Story: FnSweet

10-02-08: So many years, so many tires. Seems like every other year there is another latest greatest to beat all those that came before it. One wonders how much better can tires get in today's age of nano-technology, iPods, and satellite navigation?

Roush Performance and Cooper Tire sought to find out if the envelope could be pushed father for the greater good of both parties. Roush Performance is of course the fast becoming mainstream "tuner" or "upfitter" of Ford Mustangs. You know all about their Stage 3, 427R, and P-51A & B Mustangs just to name a few. You can't go to a track-day anywhere in the US these days without seeing them.

But how many Mustang "tuners" have you heard of who spend 18 months with a major tire maker to develop a special tire just for their top-tier cars? Better yet, how many tire companies are working to better the driving experience of a niche car? You have Roush Performance and Cooper who just launched the Cooper RS3 ultra high-performance tire. Cooper set out to become the official tire of Roush, but also push some of the competition off the pedestal.

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Bettering the Competition

For a long time, the BF Goodrich Radial T/A KD had a reputation for being one of the best all around ultra-high-performance tires money can buy. That being a fact Roush has made the tire standard equipment on their supercharged Mustangs since 2001. The tire provides some of the best stick and tread wear you can get in a street tire and is competent enough on a road course for the occasional track day event.

Desiring a better tire to meet the increasing extreme performance specs of their ROUSHCharged Mustangs, the Livonia based company went to Cooper with a challenge. It was meet or exceed the performance of the BF Goodrich T/A KD, but also give us better wet tractions, better predictability, better feel, and better all around ownership experience.

The two companies worked together on this new tire for over 18-months, sending Roush Mustangs down to Cooper's San Antonio, TX proving ground for use in development. Several compounds and tread designs later a new tire was born. The Cooper Zeon RS3 represents significant improvements in all performance parameters over the T/A KD both on the street and the track.

Testing the new Cooper RS3 with the Roush Stage 3 Mustang has shown increases in lateral grip exceeding 1G. Braking distance was reduced by a staggering 18 feet. That is something we could feel in our own test sessions at Michigan's GingerMan Raceway. You can brake harder than ever without loosing traction and invoking the ABS. This translates to significantly faster track times and more street driving safety.

A new tread design gives superior on-center feel at speed. This tread and sidewall design also provides increased transitional response when driving hard in and out of curves. All of this combines to give exemplary predictability and forgiveness at the limit and beyond. You get plenty of warning before it lets go. And when it does, you still have a working level of control to bring it back.

Better Daily Life

Where this tire really gets my attention is in the fact that it has a non-directional asymmetrical tread. This means you can cross-rotate the tires from one side to the other, and front to back. In daily life with any high performance car this is HUGE. Having owned a Roush Stage 3 equipped with the previous BFG T/A KD tires with staggered sizes, I had four separate tire part numbers on the car. If you got a nail and had to order a new tire it was a pain in the ass. Nobody stocked them because there were so many versions. When you could find one it was always a "right" when you needed a "left". With the Cooper RS3, you only have one tire to worry about and you can rotate them. In real life, this means everything.

The other major area where the Cooper RS3 shines is in wet traction. Anyone who has had a BFG T/A KD knows you park the car in the rain. The RS3's tread design is completely different with more water scavenging ability. It also has wider circumferential grooves that allow more control and hydroplaning prevention.

While most gear heads would question the concept of a have your cake and eat it too t ire, what makes this work is a new compound with silica technology that enables more adhesion in all situations. This compound allowed more flexibility in tread and sidewall design so that all areas of the driving experience could be improved. Dividends also come in ride which is not all characteristic of a 1G + tire.

Made In America

Unlike most high performance tires, the Cooper RS3 is made in America. The tire is rated at 220 tread wear, AA Traction, and A Temperature. Seven Roush Mustangs were equipped with the RS3 at our track-day test. The cars were on track all day long at the limit and not one of them had to get a tire change, a rotation, or had a failure. We checked frequently for chunking and checking and found none, just a smooth wear pattern.

As of launch, the new Cooper RS3 will be standard equipment on all top-tier Roush Mustangs. Even if you don't own a Roush Mustang, you can order this tire in the 275/40ZR18 from any Cooper dealership. More sizes are said to be on the way at some point in the future.

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