Tyres discussion

Just interested in a discussion re the often sensitive subject of tyres.

What do you think of the following ideas for a stock powered, so relatively benign auto TT.

using the same width tyres front and rear, say 245's, will it reduce understeer bias with little other effect?

Would you use mid priced brands or lower if they received, for example, an EU tyre 'A' (the top) rating for wet weather and grip?

I have always run budget tyres on both N/As and this TT I have also had various Premium brands and IMO it's entirely down to how you intend to drive the car in my case an odd straight line squirt of power.

Budgets/Nankang NS2 sports etc are fine for the above purpose and I have never had a scary moment on them.

If

You like driving the car hard all the time or as a daily in rain your probably better with premium brands.

I have only ever used 235/45/17 -- 255/40/17 and 235/40/18 -- 255/35/18

I wouldn't hesitate to stick Budgets on a stock TT.

It depends, most of the mid-market tyres are good: Avon, Hankook, Falken, Kumho etc. I doubt they'd be a problem unless you were ragging the arse off it everywhere in challenging conditions. I've had problems with Nexen (N6000?) tyres spinning up badly in the wet, that was at BPU with stock sizes. Running Eagle F1s now because I can get them for ~£130 a rear fitted.

Personally I don't see the point in a Linglong/Wanli/etc tyre, I'd rather spend the extra £200ish and be happy the tyre was half decent.

I run hankook v12's. For a reasonable priced tyre I'm very happy with them. I used them on a trackdays recently and the grip level in the dry was brilliant. Not bad in the wet either.

It depends, most of the mid-market tyres are good: Avon, Hankook, Falken, Kumho etc. I doubt they'd be a problem unless you were ragging the arse off it everywhere in challenging conditions. I've had problems with Nexen (N6000?) tyres spinning up badly in the wet, that was at BPU with stock sizes. Running Eagle F1s now because I can get them for ~£130 a rear fitted.

 

Personally I don't see the point in a Linglong/Wanli/etc tyre, I'd rather spend the extra £200ish and be happy the tyre was half decent.

Me love Linglong long time

these are the ones I'm considering

http://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?dsco=110&cart_id=74441133.110.12855&sowigan=So&Breite=245&Quer=45&Felge=16&Speed=W&kategorie=6&Marke=Nankang&ranzahl=4&tyre_for=&x_tyre_for=&Herst=Nankang&m_s=3&Ang_pro_Seite=5&sort_by=brand&rsmFahrzeugart=PKW&Label=E-A-71-2&details=Ordern&typ=R-299675

I too think it's about driving to the limits whatever the tyres. Saying that I had some used alloys with 'star performers' on once and they were an absolute liability as soon as it got damp.

Nankang usually do decent tyres for the dry but they are crap in the wet IF you drive quickly

I'm running Toyo T1Sports (not to be confused with T1S).

They offer excellent dry weather grip, great wet weather grip and aren't too noisy.

Like all Toyo's, they are a little soft, but then again they're not particularly expensive.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Nankang/AS2.htm - It's not the newer version of the tyre, but you can see the difference in opinion between two cars of different performance brackets. One in a Focus ST, one in a vanilla Mondeo, the ST rated them as very poor under hard braking (snaking and having to countersteer), the Mondeo thought they were fine. The ST drove as normal on them and was surprised they didn't behave like a premium tyre...

Probably fine if you're gentle on them.

Nankang usually do decent tyres for the dry but they are crap in the wet IF you drive quickly

That's kind of what i think about most budget tyres, I was just lured by the fact these get a A rating for the wet, and this is a controlled test were the rating is comparable across brands,

I would take the ratings on budget tyres with a pinch of salt.

I work in the tyre trade, and have been reliably informed there is skulduggery afoot.

Better to listen to the opinions of those who have used them.

I had Nankang's on my Na when I bought it and they were shockingly bad imo the car felt terrible, I then moved to Avon ZZ3's and thought they were good for the price, think I then went to ZV5's from memory an they were not as good imo.

Since then I went on the Falkens 453's and 452's, these wheels have since gone onto my BPU TT, and they still hold up well in all conditions but I have lit the rears up when hitting second turbo in the rain. But im happy with them and will consider them again for sure.

Would say though that a good geo has had just as much of an effect on the way the car handles though.

Like others have said, all depends how you drive.

I do get confused by people spending crazy money on mods and then asking whats the best budget tire, for me they are the most important part, its what connects you to the road

Historically I used Eagle F1s GSD3 on a BPU TT, on the NA it was Falken 452 I found them to be very predictable, even on track and also stuck them on a single for a trackday, made for an interesting day out but was great fun. For a single supra I like R888 but once they been through the heat cycles they go off very quickly, fresh set on track and up to temp they are pretty damn good, with standing water they are deadly.

Recently been using Mich PS2 and found them to have great grip, the P-Zero I ran for a short period made the car feel like it was floating and didnt install confidence at all, hence only running for a short while.

In a crazy moment I did once try running a 272 rear on a budget tire with F1 up front, big mistake, the backend was all over the place

When I got mine it had odd tyres all round, stuck Avon zz3's on the front, they're still on. Unfortunately it had a new accelera PHI on the back so I thought I'd try the same on the other side, rather than wasting it. They're a disaster in the wet, unpredicatable and downright ditch finders. Goodyear F1's Assy 2 going on the back.

I'll have a think!

Right now I have 245/45/17 Avon winter tyres all round on stock 17's. I got them barely used from a guy who had a jag and wanted to make the supra light/medium snow proof, not that we ended up getting any, but they've been fine through winter. So as I consider getting them off and saving them for next winter I'm just weighing up options.

I could just leave them on and see how bad they get in the warmer weather or I might go the complete other way and get some real sticky / low tread pattern ones, but I know these are far from ideal once you get some standing water.

If you're keeping the winters, then get a set of Goodyear F1 assy 3, or Michelin PS3's, use em for 6/7 months then swap back to winter tyres, you've got pretty good tyres then for both parts of the year, everyones a winner.

What is the score with using winter tyres in the summer? What effect does the higher temperatures/dryer conditions have?

What are single turbo guys using for road use? Ive got 19s on presently , thinking of getting some 15s for the drag strip with drag radials

Re winters I think if you pushed on they'd get squirmy quickly and the wear rate would I think be very bad. I think where they potentially reduce braking distance in the cold compared to even premium summer tyres they'd start losing out from 6-8 degrees on.

Years ago I had eagle f1's with the v pattern, great on the road but on a track day at brands they got slightly over heated and squirmy you just noticed the grip steering response had dropped off. I suspect the winters on a 20+ degree c day would get like that in enthusiastic road driving, especially in a car that had the power to spin them up a bit, so you could ruin them pretty quickly.

Re winters I think if you pushed on they'd get squirmy quickly and the wear rate would I think be very bad. I think where they potentially reduce braking distance in the cold compared to even premium summer tyres they'd start losing out from 6-8 degrees on.

 

Years ago I had eagle f1's with the v pattern, great on the road but on a track day at brands they got slightly over heated and squirmy you just noticed the grip steering response had dropped off. I suspect the winters on a 20+ degree c day would get like that in enthusiastic road driving, especially in a car that had the power to spin them up a bit, so you could ruin them pretty quickly.

OK thanks, reason I asked is that Tyre Leader always have cheap winter tyres this time of year.