Grip vs handling

[BMWWW]

Oh mother...

A poor handling car will not handle better by sticky tires alone, it might have more grip, but it will still suck.
My street Sentra feels very similar whether I have my summer tires or My R compounds on, just the limit is much higher.
Higher cornering speeds is not handling, the balance and ride of the car is handling. You will get higher cornering speeds out of a car on the same tires once it is balanced properly, then adding R’s will up it again, conversly you can have a slow car on R compounds if it is not balanced properly Eg. The last time I was at Dunnville. I was catching and passing in order, a Camaro SS on streets, a stock WRX on R compounds and an ITR with adjustable shocks on streets. In theory those cars should be out of the reach of my 2.0L Sentra. But I have Adjustable Koni’s, a Nismo rear bar and Toyo Ra1’s on Team Dynamic Pro Race 15X7" rims and it has been tested and adjusted on the track. With this set up I was 3 sec a lap faster on the Dunnville course than with stock suspension (no engine mods) and the same tires…the exact same tires, in fact they were a year older and still 3 sec of a lap faster.
The Camaro just couldn’t hang with me in the corners and couldn’t use his HP enough to get away from me, he pointed me by pretty quickly, the WRX was driven by another AutoXer, but was on stock suspension, again the HP and stick tires were not enough, and I’m not sure what the Type R was doing but I Lapped him, he started out right behind me in the session and 6 laps later I was on him. The tires and suspension made the difference with the Camaro, the suspension alone with the WRX, and probably the driver with the Type R
Basically your buddy is right (sorry) R compounds will make you faster, but you will probably still suck if your suspension is not up to it:D

Cliff Notes:

Basically, when you add R-comps without modifying the suspension geometry/tuning, a car will exhibit a lot more body roll-- whatever you call it (handling, balance ect), the balance won’t be there, and probably result in unsatisfactory results.