Tyre Recommendation thread

[krogoth]

lol, i got a quote for adrenalines, bridgestone center corner princess hwy and warrigal rd

205 45 17, $330 a corner, lol, told him to get farked

205 45 17 in G3z were more reasonable at $270 a corner

looks like ill be sticking to me a drive r01z for bang for buck and $230 a corner

[petsfact]

anyone try sport maxx? i think they are pretty good.....

[STTICH]

has anyone tried Dunlop Formula FM901? they any good?

[civic_mods]

do dunlop still makes them? but i remember they r on par with bridgestone re711 n there r pretty good tyres

[JohnL]

do dunlop still makes them? but i remember they r on par with bridgestone re711 n there r pretty good tyres

What constitutes a 'good' tyre? Most people are seeming to equate 'good' with how much outright grip they can generate, and then with how much tread life you can get with gobs of grip (i.e. the grip / tread life trade off).

What about steering response? What about good tracking characteristics? What about road 'feel'?

Personally, on a road car I think excellent steering response is more important than near racing levels of grip. I would rarely drive so hard that I'd be testing the limits of a G force monitor, even if I did have semi-slicks (which doesn't mean I drive slowly around corners, just not silly fast). It's agile and responsive handling that makes a road car entertaining to drive, not max G force (IMO). So long as grip is decently OK that is!

[STTICH]

tats true. there's a fine line to wats 'good'. everyone's preferences are different even to the slightest.

to me, wats 'good' is mainly comfort (softer compound) & quietness. reasonable amount of grip will be sufficient for me.

the FM901, im not sure if they're discontinued or not. i hav a pair atm and running them. i dont like it lol, its noisy as hell.

of the fair few tyres i've tried / have. yoko c-drives are best for me.

[DreadAngel]

Comfort-Drives would suit you best Stitch

[aaronng]

RE001 has one peculiar behaviour on my car in the current setup. I have my front toe set at a total of 0.6mm out, to get more steering response but without the tyre wear associated with front toe out. With the Dunlops, I got very sharp response just off centre. With the RE001, it's dead off centre, but once I pass 5 degrees or so, it regains a very sharp response. Almost like it was "lagging". As a result, taking a long smooth slight bend take more concentration as I have to keep the steering wheel on that fine knife edge between "dead tyre" and "biting tyre". Anyone felt that?

[petsfact]

...take more concentration as I have to keep the steering wheel on that fine knife edge between "dead tyre" and "biting tyre". Anyone felt that?

i am not sure is this is what you feel, but i did complain to the tyre place that after fitting re001 i can't seem to keep to a smooth long slightly bend turn. Its always either too less of a turn or too much.

my dunlop was doing better than this although it doesn't grip as better as re001.

One thing i found is after 2000 - 3000kms build on the re001, it seems to be more adaptive to my driving, but when i rotate them that uncertainty feeling when taking the long bend turn is back again.

I also found other funny things with re001, i've got 36psi in all 4 corners, when i drive straight into freeway for work in the morning the steering wheel shudder around 120km/h. But if i drive to coles and maybe other certain places before getting into freeway the steering won't shudder when i get to the same speed. it feels like even the tires need some trips to warm up but i seriously think that's not the case.

[JohnL]

i am not sure is this is what you feel, but i did complain to the tyre place that after fitting re001 i can't seem to keep to a smooth long slightly bend turn. Its always either too less of a turn or too much.

my dunlop was doing better than this although it doesn't grip as better as re001.

One thing i found is after 2000 - 3000kms build on the re001, it seems to be more adaptive to my driving, but when i rotate them that uncertainty feeling when taking the long bend turn is back again.

I also found other funny things with re001, i've got 36psi in all 4 corners, when i drive straight into freeway for work in the morning the steering wheel shudder around 120km/h. But if i drive to coles and maybe other certain places before getting into freeway the steering won't shudder when i get to the same speed. it feels like even the tires need some trips to warm up but i seriously think that's not the case.

Sounds possibly like the sidewalls might be allowing the slip angle to change too much, i.e it might be that the sidewalls are a bit soft? My car behaved in a similar sounding manner in corners, but I managed to cure it (almost!) with tyre pressure changes. Ended up with 38psi front and 45psi rear, sounds weird I know but it works with the tyres I have on my car which are a different brand front / rear. The rears have a very soft single ply sidewall and need higher pressure to keep the sidewalls in shape, the fronts have a stiffer two ply sidewall, and need less pressure (a few psi off these pressures makes a big difference, for the worse).

Have you tried different tyre pressures? What is the max inflation on the sidewall? Try 10% lower than the tyres marked max as a starting point, don't be afraid to experiment up to the max pressure on the sidewall. You need to experiment with tyre pressure. Tyres can be surprisingly sensitive to 'correct' pressure (correct varying from car to car), a few psi can make or break tyre performance.

I don't know why they would settle in and get better other than the full depth tread blocks might be squirming around too much, but less as they wear down. Don't rotate the tyres if it causes a problem!

You drive 120kph on the way to the Supermarket?!

Here's my guess at your shudder (only a guess!):

Sounds like there might be something slightly loose somewhere (worn tie rod end perhaps, or something similar) that is allowing a 'shimmy' to begin (a shimmy being an oscillation of some part associated with steering or suspension). The shimmy may take some time to build up as it may start off as a small thing you can't feel, but is subject to a negative feedback loop.

What I mean is something like; the shimmy is begun by some exitation (e.g. small bump, or possibly a slight wheel imbalance?) but is too small to feel, then the shimmy starts to feedback into itself, i.e. the shimmy itself starts to cause the shimmy and the bigger the shimmy gets the bigger it gets until its staring to become annoying.

On a rougher road it may be that bumps are tending to cancel the shimmy out, i.e. bumps are interupting the negative feedback loop preventing it from becoming noticable. Its noticable on a very smooth road because there are no bumps consequential enough to interupt the feedback loop. Harmonics are probably involved, and be why it might occur at speed X but not speed Y.

This problem may exist with one set of tyres and not another, because the characteristics of one tyre may damp it out whereas the characteristics of different tyre might excacerbate it? Replacing the tyres with different ones may cure it, as may altering tyre pressure, or perhaps a change in toe setting(?). Finding and fixing any loose component may cure it, assuming there actually is a loose component and that it's not just caused by some harmonic characteristic of the tyre itself, which I suppose is not impossible.

Does this make sense?

[aaronng]

i am not sure is this is what you feel, but i did complain to the tyre place that after fitting re001 i can't seem to keep to a smooth long slightly bend turn. Its always either too less of a turn or too much.

That's exactly what I found. I just drove my car up to Sydney and had 10 hours worth of testing that.

I also found other funny things with re001, i've got 36psi in all 4 corners, when i drive straight into freeway for work in the morning the steering wheel shudder around 120km/h. But if i drive to coles and maybe other certain places before getting into freeway the steering won't shudder when i get to the same speed. it feels like even the tires need some trips to warm up but i seriously think that's not the case.

Mine doesn't shudder, but my tyre place placed the tyre orientation so that the ones that required the least weights were on the front.

[JohnL]

RE001 has one peculiar behaviour on my car in the current setup. I have my front toe set at a total of 0.6mm out, to get more steering response but without the tyre wear associated with front toe out. With the Dunlops, I got very sharp response just off centre. With the RE001, it's dead off centre, but once I pass 5 degrees or so, it regains a very sharp response. Almost like it was "lagging". As a result, taking a long smooth slight bend take more concentration as I have to keep the steering wheel on that fine knife edge between "dead tyre" and "biting tyre". Anyone felt that?

I just hate that vagueness near centre. I like to turn the wheel 2° and get a precise response from the car.

What pressures are you running? See my last post. Sounds like soft sidewalls to me, though new tyres do squirm around more on the tread blocks than worn tyres, and this can affect steering response. The softer the sidewall the higher the psi must be for decent steering response. Have you increased tread width without also increasing rim width?