I have been following the progression of the Nexen N Fera SUR4G tire for a while now.
This includes following the initial testing that Jason Isley, Brian Heitkotter and one other person I can't remember right now whom I know from living in SoCal and competing at Packwood, SCCA Nats, etc.
After that I was checking on results from Bryan and Jason at Tours/Pros and even some of their local events in California on the Nexens.
From the beginning I was suspecting that this tire is roughly the equivalent the BFG Rival and RE71 but I had not driven on them myself.
This past weekend Tim R. of Winnipeg let me run a couple of runs on the afternoon course during the fun runs (sorry for butting in on the line folks, Tim had to get going and hit the road so they could make Medicine Hat for the night - about a 3 hr. drive).
Tim was not able to get the 275's he wanted so he was running on 265's on his '04 Z06 - identical car to Cam's I believe? Cam, do you know if there was much difference in the setup between your cars other than tires? Alignment - who knows but sway bars, shocks etc may be a bit of a factor if they were different. I was told Cam was running on sticker 275 wide BFG's - correct me if I'm wrong Cam.
In any case I made one major error on the first run with a twitch just before the first big left sweeper after the first 3 cone slalom out of the start which put me into the marbles on the outside of the "line" so I blew a bunch of time there. I basically matched Tim's best time with that run. He then said to take another run if I could cut into line so they didn't lose much time (initially I was going to do only one run ... and hence why I butted into line).
This 2nd run had no major errors in it and the tires were warmer, of course. My run was 0.025 seconds behind Cam's best time. 40.147 vs.40.116 if I got those numbers right (see fun run/set 3 times).
So as I suspected, they are competitive with the BFG (and RE71) in my opinion.
What do they feel like? I think I could have used another run or two in order to focus in on the "feel" a bit more but I'll try to remember exactly what I was "feeling":
The tires felt "gummy" or sort of R-compound-like which also confirmed the grip level for me - that grip was very, very good for sure. The temp was somewhere around 22C/72F (so not overly hot per se). The 4G's felt quite grippy and composed/forgiving right off the bat (the error was mine ... just got on the gas a bit too much which changed my line into the marbles ... a bit of an adjustment from a base '99 Corvette on Bridgestone 760's, taller gearing and significantly less jam).
On the 2nd run I noticed around the far SW off-camber right corner, especially part 2 of the corner where you turn east toward the tight left-hander, that when the tires began to slide (with no initial squealing), I was able to easily control the amount of slide with changes in the throttle input and also keep a tight line around the cones (see Murray's video as an example of the line around there). The car handling was quite neutral with oversteer on the throttle, of course ... Z06, right?
Then into the big right corner into the finish chute, I was hard on the throttle but had to hold back a tiny bit to prevent the slide from getting too much sideways but, again, it was quite controllable.
Tim mentioned that he found them easy and forgiving to drive and fast. At the last Winnipeg event he said he coned away the top PAX time so he was quite happy with the tires and feel of them as well (we had a FB discussion going for a while which was also good information btw).
In summary we ran a 265 4G against a 275 Rival and came out within 0.025 sec.
Are they a competitive tire?
I would say so. They appear to be an equivalent.
Therefore, if you are looking for a high perf. tire that is competitive and you can't get anything else, the 4G is a viable alternative in my opinion.
BTW, I have heard they are not available in Canada yet but you can get them through Tire Rack or other suppliers from the USA. That is where Tim got his set within the last month or so.
Cheers,
Reijo
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November 22, 2024, 02:38:06 PM
