New Cooper RS3-G1 proves itself on track, street

PALM BEACH, Fla. (Oct. 12, 2016) — Tire companies invite us on tests of their latest, most technologically advanced, new-formula tires all the time.

We go, we check them out and, magically, the newest and coolest always seem to overpower the competition. But until now, no tire company has ever installed its new rubber on full-blown, open-wheel race cars and let journalists have at it.

Findlay, Ohio-based Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., the brand that you sometimes forget — they're not sold at Tire Rack Inc. and they're not standard equipment on any vehicle — did just that, and, we have to say, we're impressed.

We went down to Florida to investigate the new Zeon RS3-G1 ultra-high-performance-but-also-all-season tires. We did some on-road driving first, but the true test was at the Lucas Oil School of Racing, situated on the 10-turn, 2.034-mile Palm Beach International Raceway. But before we get to that, let's look at the details:

The new Zeon RS3-G1 is a successor to the RS3-A. In the five years since the A was launched, according to Cooper, polymers, resins and oils that make up tire compounds have advanced significantly, as has the performance.

The G1 is W rated for 168 mph and was made to hold 1g of lateral grip on the skidpad — that's a huge amount for an all-season tire. It contains more silica, about 7 percent, features a new bead for easier mounting, and 3-D siping technology, Cooper said, which allows for greater performance. Siping is the process of cutting slits into the tread blocks of tires for better wet and ice driving. It's also asymmetrical, and has a five-rib pattern with more rubber on the outside shoulder for better traction.

The RS3-G1 competes against segment stalwarts like the Michelin North America Inc.'s Pilot AS3 and Continental Tire the Americas L.L.C.'s DWS. Cooper is so confident in its latest tire that the company offered us a set to go up against our Michelin Pilot Super Sports, just to see how they do.

One of the coolest features on the new tire is the wear square, which tells the user how much tread is left. A small square is cut into the center rib; when the square is full, you have between 100 and 75 percent of your tire life remaining. As the four sides disappear, you know you have 75, 50 and 25 percent left, before you get to 2/32 of an inch, the recommended changing depth. Cooper said that you can also see it deform if you have uneven tire wear or alignment issues.

But we weren't concerned about any of that as we strapped into the 1,000-pound, open-wheel four-cylinder race school cars shod with the exact, streetable RS3-G1s that are on sale now at tire dealerships.

Cooper was the natural choice for these cars, barring full race slicks, because it sponsors the Mazda Road to Indy, a three-step developmental series that gets young hotshoes prepared for a full IndyCar race season in open-wheel cars.

These Lucas Oil school cars lay down about 140 hp from 2.0-liter fours made by Elite Engines out of West Bend, Wis. The chassis is made by Ray Formula Cars and features a sequential gearbox controlled by a Pro Shift paddle shifter system and an AiM Formula Dash data acquisition system. At the corners, again, are RS3-G1s, the same versions, albeit in different sizes, that you can put on your personal vehicle.

The key here — and why we think it was a ballsy move on Cooper's part to let its tires get tested on an open-wheel car — is that there is barely any suspension travel and no boost to the steering or braking. That means everything you feel, and hear, is from the tires.

Now, 140 hp doesn't seem like a lot of energy, but on a power-to-weight level, the Lucas car feels about as fast as a Corvette Stingray. Taking off, we didn't get a lot of wheelspin from the Coopers, except for when we spun out and had to get pointed in the right direction. Yes, we spun out once. So all good there.

Braking was impressive, too. Again, these cars only weigh half a ton, but there were very few times we actually locked them up and saw smoke, even though the instructors were pushing to brake harder the entire day. The tires also didn't seem to need a lot of warm-up to get sticky — maybe a lap and a half — and didn't drop off too much either after 30 minutes or so of constant lapping.

Once we were comfortable in the car, the RS3-G1s felt extremely connected in the corners — you can see more than 1g of grip in the video readout — translating a lot of what was going on to our hands on the wheel.

Unfortunately, there's less of that on a street car, considering the main goal of auto makers is to tune that “feel” out. One thing we can say for sure: There's no better feeling in this world than almost losing control in a high-speed turn and then regaining it. And these tires allowed us to do that every time but the last, when Indy Lights driver RC Enerson was hot on our tail and we were pushing for our fastest lap of the day.

Whether the front or rear tires, breakaway was predictable and controllable. That's important when you're right at the traction limit, looking for another tenth of a second, or in an emergency situation on the highway.

And to top it all off, the RS3s barely looked used at the end of the day. Your mileage, both literal and metaphorical, will vary.

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Jake Lingeman is road test editor and reviews cars, reports on car news, car tech and the world at large for Autoweek magazine, a Detroit-based sister publication of Tire Business.