ZESTINO TYRE REVIEW
"Hey Guys just wanted to leave a quick review of my experience with Ernie & the Zestino Tyres USA crew. I've been fortunate enough to have the experience of building over 100 cars, S-chassis, Z chassis, Supras, Evo's, STi's and a few miatas. with that has come the pleasure of driving said cars with customers both on street and track. so I've experienced a good share of compounds and i feel i can give an honest opinion on the Zestino tyres.
I Mainly road race i don't do a whole lot of drifting so grip and consistency is something i look for in a tire. I was about 90% set on getting a set of Hankook RS3's for the HKS Speed Ring event, discussing compounds and rules with my friend Edgar who also is a consistent competitor in both road racing and a recreational drifter he urged me to give the Zestino brand a shot. after looking at pricing on the tires i went for it and gave them a shot. ordered a full set of 265/35 R18 Zestino Gredge07RS (140 thread wear). After talking with Ernie himself about my setup and what i was using them for. He was very helpful in the tire selection and confident in the product so a few days later i had the tires mounted and balanced.
Initial impression on the road was amazing, steering responsive and not any louder than the Federal 595RS-R that i had on there before. (same width and thread wear) testing them on a few off-ramps the grip was good. i was able to comfortably test the tires up to the old limit of the RS-R without any sort of fade or greasy feeling which was nice.
few weeks later i took them to their first track day, The Speed Ring at Autoclub speed way. I was fortunate enough to test their grip both at High speed, low speed, high speed braking and bumpy play ground. ACS pretty much has it all. in the cold morning sessions it took a few laps to get the tires up to temperature. the cold grip was solid, but once the tires were warm OH MY GOD. I was able to push the braking closer and closer to turn 3 with confidence. (brakes are Endless MX-RS on BNR34 brembo F+R calipers & DBA rotors) with zero brake fade i honestly only locked them up once and that was to find the absolute limit of the tires & brakes. (i was coming in at around 140-147 and had to drop all the way down to 3rd gear from the top of 6th.) as the day went on, both track temperatures & tire temperatures got higher. The tires stayed consistent and predictable, I can't say i honestly felt the tires get greasy on me once but i did get more and more comfortable with them. I ran my best lap on day 2 of the event during the 2nd session.
in conclusion, Zestino Tyres are Superb. Their customer service is top notch, the tires perform far better than their rating. I truly believe the 140 outperform the Federal RS-R by leaps and bounds. I have yet to Drive on Yokohama AD08R's and Bridgestone RE-71R's but from what i hear of other drivers that have driven both the Zestino & the big name brands they are a solid competitor. Next i will be trying their 240 thread wear tires the Zestino Gredge07R but from what i hear those are comparable to Hankook RS-3 and Toyo R888's. That test I will be using them on Buttonwillow Raceway Park for Nissan Challenge, due to class rules i have to drop to a tire with threadwear of 200 or higher so I'll have the chance to drive them next to RS3's and other tires in the class."
Zestino Tyre Review by Juan Vargas
