Cup is back in play!

[beatus]

Looks like the Swedish Cup is back in play!

I'll do my best, maybe I'll be un-opposed this year like I would have been last year. Planned on running a TT at NHMS too but had a really bad alignment slip so skipped the Sunday.

If the "saabaru" even counts

Also, ended up with 235/40/17 AR1s. Should be great to compare them to the 245/40/17 RE71R I had been running.

[breakaway500]

I tried a set of Federal 201 soft compound sticker tires (205/50/15) on the front of the Atom at the track (Whiskey Hill) yesterday. (manufacture date 3/2020) Conclusion: They are 4-6 seconds slower than the same size A7 tire.

They slid controllably, but they key word is SLID. More pressure, less pressure,did not matter. They hardly wore at all, they never got soft and the track temp was over 100 degrees. and they howled as they slid. Tire temps were 140-165. They reminded me a lot like the Yokohama 048s I had on the car once...almost like driving in the rain!

I believe Federal left off a zero on the tread wear index: more like a 400 than a 40...

I put on a well worn set of A7s after lunch (same size) and found my 6 seconds...so pretty conclusive in my book.

Maybe they will be OK for a heavier car..maybe not. To me they are not made of good sticky track happy rubber. FWIW

[TunaNoCrust]

You are comparing tires that are literally half the price to arguably the best tire out there...what did you expect?

[breakaway500]

"You are comparing tires that are literally half the price to arguably the best tire out there...what did you expect?"

I compared a 40 wear tire to a 40 wear tire. Price has nothing to do with it. Apples to apples,only in this case it was apples to road apples. Partially corded A7s beat the sticker Federal 201s. By a LOT. Pretty pathetic.

Dunlop Direzzas (460 wear) have more grip than these Federal 201s. and they are cheaper. Substantially. There..happy??

[TroyV]

The key here was already mentioned. The Federals, and most of those mid range wear rate R compounds tires need load to work. An atom weighs about as much as lawn lower, so it isn't a very good test of a tire meant for street cars. MArk, I recall you going through this tire size vs amount of load thing a few times before when looking for the combination of tire and aero to arrive at something that worked for you. Hoosier is always going the be the better bet for a light car.

I ran both the soft and medium at Thompson for the July 17-18 event. I got good scrub sessions and a few hard post scrub sessions in both sets of tires.

I'll get into the details below, but in summary, great tires for the money. For a hot day, the mediums are faster than he softs, for a cooler day, the softs are faster than the mediums.

More detail:
my laps without traffic were all in the 24's. On the cooler day, the softs ("S") produced at 24.3, but they were at least 5/10ths slower the next day in the hotter weather, on the hotter day, the mediums ("M") produced a 24.2 in the TT, but they were slower on the cooler day by the same amount conversely.

Braking - Fairly consistent throughout a session. The M took a little more time as the threshold and the point at which ABS would kick over were very close. It took a little time to get a feel for that. The softs were more predictable under braking.

Steady State Cornering - Once up to temperature, the S had incrementally more grip at max side load, but not a lot. Again this all depends on the ambient temperatures.

Speaking of temperature - I put 5 or 6 hard laps in on both tires. Scott volunteered to take tire temps in the hot pit on the hotter day. The S came in at well over 200f in spots. Scott mentioned that the tires were hot and goopy enough to come off in his hand. The M also came in at around 200f, but the tire pressures themselves were much more stable and not terribly elevated compared to the S. All of this said, I didn't notice too much of a drop off in performance as the temperature was rising. I was impressed.

Wear - Both sets looks like they are scrubbed a bit, but haven't taken as much wear as what I would have expected from a nitto in the same time period.

In my size these tires are 160-170 bucks....which make them the cheapest tires that are the stickiest available for use in my class.

My main things to take away: For the event the past weekend, the M was the better overall tire. I got to consistent lap times quicker, and the lap times over the session were far more consistent than the S, even on the cooler day, even though the S was slightly faster (could be attributable to the fact that I haven't driven in anger for months and months)

For the money, the M might be one of the better -2.5 point tires. So far, I like it better than the Nitto and the RE71R, though I'd like to see how long it lasts to declare it the ultimate winner.

You can't go wrong with either, but in my case the S at 0 points is not worth the added points....at least in the high summer. We will see what the S does at NHMS in October. I could change my tune.

In short. Its a cheap tire, at least as fast or faster than the nitto with what I predict will be reasonable wear....that seems to like lots of load and isn't terrible affected by marathon sessions of hard laps.

Open the flood gates.

[breakaway500]

If you advertise your tire to be a 40 wear tire then it should compare to other 40 wear tires,regardless of the application or price. I was looking for a better tire. Period.
The Federal 201s do not compare in level of grip to Hoosiers from what I have personally found out. Apples to apples. I also tried the 201s on the "heavy" Focus with the same results: not as good as a Hoosier. Good..but not as good.
I drove a supercharged BRZ with stiff coilovers on Federal 201S tires (students car) a few weeks ago, and have to say they were well mannered and actually impressive...BUT, they are NOT a 40 wear performance tire level grip of tire like the Hoosier.

Cheaper,yes. Equal performance,no.

I have no personal experience with any other Federal tire than the 201s, but I l aways try and learn from what I read from other drivers experiences,as this it part of advancement. That is why I tried the 201s tire, based on others reviews. Didn't work for me..but nothing ventured,nothing gained!

Finding out what works and does not has been part of the fun of mowing the lawn...as fast as possible.