BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S Review: The Ultimate Street-Legal Track Tire

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When the open road calls for more than just transportation—when every curve becomes an opportunity and every straightaway a chance to push the limits—you need a tire that can match your enthusiasm for driving. The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S is precisely that tire, designed for those who see driving as more than just getting from point A to point B.

Straddling the line between dedicated track rubber and everyday performance tires, the g-Force Rival S offers enthusiasts a compelling package: racetrack-worthy grip and precision with enough street manners to drive home after a day at the track. This “street-legal track tire” has earned a devoted following among weekend warriors and track day enthusiasts who demand maximum performance without the hassle of swapping wheels between street and circuit.

With its aggressive directional tread pattern featuring massive outer blocks and a continuous center rib, the g-Force Rival S was engineered from the ground up to deliver exceptional grip and steering response. Its silica-enhanced compound provides remarkable traction in various conditions while maintaining reasonable wear characteristics for a tire in this performance category.

In this comprehensive review, we’ll explore what makes the BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S a favorite among driving purists and whether its performance-focused design makes it the right choice for your high-performance vehicle. From design elements to real-world performance, we’ll cover everything you need to know about this boundary-pushing performance tire.

Overview of the BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S

The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S is an ultra-high performance summer tire designed for serious driving enthusiasts and weekend warriors. Billed as a “street-legal track tire,” it bridges the gap between dedicated track tires and high-performance street tires, offering impressive dry grip and responsive handling for both road and occasional track use.

BFGoodrich markets the g-Force Rival S as a tire that delivers “uncompromising dry performance” without sacrificing wet traction or treadwear. The tire features an aggressive directional tread pattern with massive outer tread blocks and a continuous center rib for enhanced dry grip and steering precision. Meanwhile, the silica-enhanced tread compound provides wet traction while resisting excessive wear.

With a treadwear rating of 140 (lower than most street tires but higher than true track tires), the g-Force Rival S aims to strike a balance between extreme grip and reasonable treadlife for dedicated driving enthusiasts. Whether you’re carving corners on a mountain road or hitting the track on weekends, this tire promises to elevate your vehicle’s performance potential.

Design and Construction

The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S is a max performance summer tire designed for serious driving enthusiasts. It features an advanced silica-enhanced tread compound that provides exceptional grip on dry and wet roads. The tread pattern is directional and features a continuous center rib flanked by massive outer shoulder blocks for enhanced cornering bite.

The internal construction utilizes two wide steel belts reinforced by BFGoodrich’s g-Force Casing for high-speed capability and precise steering response. The tire’s sidewalls are reinforced with spirally wound nylon for improved durability and resistance to sidewall flex under extreme cornering loads.

A key technology is BFG’s g-Control Sidewall Inserts, which are lightweight polyamide inserts that enhance steering feel and responsiveness. The tire also features equal tension containment (ETC) which optimizes the shape of the contact patch for even pressure distribution.

The g-Force Rival S has an asymmetric tread design with larger outboard shoulder blocks and a continuous center rib to enhance dry road traction and high-speed stability. The inboard shoulders have more siping and grooves to improve wet traction. Overall, the tire aims to provide maximum dry grip and performance while still maintaining all-season capabilities in light rain.

Dry Road Performance

The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S delivers exceptional dry road performance, thanks to its advanced compound and tread design. The tire offers immense grip levels, allowing for confident cornering and precise handling. Even when pushing the limits, the g-Force Rival S maintains an impressive level of traction, inspiring confidence behind the wheel.

One of the standout features of this tire is its responsive steering feel. The g-Force Rival S communicates road conditions exceptionally well, providing drivers with a direct and connected driving experience. Steering inputs are met with immediate and predictable responses, making it easier to navigate twisty roads or execute quick maneuvers.

At higher speeds, the g-Force Rival S demonstrates remarkable stability. Its stiff sidewalls and optimized tread pattern work together to minimize tread squirm, ensuring a composed and controlled ride, even when pushing the limits. This level of stability instills confidence and allows drivers to explore the full performance potential of their vehicles.

Braking performance on dry pavement is another area where the g-Force Rival S shines. The tire’s compound and tread design work in tandem to provide excellent grip and short stopping distances. Whether you’re navigating city streets or attacking a racetrack, the g-Force Rival S delivers reliable and consistent braking performance, giving you peace of mind when you need to shed speed quickly.

Wet Road Performance

The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S delivers impressive wet grip and hydroplaning resistance. Its directional tread pattern features wide circumferential grooves and lateral notches that effectively evacuate water from the contact patch. This design helps prevent hydroplaning and maintains solid traction on wet surfaces.

In heavy rain conditions, the g-Force Rival S inspires confidence with its tenacious wet grip. The soft tread compound bites into the road, providing excellent traction for acceleration and cornering. Even when pushed hard, these tires maintain composure and resist losing grip.

Braking distances on wet roads are also commendable for the Rival S. The tread design and compound work together to maximize contact with the road, translating into shorter stopping distances compared to many competitors in its class. This wet braking performance can be a major safety advantage in emergency situations.

Overall, the BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S exhibits exceptional wet weather capabilities. Whether navigating through heavy downpours or light showers, these tires inspire confidence with their hydroplaning resistance, tenacious wet grip, and impressive wet braking performance.

Track/Autocross Performance

The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S truly shines when pushed to its limits on the racetrack or autocross course. Designed with an ultra-high-performance street/track compound, this tire delivers exceptional grip and responsive handling characteristics that inspire confidence at the ragged edge.

During hot lap sessions, the Rival S consistently posts blistering lap times, thanks to its tenacious lateral grip and predictable breakaway behavior. Even as the tires heat up over the course of a session, the compound remains remarkably consistent, maintaining its bite and resisting excessive heat cycling or drop-off in performance.

The stiff shoulder blocks and reinforced construction allow the Rival S to endure the punishing forces encountered during hard cornering and rapid transitions. Drivers can attack apexes with commitment, secure in the knowledge that the tires will communicate clearly and respond with precision to steering inputs.

Whether navigating tight autocross courses or high-speed sweepers on a road course, the BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S delivers the kind of confidence-inspiring grip and responsiveness that serious drivers crave. It’s a tire that encourages you to explore the limits of your machine’s performance envelope, secure in the knowledge that it has the capability to match your ambition.

Comfort and Noise

The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S delivers a surprisingly compliant and comfortable ride for a max-performance summer tire. While it’s certainly firmer than a grand touring or touring tire, the Rival S soaks up bumps and irregularities well, providing a relatively smooth ride quality. This is impressive given the tire’s ultra-high performance capabilities.

In terms of noise, the Rival S is reasonably quiet for its category. At lower city speeds under 40 mph, there’s just a muted hum from the tires. As speeds increase on the highway, the noise level rises but remains well-mannered and inoffensive. Even at 70+ mph speeds, cabin noise from the tires doesn’t become overly intrusive or require raised voices for conversations. Overall, the Rival S strikes a nice balance between performance and comfort, with noise levels that are very livable for such a high-performance summer tire.

Treadwear and Durability

The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S is designed to deliver excellent treadwear and durability, even under the demanding conditions of track driving and autocross events. The tire features a specialized tread compound that balances grip and longevity, ensuring that you can enjoy its performance capabilities without sacrificing premature wear.

One of the key advantages of the g-Force Rival S is its cut and chip resistance. The tire’s unique construction incorporates reinforced sidewalls and a robust tread design, which helps to protect against the potential damage caused by debris or curbing during high-performance driving scenarios. This added protection not only enhances the tire’s durability but also contributes to its overall safety and reliability.

In terms of expected treadlife, the g-Force Rival S is designed to provide a reasonable lifespan, especially considering its performance-oriented nature. While it may not match the treadwear of dedicated touring or all-season tires, the g-Force Rival S strikes a balance between grip and longevity, ensuring that you can enjoy its capabilities without frequent replacements.

Real-world reports from enthusiasts and professional drivers have highlighted the impressive durability of the g-Force Rival S. Many users have shared stories of their tires withstanding the rigors of track days, autocross events, and spirited driving on public roads without experiencing significant wear or damage. This testament to the tire’s durability further solidifies its reputation as a reliable and long-lasting choice for performance driving enthusiasts.

Sizing Options and Fitments

The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S is available in a wide range of sizes to fit many popular sports cars, muscle cars, and high-performance vehicles. Sizes range from 17-inch wheel diameters up to 20 inches, with section widths from 225mm up to a very wide 335mm.

For many vehicles, you can opt for a “plus” size that has a wider tread combined with a lower sidewall aspect ratio. This can provide improved grip and steering response compared to the OEM tire fitment. However, you’ll want to ensure sufficient wheel well clearance.

Some common OEM fitments for the g-Force Rival S include the Ford Mustang GT, Chevrolet Camaro SS, Dodge Challenger R/T, and certain BMW M models. It’s also a popular upgrade for enthusiast cars like the Mazda Miata, Subaru WRX/STI, Volkswagen Golf R, and many others that can benefit from improved dry grip and track performance.

Value and Competition

The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S offers excellent value for the performance it delivers. While not the most affordable option in the ultra-high-performance summer tire category, its pricing is competitive with other top-tier max-performance tires from brands like Michelin, Bridgestone, and Continental.

Where the g-Force Rival S truly shines is in its performance-per-dollar ratio. On the track or during spirited street driving, it can keep up with – and in some cases outperform – tires that cost significantly more. Its impressive dry grip, responsive handling, and high limits make it a fantastic choice for enthusiasts on a budget.

Compared to its main rivals like the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S and Continental ExtremeContact Sport, the g-Force Rival S generally undercuts them by $20-$40 per tire. Yet it matches or exceeds their performance in most areas, especially when it comes to outright grip and track capability. For those focused on maximum performance value, it’s hard to beat.

That said, the pricier options do hold some advantages. They tend to offer better treadwear, a quieter and more comfortable ride on the street, and superior wet grip. But for dedicated track use or aggressive street driving in dry conditions, the cost savings of the g-Force Rival S could make it the smarter choice for many driving enthusiasts.

Summary and Recommendations

The BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S is an ultra-high performance summer tire designed for serious driving enthusiasts and track day warriors. This tire delivers exceptional dry grip, precise steering response, and impressive cornering stability at the limit, making it an excellent choice for high-performance vehicles driven in dry conditions.

Pros:

• Outstanding dry traction and cornering grip
• Precise and communicative steering feel
• Excellent high-speed stability and composure
• Durable construction for extended treadlife
• Wide range of sizes for sports cars, muscle cars, and performance sedans

Cons:

• Limited traction in wet conditions
• Increased road noise compared to touring tires
• Relatively short treadwear on the street (designed for track use)
• Stiff sidewall may compromise ride comfort on some vehicles

Overall, the BFGoodrich g-Force Rival S is a purpose-built tire for those who demand the highest levels of dry road and track performance. While it sacrifices some wet traction and ride comfort, it excels in delivering the grip, responsiveness, and durability needed for spirited driving and occasional track days. This tire is best suited for enthusiasts with high-performance sports cars, muscle cars, or performance sedans who prioritize maximum dry road and track capabilities over all-season versatility.