Tyres

[MACK]

This arguement is as old as the hills on many car forums. I've kinda come to the conclusion thats it a bit like having a slippy diff. Until you've tried a car back to back with and without one you just won't get it. Over the years I've driven many cars that are the same model on a variety of different tyres and there is a big difference. For me the economy stuff is just terrible, even dangerous in some cases. The mid range stuff is much much better and miles above the economy stuff. The high end stuff is usually a step up again over the mid range and my choice on every vehicle I personally own. But it does have to be said the premium stuff isn't night and day compared to the mid range and in some cases a good mid can match if not out perform a poor premium. This seems to be the case with some of the veds for example.

I usually plum for Michelin or Goodyears as a general rule as both have been consistently good for decades now. Subjectively I've always felt the Goodyears F1 has offered slightly better ride quality than the Michelin PS competition over the years at the expensive of outright handling response/feedback. Hence why Goodyear are now expanding the F1 range to cover more bases with tailored options.

 

[jack07]

Hi,just to give some more info,When I found my E86
She was wearing a set of Firestone Firehawk's.Plenty of tread all round,but short lived,so bought the best I could afford at the time,Dunlop sport max.Car was transformed into what I had hoped for :evil: Proper level of grip,turn in,feel,traction and braking all fantastic.
They were so good,I went through a second set.They both would have lasted around 18,000 miles of firm,fast driving.I am not a boy racer from the lights,but like an open road .A nasty puncture left me needing roadside replacement and had pirelli p zeros on the front,which seemed fine with the remaining Dunlop's on the back,but when I succumbed to a deal on more pirellis for the rear I thought,OK a matching set,fine.Nothinh wrong with them,but boy do I miss the grip!

 

[Nictrix]

I have never had cheap tyres on any of my bikes and only once did I put cheap tyres on my car.
It was a Honda Accord and I was skint. Mot time and needed tyres. The garage found these tyres and fully fitted cost me under £60 for the 4.
Every roundabout with a small amount of persuasion the front could be made to let go even in the dry.
By the time these were put on the car it was only being used a few miles a day so just left them on.
I have no idea what they were made of but they also didn't seem to wear out.

 

[True-Blue]

Even if you don’t like to ‘press on’.... you might still need to make an emergency stop.

Braking distance can be massively different between a decent mid-range tyre and a cheap crappy one.

A good tyre can be the difference between hitting a child that runs out into the road ..or not, especially if it’s raining!

 

[mmm-five]

I've had plenty, from Accelera Phi, Maxxis, and Interstate all the way through P-Zeros, PS2s, Supersports, SportContacts, etc. to Pirelli P-Zero Corsa, Michelin Cup, Toyo R888, and Silverstone S585 track tyres.

I've never been off the road due to them, or killed someone to death on them, but then 8/10ths is plenty for the public road (and I'm sure people who've seen my driving at 8/10ths in Wales/Scotland, would prefer I kept it to 8/10ths ).

I would say though that some of the 'premium' tyres - especially the older models (e.g. Continental M3, SportContact 2, Yokohama AVS-Sports, Goodyear F1 Eagle gen 1) are worse than a lot of the new mid-range tyres from Hankook, Kumho, Falken, Cooper, Nokian, Kleber, Maxxis.

They won't necessarily have the budgets to spend on as much R&D as the big names, but then they can pass on that saving to the customer.

Sometimes it's a false economy to save £10/corner and go for a tyre that is soft but grips well as it may last half as long.

However, unless someone has tested every tyre available on every car available, using every conceivable driving style, then I can't see how anybody can claim anything other than 'this tyre suits me, my car, my budget and my driving style'.

On an expensive car (to buy/run) then I'd expect 'decent' tyres...being mid-range or above, as if you can't afford the extra £50-£100/year on a set of tyres, you're unlikely to have bothered fixing those little MOT advisories, or done interim servicing.

 

[Jl-c]

I've had plenty, from Accelera Phi, Maxxis, and Interstate all the way through P-Zeros, PS2s, Supersports, SportContacts, etc. to Pirelli P-Zero Corsa, Michelin Cup, Toyo R888, and Silverstone S585 track tyres.

I've never been off the road due to them, or killed someone to death on them, but then 8/10ths is plenty for the public road (and I'm sure people who've seen my driving at 8/10ths in Wales/Scotland, would prefer I kept it to 8/10ths ).

I would say though that some of the 'premium' tyres - especially the older models (e.g. Continental M3, SportContact 2, Yokohama AVS-Sports, Goodyear F1 Eagle gen 1) are worse than a lot of the new mid-range tyres from Hankook, Kumho, Falken, Cooper, Nokian, Kleber, Maxxis.

They won't necessarily have the budgets to spend on as much R&D as the big names, but then they can pass on that saving to the customer.

Sometimes it's a false economy to save £10/corner and go for a tyre that is soft but grips well as it may last half as long.

However, unless someone has tested every tyre available on every car available, using every conceivable driving style, then I can't see how anybody can claim anything other than 'this tyre suits me, my car, my budget and my driving style'.

On an expensive car (to buy/run) then I'd expect 'decent' tyres...being mid-range or above, as if you can't afford the extra £50-£100/year on a set of tyres, you're unlikely to have bothered fixing those little MOT advisories, or done interim servicing.

sounds like a huge dose of common sense to me, well done that man.

 

[MattZCars]

This arguement is as old as the hills on many car forums. I've kinda come to the conclusion thats it a bit like having a slippy diff. Until you've tried a car back to back with and without one you just won't get it. Over the years I've driven many cars that are the same model on a variety of different tyres and there is a big difference. For me the economy stuff is just terrible, even dangerous in some cases. The mid range stuff is much much better and miles above the economy stuff. The high end stuff is usually a step up again over the mid range and my choice on every vehicle I personally own. But it does have to be said the premium stuff isn't night and day compared to the mid range and in some cases a good mid can match if not out perform a poor premium. This seems to be the case with some of the veds for example.

I usually plum for Michelin or Goodyears as a general rule as both have been consistently good for decades now. Subjectively I've always felt the Goodyears F1 has offered slightly better ride quality than the Michelin PS competition over the years at the expensive of outright handling response/feedback. Hence why Goodyear are now expanding the F1 range to cover more bases with tailored options.

+1

What I also firmly believe with better words

 

[IRD]

Had some budget tyres on my E85 when I bought it. They were terrible.then I read the reviews and frightened myself to death. Reading about people losing control and going off the road. I bought some Goodyear’s and found them to be very good. This time, on my E89 I have had some 19inch Michelin Sport 4 s’s fitted. I got all four fitted and balanced for £550 and so far I am very pleased with them. Although it is early days yet. I haven’t yet had a chance to drive on motorways or at much over 60 mph. Bearing in mind, as others have said, your tyres are your only contact between the car and the road. It really isn’t worth gambling. Mr W has a lot of experience of tyres suitable for Z4’s so I would be guided by what he says.

 

[BMW Z4 2.5I SE 2004]

Wow guys thanks for all the replies, well i was advised the absolute best tyres for a bmw z4 E85 would be the vreds ultrack vorti so ive went with them, are those the best or has anyone had these and had something else they felt was better

 

[mr wilks]

Wow guys thanks for all the replies, well i was advised the absolute best tyres for a bmw z4 E85 would be the vreds ultrack vorti so ive went with them, are those the best or has anyone had these and had something else they felt was better

Its not that the Vorti are the absolute best for a Z4 , its the simple fact that for 99% of users 99% of the time for the money they will more than exceed the capability of car & driver .
You can of course spend more (much more ) but in real world use what are you going to gain ?
There are other alternative tyres that will also be more than capable but imo Vred Vorti offer the best of all worlds for least expenditure .
Uniroyal RS3 were a bargain tyre when launched but now prices have crept the party has been somewhat spoilt , Hankook , Avon , Fulda , Kumho , Falken etc have gone similar way though , all very capable but prices now very close to slightly better tyres ( Conti6 ,new Pzero & Vredestein ? The 2 tyres that appear to be distanced over price alone are Goodyear F1 3/5 & Michelin PS4 where the question has to be asked again :wink: are they that better the average user will notice for the considerably bigger spend

 

[BMW Z4 2.5I SE 2004]

Wow guys thanks for all the replies, well i was advised the absolute best tyres for a bmw z4 E85 would be the vreds ultrack vorti so ive went with them, are those the best or has anyone had these and had something else they felt was better

Its not that the Vorti are the absolute best for a Z4 , its the simple fact that for 99% of users 99% of the time for the money they will more than exceed the capability of car & driver .
You can of course spend more (much more ) but in real world use what are you going to gain ?
There are other alternative tyres that will also be more than capable but imo Vred Vorti offer the best of all worlds for least expenditure .
Uniroyal RS3 were a bargain tyre when launched but now prices have crept the party has been somewhat spoilt , Hankook , Avon , Fulda , Kumho , Falken etc have gone similar way though , all very capable but prices now very close to slightly better tyres ( Conti6 ,new Pzero & Vredestein ? The 2 tyres that appear to be distanced over price alone are Goodyear F1 3/5 & Michelin PS4 where the question has to be asked again :wink: are they that better the average user will notice for the considerably bigger spend

Ahh rightt ha thanks andy i was hoping you would put your say on it! Well said ma man

 

[Nota TR5 man]

Several years ago I had a Pirelli tyre delaminate and the steel cords popped through though the tyre had the correct pressure and was fitted to A boring 1800 Vectra, so a premium tyre fail. I have done hundreds of track days and hence thousands of track miles and found that budget tyres can be good, I once put a set on my Dolomite Sprint and the Castle Combe lap was 1min 33 as opposed to 1 min 29 for using Toyo 888,s both tyres work well in wet conditions and strangely the 888,s have virtually no tread. What I have found is that Falken tyres were fine when new and at half worn became lethal as did the budgets. As I am 68 and have been a petrol head since the 60,s I can say we have come a long way from the horrible Michelin X tyres that were all the rage then.
While visiting Wales last year to climb Snowdon driving our Mondeo TDI, I hit a rock fallen from a wall and scuppered a tyre and we had to fit a pair of Nexen tyres to the front and through rain and snow these have proved very good indeed, as I still am a push on driver and do find the limit still. Any tyre that wears fast is normally good and I have a set of Rainsports on my Quantum turbo track car and they too are very good. I still have the Bridgestone run flats on my Z but I don't push it as its not how I drive it, but the wet grip seems fine plus I have had to do a massive ABS assisted emergency stop when a twit pulled out in front and I was sure we were going to contact so they really do work in the dry.