I spent all yesterday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California trying BFG’s newest Ultra High Performance tire, the g-Force Sport Comp-2. The day was divided into four activities: dry skidpad, wet skidpad, 0-60-0 and then some open road course stuff. Cars? How about 392 Challengers, STIs, GTIs, Camaros, and the new Boss Mustang. It was epic. Continue reading after the jump!

We were divided into four groups of ten. My little group included some old friends: Matt Farah from The Smoking Tire, Chad Reynolds from Bangshift, Joe Gearin from Grassroots Motorsports and Antonio Alvendia from Motor Mavens. Pretty awesome group!

The basic concept throughout the day was this: we’d drive a car with the BFGs, and then immediately afterwards we’d drive the same car on the same course with the same level of aggression, but this time with the competitor’s tires. As you might imagine, the BFG’s came out on top in every activity. Now, I don’t know a whole lot about tires, but after talking to some of the more knowledgeable guys in my group, it became clear that BFG hadn’t totally stacked the deck in their favor, and that they really did have a pretty cool new product. The new tires will be available to purchase starting April 1 in 45 sizes ranging from 15 to 20 in wheels. BFG claims the tire is 30% better in the wet and 8% better in the dry than the tire it replaces. And yes, full disclosure: BFG flew me out and paid all my expenses. Anyway, back to our story...

The dry skidpad was a hoot, especially in the 392 Challenger. Watching Joe Gearin hustle the big Mopar around the cones was hilarious. I think I may be a convert to autocross and can’t wait to take my new Mustang out to the autocross series in Bremerton. In this first exercise, the BFGs displayed a lot more lateral control and were much more confidence inspiring when compared to the other tires.

Next up was wet Autocross. This time we were in the little GTI. I’ve never been a fan of FWD cars, never owned one, just does not really compute with my brain, but I was super-impressed with the GTI on the course. What a fun, balanced little car. And the new BFGs really shone in the wet. Very grippy.

After lunch we hit the 0-60-0 in the 392 Challengers. The basic idea was launch it to 60, then mash the brakes. Just about everyone in my group saw a difference of 6 to 7 feet. Somehow or another I had the worst and best distance of my group, so I saw a difference of a whopping 13 feet! That’s one whole econobox.

Finally we got the chance to get out on the road course. Now, I’d heard that taller guys can’t wear helmets in Camaros. Well I’m here to report that this is true. I’m 5’ 11” and had to hold my head sideways while driving. It sucked. Also, the Camaros were all automatics, which was kind of weird, but BFG is going to be running them with a whole wide range of consumers in the coming months, and they didn't want to exclude people who don't know how to drive a manual transmission. In any case, the road course was a total blast, and to me it showed the biggest difference in the tires. After getting pretty confident on the course with the BFGs, I went out with some other tires and scared the crap out of myself coming out of one apex.

Next we got to ride with some of the pro drivers, to see just how hard you could push these tires on the track. BFG wasn’t letting anyone drive the Mustang but I got a ride in one and let me say that the Boss is one killer track machine. Total M3 killer for a lot less $$$.

Last but not least we got to have a little relay race against the other teams. It was back to the wet skidpad with the GTIs, but the BFG guys had changed the course, making it a bit longer. Drivers would be penalized for hitting cones (2 seconds) or failing to stop in the stop box (5 seconds). With Joe, Matt and Chad on my team, I was feeling pretty confident about our chances, but knew a lot of it would come down to the driver transfers--just getting into the car and putting on your seat belt could cost your precious seconds. A teammate before me missed the stop box and one other teammate hit a cone, but otherwise we ran a clean laps and Joe and Matt’s runs looked very strong. And when it came down to it, our team won--and Matt had the fastest time of the day, scoring him a set of the new BFGs. Nice work Matt!

So to sum it up: I had a total blast. I’ve been invited to do some cool stuff over the years with this job but this was one of the most fun and educational. And BFG definitely has a great product--a tire you can drive on the street and take to the track. And it works great in the wet, too. Honestly, the new G-Force Sport Comp-2s will probably be my top pick for the Mustang when I wear out the Toyos I have now.