Hey Guys,

My local shop has a set of BFG R1 R-Comps for sale really cheap ($50/tire). They have been mounted once, but never tracked, they still have the little nipples/hairs on the tread.

Only problem is that they have been sitting in Tire Rack's Warehouse since 1998.

Do you guys think I should stray away? Is the tread compound going to be too old? I've never dealt with tires older than a year, so I really don't know if anything could be wrong.

Any thoughts?

Also, anyone used the BFG R1's before? Thoughts?

They are prolly junk. that is way to long for them to sit, especially in a warehouse. The compound is prolly all hard now...I would look elsewhere...TIm

Yeah, that long and they are very likely hard and not worth the money.

Depends on what you want to use them for. If you want to be competitive at whatever you're doing, then no, they'll probably be slower than a new tire. Both because of the age of the compound, and because tire technology has come pretty far in the last few years. Pass them up.

If you just want round black rubber things to wear out on the track or autox, then maybe they're a good deal.

They won't be useful for setting up your car - old hard tires won't react like fresh tires, so tuning just won't work. Besides, you'll have to retune your suspension if you go to a different tire anyway.

Another thing is are these the BFG R1s, or the BFG G-Force R1s? Two different tires that behave differently. The BFG R1 was a very good tire for its time. The G-Force R1 was a totally different tire that just wasn't as good as the older R1 - when I tried them, they were twitchy, not as forgiving as either the Kumho or Hoosier, and wore out fairly quickly. They also needed tons of negative camber to work properly.

Jim

Adding to that, there are two G-Force R1s, the R1 and R1A. The R1 needs a lot of camber, the R1A is softer and doesn't need as much... but they are still twitchy as hell and lousy for autoX. They aren't fun for track use either because they give virtually no warning when you are about to spin, you just end up facing the wrong direction.

Originally posted by Jim O.
Another thing is are these the BFG R1s, or the BFG G-Force R1s? Two different tires that behave differently.

The original tire was the "Comp T/A R1". The replacement was the "G-Force T/A R1". The G-Force line appeared sometime during 1998, I believe.

Even for the Comp T/A R1, there were many different compounds out there, both road race and autox. The road race were the 224 and the 204(?), and the autox was the 228 and the 206.

The G-Force T/A had a MUCH stiffer sidewall and was a lot less forgiving to drive on.

I have a set on my AutoX wheels right now. I got them really really cheap, so for my first year of AutoX, they worked great... as in not wearing out my street tires. I however used Hoosiers for the first time last weekend, and it's the biggest difference in the world.

The 230 Comp T/A R1 was my favorite all time tire... except that on FWD cars, they tended to get the EGOD, similar to the Kumho Ecsta V700s... :(

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I've got a track weekend coming up, and my choices are going to be running on almost gone Yoko A032R's or these. They really aren't going to be for compeating, just so I have an R Comp for track test/tune days.

I've got to go pick up some pads soon, so I'll check to see which model they are.

Thanks again.

Spencer

Jump on those tires, then get a bottle of Formula V: www.racerpartswholesale.com/tractreat.htm

I nursed a set of BFG R1's for 4 years with that stuff. You'll need at least two weeks lead time for it to work.

M5Yates

Cool idea, Bill. You can get some stick out of them with the Formula V.

Glad to see you here on Bimmerforums.