I figured I would do a little writeup to condense the years of research I've done on tires. This is by no means a "to live by" post but it's my personal experience. I'm mainly concentrating on summer performance tires.

Before I start with the long winded post I recommend visiting this site (Car Bibles : The Wheel and Tyre Bible Page 1 of 2) if you want to learn anything about tires. This has got to be the most comprehensive tire info I've ever seen.

I give the same advice to everyone. There is absolutely no reason why you need to stick to top brand name tire manufacturers when looking for a summer performance tire. My tire guy told me that a few years back a law was passed stating that any tire technology that is related to safety has to be made public for all manufacturers to use. What this does is give the cheaper tire brands a chance to make a comparable tire at 1/3 the price. I am currently running Kumho Ecsta SPT's and they're great. I did a track day with them and the held on even around the tightest of turns.

The best summer street tires on the market right now from reviews I've read are probably Michellin PS2's, but in my size (245/35/19) they're $500 a tire. My kumho's would do 98% of what the michellins do but for half the price, and that's only at the track. On the street they are similar. That being said I'd rather try the cheaper tire as I spend 99% of my time on the street.

As far as recommendations go, I've heard great things about the following tires:

General Exclaim UHP: Many people have tried them and love them.


Kumho Ecsta SPT's: I have them on my car and they have been great in dry and wet. They don't wear too fast and they're pretty quiet.


BFG KDW2's: My dad has these on his M3 and they're awesome especially on a car that loves to break tires loose. If you warm them up enough they actually get road debris to stick to them like race tires. These have to be the sexiest tread pattern ever!!!


Falken FK452's: My buddy's running these on his Nissan 240SX and he loves them. A ton of research has gone into this tire and from what I've heard is that it shows.


Toyo T1R: Many people love these tires as they look cool and drive really well.


I am not trying to put down any of the following manufacturers but the following section is basically what's I've read and heard over the past few years:

- I would stay away from Pirelli tires as they tend to wear out very quickly. I had a set of pirelli's on my dad's old BMW 535 and they were gone within a couple of years.

- The same applies to some of the Bridgestone models like the RE050's. They are very soft and grip well but they'll be gone before your next oil change.

- I've heard people getting sidewall bubbles on their Goodyear GSD3's.

- Stay away from Dunlop Sport Maxx and Sport 9000's as I've read Audi owners complain that they wear prematurely. I have personally tried the Sport 9000's and they didn't impress me for the price.

NOTE: With Winter Tires you get what you pay for. The more recognized manufacturers do make some of the better winter tires. I'm running Viking SnowTech's (basically a continental spin off brand) and they're great. My brother is using Gislaved Nordfrost's on his RWD BMW 325i and he can get through anything. A performance winter tire that's been recommended to me over and over again is the Dunlop Winter Sport M3. They are the closest thing to summer performance but made for use in the winter.


- Mike

 

Mike, Nice write up ...but I dont agree with the Pirelli review LoL cool Icons anyways I have two sets of Pirellis They are pretty good I have the SottoZero winters...and for me its like glue on ice Love them. Also have the P6 allseasons like them too....Also have the Toyo ones in your thread now those grip like crazy

 

Everyone will have their own opinions about tires as what may be a good tire to you may not be so good to me. I've driven on at least 30 sets of different high performance rubber since I started driving all on various different types of cars. My uncle has Pirelli P6's on his Volvo and he says that at first they were great but now that they're almost worn they make a ton of noise, and he doesn't drive aggresively at all. Winter tires are a different story. I think the brand names make very good winter tires.

 

Thanks MAlby7 !

Great information in the link.
Got a set of used rims w/ shot tires. So ordered tires ( 225/35/r19) at tirerack and the guy said it was unsafe, load indice was too low. Recommended 235/35/r19.

 

For what it's worth I have experience with the Goodyear F1 GSD3's. Crazy grip both dry and wet conditions, and they wore quite well. Overall I was very happy with them. My only complaint was while they were quiet when new, each season they became more and more noisy with wear, even though they were rotated regularly. I got about 60,000km's out of them on my previous car, a chipped Jetta 1.8T.

 

The P6's are very nice but mucho $$$

Great write up, and great link to the tire bible.

 

It is true that tire opinions vary, as well do driving styles.
The General UHP's, in my opinion are horrible, but they are really cheap so if you're looking for a decent looking tire, and don't really care about handling I'd get a set. After seeing the price, I purchased a set and found that in summer, my winter tires are on par with them for handling.
My fav tire has been the Dunlop 8000 (a few years ago) for aggressive driving, then the Yoko AVS 100's although they didn't last long at all.

 

Hey all,
Have any of you dealt with 1010TIRES.COM? Just wondering 'cause so far, they're the cheapest place to get a set of winters...I was looking at the Michelin PA3, Dunlop 3D, and Pirelli Sottozero Serie II...

Thanks for your input!!!

 

1010tires.com is awesome. They have 2 store fronts here in vancouver. I've dealt with them directly and through the internet before and they are both good.

If you are looking for tires only there's another one call tiretrend.com, they are in maple ridge which is not far from vancouver. Very good also. Got my general exclaim uhp through them.

 

Appreciate the time ya put in to write that up... well done. im looking for a set of good summer rubber for a set of rims im going to buy. Hankook Ventus V12 evo K110 those are the ones im looking at right now... good price and seem to be rated really good too.

just need to find a place around here that has some good deals on them