yes. honestly the R6 is sort of a "bastard" tire. in reality, it doesn't really last that much longer than the A6, and the A6 is significantly faster. if just doing DE stuff, I'd run a 710 or a C71 or C51 (I will say I don't have any direct experience with the C51) or nitto RII. when you are paying for your own tires and not after every last second, it's a different ball game.
The C91 is *the* time trial tire. It is faster than the A6 and lasts much longer. If Hankook offered a tire contingency program like Hoosier within NASA, it would be a heck of a tire war. The Hoosier contigency is so good though, the A6 is really the defacto TT tire (and race tire for that matter).
The SHO is going to narl up front tires pretty bad anyway, I'm not sure anybody really makes a R comp for the SHO that will "last"
I have a set of 275 C91's in the basement that just got sold
Maybe there's some environmental dependence, but hardly anybody here (in TT or race) runs Hankooks for some reason. Several do, but these days there's mostly a mix of Hoosiers (for the contingency), Nitto NT-01s (because they're cheap and they last a long time and they're decent), and non-DOTs. The non-DOTs are sort of getting popular with the $$ crowd because they're just so blisteringly fast if you can afford them.
The Hoosiers used to be the go-to tire here and nearly anybody who was competitive was on them. Since the contingency program got a little less generous more people have moved to the Nittos just for budget reasons.
If the OP just wants a good R-comp for DE days, Time Attack, maybe some TT sessions, etc., the Nittos are not a bad choice for bang for the buck. Some of the low treadwear street tires are getting attractive, too, like the Star Specs, RS-3s, etc., etc.
The tire landscape is constantly changing and it's sometimes hard to keep up with where the tides are flowing.
FWIW, I'd get around 14-18 heat cycles out of a set of Hoosiers on the Pumpkin before they'd cord the edges. Usually there was still decent tread left in the middle and if I'd flipped them on the rims they'd probably have lasted a bit longer. I had what is evidently unusual experience in that they'd be fast for about 5-6 heat cycles, drop off for a while, and then come back at about 14 heat cycles and be fast again (just before I corded an edge). I had a fastest personal lap at Nationals and set a local track record on two different sets of R6s that had 15 and 14 heat cycles, respectively.
I just said that to say that it seems like people's experiences with Hoosiers depend a lot on how they're used. They're sensitive to how they're driven, stored, heat cycled, etc., etc., apparently more so than many others. Nittos and Toyos are tough, you can abuse the crap out of them and they're always very predictable.
but I wanna feel how fast my car could very with a more experienced driver, especially at VIR.
