Could a new low-buck tire be the silver bullet that so many of us seek? Could it deliver pace and laps but at a discounted rate? And could the new Armstrong Blu Trac Race deliver everything on that wish list?
First, though, a small reality check. GRM is one of the few independent outlets left doing instrumented tire testing in a controlled environment with controlled variables, and those tire tests take an exceptional amount of resources: For even a basic two-tire test, figure a minimum of two separate trips to the track and a full day on the test car.
And that’s assuming the weather and track stay consistent, the car doesn’t break, and the tires behave as expected. If any variables change, we pack up, go home and try another day.
Given that logistical complexity, we can’t fully test every new tire on the market. Instead, we sample far more tires in far more varied conditions, constantly evaluating new contenders for an official test performed to our standards.
These trips are more like the “testing” normal racers do–throwing some new tires on the car one track weekend and seeing how they feel, perhaps with a lap time comparison to their last event. But they’re not scientific, so we normally don’t publish their results.
The best way to see the full list of tires we’re actually sampling is to catch us in person at an event. Otherwise, tires we test generally fall into two categories: candidates for an official full test and candidates for the recycling pile.
Sometimes, though, a new tire lands squarely in between those extremes: a tire that, while not a top-shelf contender, may fill a gap in the market and be the right choice for some people. And one of those tires is the prototype Armstrong Blu Trac Race we sampled from Tire Streets.
Marketed as an Endurance 200, in theory this tire would compete against tires like the Hankook Ventus R-S4 or Falken Azenis RT-615K+–tires that, while not quite as fast as the Super 200s you’ll find topping time trials podiums, can deliver consistent laps all day long and wear like iron. Bonus points for being more reasonably priced than Super 200s, too.
We installed a set of 205/50R15 Blu Tracs on a friend’s Lemons-prepped Corolla, then visited the Florida International Rally & Motorsport Park, our official test track, for an open track day.
Normally this car runs on the 195/60R14 Falken Azenis RT-615K+ tire, a popular, affordable choice for budget endurance racing. Our mission wasn’t to compare lap times but rather to see if Armstrong had built a track tire at all–we’ve been burned before by fragile street tires dressed up as track tires and had no idea what to expect.
And, well, the Armstrongs exceeded our (admittedly low) expectations. They don’t love to be overdriven and overheated, but they held up great over multiple sessions in 90-degree heat, and they’re predictable and easy to drive.
Of course, there is a catch, and that’s overall pace. According to our butt dyno and our stopwatch, the wider Armstrongs were a few tenths slower than the car’s normal lap times on the narrower Falkens–although, as we wrote earlier, we hate to compare laps from different days and different setups. (The car’s aero had also been improved since its last trip to the FIRM, meaning the real pace differential could be even higher.)
So, if these tires seem to run slower than a mid-pack standard bearer, why are we writing about them? Three reasons: price, street manners and wet-weather performance. At $124 each in our size, they’re $44 a set less expensive than the Falkens, which are already the least expensive Extreme Performance Summer tires available from Tire Rack.
The Armstrong Blu Trac Race tires are also much quieter on the street. They seem to better handle standing water as well.
If you’re on a tight budget and looking for a track-capable street tire, this just might be worth a look–as long as you’re okay with leaving time on the table.
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