Tires??

[Mr. Burns]

Re: Tires??

All I can say is don't waste your time/money on Yokohama Parada Spec2's.

Loudest. Tire. Ever.

[R_Ethug]

Re: Tires??

yea i really dig my fuzion zri's

[James]

Re: Tires??

ya, but you also were diggin' on those Khumo 712's, were you not?

[R_Ethug]

Re: Tires??

yea for the first 10000km on them then they got noisy but they still gripped good and were fine in the rain for me but i guess i drive like a pussy.

[Tuna]

Re: Tires??

ya, but you also were diggin' on those Khumo 712's, were you not?

I hate those 712's, so ugly, and EVERYONE bought them cause they were the cheapest "performance" tire you could buy. I think I tried to talk Ryan out of getting them at the time.

I really like my yoko's but they are discontinued now. I was going to ask about the Parada's but I guess mike hates them. My yokos are a bit loud but they are wicked, where they really shine is in the wet. I have the A520's and I think the replacement for them is es 100's or something like that.

I've also had the FM901's on my subie, I really liked them too, they performed really good for how cheap they were, and they were pretty sticky if I remember correctly. I didn't have mine for that long but I seem to remember bart having his for quite a while. I don't think you can go wrong with those.

[tirebob]

Re: Tires??

There are a lot of tires that are good, and actually all tires are good depending on what you want. You are always going to find some guys that love a tire, and others that hate it. This is really more to do with buying the wrong tires for the application you need.

Take Kumho's for example... Someone in this thread said "Kumho's suck and they are no good in the rain". Well that is a pretty general statement that isn't true of every model Kumho Makes. That is like someone who drives an old Chevette and says that all Chevy's are little S#it boxes and have no performance, forgetting that Chevy also makes Corvettes etc.

Sure the 711's, and even the 712's, were made to be inexpensive performance oriented tires for the budget conscious driver that doesn't want tires to pretend they are Mario Andretti, but for the student who just uses his car for transportation, and realistically just drives normal but likes to be able to play a bit when he wants to,and needs to get by for a couple of years till he is outta school and can afford a wicked set of tires, then these tires are excellent and make perfect sense.

But then you get someone who expects a tire to stick like glue in every situation, doesn't care what it costs, and doesn't care that it doesn't have to last a longer time, then there are definitely a lot better choices. Take the Kumho Ecsta MX. This tire provides wicked levels of sport traction, and I have many Bridgestone SO3 customers that have switched over to these are are amazed with their abilities, but they also wear out faster. These tires are awesome, and still made by Kumho.

Take the Kumho Ecsta ASX. These are a super quiet performance touring tire. They aren't made to be autocross tires, but they sure do well on Luxury performance sedans that roll fast, but aren't driven aggessively.

My point being, don't get hung up on a particular brand, because these exact scenarios play out with EVERY SINGLE MANUFACTURER. Just make sure you buy the appropriate MODEL of tire that has the most properties that suit your needs for the best value you can afford...

Everyone is going to have an opinion, and while they are all valid for their own individual scenarios, they may not necessarly apply to what you need. Contrary to what many people think, they don't have enough seat time on all the different models, nor do they get enough feedback from everyday users to make a completely educated decision on what may be best for you.

I am not trying to make myself seem like I am the only voice for you to listen too, but when you spend every working day for the last 18 years in the aftermarket performance tire and wheel expert, you get a massive amount of feedback from every different type of user and driver out there, and my best advice is that you need to find someone who can give you some honest and comprehensive evaluations of different tires and their respective abilities if you want to be certain you are getting what is best for you specifically. Combine this with some online research of the different companies that offer extensive customer evaluations and you can usually end up totally satisfied with your tire purchase...

[James]

Re: Tires??

haha I was waiting for you to chime in here Bob! It was me who said "khumos suck in the rain" and you're right, that was generalized.

Khumo 712's suck donkey balls when its wet. And they're noisy.

Bob - you mind commenting on what you've heard about the:

Toyo FZ4
Falken 451
and
Dunlop FM901's?

AFAIK, the fz4's are all seasons, which is a bonus to my concerns about a tire preforming in the rain but im not 100% sold on the all season.

[uv23]

Re: Tires??

FZ4s are an old ass tire. There's much better out there now. The best source for tire comparos is tirerack.com. They have a huge section on high performance tires with ratings, reviews, etc etc in varying conditions.

[James]

Re: Tires??

Whats wrong with the FZ4? Its not a front runner (im liking those M&S' if I go for an all season) but it seems like a good tire

[tirebob]

Re: Tires??

haha I was waiting for you to chime in here Bob! It was me who said "khumos suck in the rain" and you're right, that was generalized.

Khumo 712's suck donkey balls when its wet. And they're noisy.

Bob - you mind commenting on what you've heard about the:

Toyo FZ4
Falken 451
and
Dunlop FM901's?

AFAIK, the fz4's are all seasons, which is a bonus to my concerns about a tire preforming in the rain but im not 100% sold on the all season.

Ahahahhahaa! I was trying to word things so it didn't seem like I was preachy or anything, but sometimes that doesn't come across... lol!

The FZ4 is an old tire and quite frankly, it is one of the tires that I have the most complaints about in regards to wet traction (even more so than the 712's). If you are considering a Toyo for a combination of wet and dry performance, the new Proxes 4 is way better than the old FZ4.

Now since we are talking about wet traction, something I didn't touch on is tire age. A lot of the time, with these older models of tires, some of them may actually be older production, so this may be a bit of a contributing factor to the tires wet performance as when rubber gets older, it does harden up and lose pliability. This may not have been the case in your Kumho experience, but it isn't as uncommon as one might think. It's funny because I have many guys who rave about the Kumho 712 as being an amazing tire in the wet, while others will definitely complain. It just shows you that everyones level of satisfaction varies with their demands on a product...

The FK451 has always been a popular tire with people looking for a good combination of dry and wet performance, but as always, there are people who don't like them and who love them. If I had to asign the most common complaint I get about these (and not that it is a huge issue or anything), it would be that they are a fairly stiff tire, so ride quality is a bit less. This is good for some as they prefer a stiff tire for steering response, but others don't like that aspect...

The FM901 get mixed reviews from my customers. Reason being it is pretty specific in it's abilities, and is not really accomadating to the masses. For somebody looking for a tire with great dry adhesion, and even wet roads, it does well, but they do wear quite fast compared to many Z rated tires (only a 200 treadwear rating) and while they do well on a wet road, they don't handle hydroplanning resistance as well. I would also say that a main point of contention with many users is that the tire has poor turn in. The sidewall are surprisingly soft for a tire that has so much traction. Again, this is good for some people, but for someone who likes a tire that responds to steering input in an instant, I do get comments about this.

Again, with all these tires there are users who do not experience all these points, but in general, this is where most of the comments come from...

[bart]

Re: Tires??

i had the fm901's first, then kumho 711's, ya funny i know. the dunlops were better in every way, a little more, better grip, lasted way longer, only got 1 season out of 711's, 2 on dunlops, and really great in wet autox.

[Kor]

Re: Tires??

You are wise in your tire reviews, we appreciate the time it takes to post reviews for so many tires!

What are some of your favourite tires?

[Mr. Burns]

Re: Tires??

i had the fm901's first, then kumho 711's, ya funny i know. the dunlops were better in every way, a little more, better grip, lasted way longer, only got 1 season out of 711's, 2 on dunlops, and really great in wet autox.

What were the Dunlops like for noise? On tirerack.com they have approximately the same noise rating as my Yoko. Parada Spec2's and they are freakin' noisy!

[Boy Racer]

Re: Tires??

Well, you may not have too many reviews of the Kumho SPT tires as they are really new but I am loving them so far. They are designed to be much quieter than the 712s, look a lot better too. Once you get some heat into them, they run some pretty quick times. I ran the south end of the road course a couple of weeks ago and was a second off a fully prepped talon on R compounds that runs pretty close to me when I am on R's.
Dry and wet grip is up there with the best, not the greatest though against deep standing water due to the 3 unbroken centre bands of tread (T1S, S02/3, KDW would be better). Wear seems to be a huge improvement over my Toyo T1S and I would say is looking to be really good for a tire with this much performance. Sidewall stiffness is just the right blend, I dont get bad rollover on fair pressures on the track, turn in is good but they do not send too much road unpleasantries through to the car (like some yoko's I have tried).

They do squeal a bit on the street as the slip angles build (I prefer the more silent sliders )

[bart]

Re: Tires??

What were the Dunlops like for noise? On tirerack.com they have approximately the same noise rating as my Yoko. Parada Spec2's and they are freakin' noisy!

they were all always squealing, sometimes even melting, not sure why, maybe the pavement got really hot on sunny days