What are the current best tyres?

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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My tyres are now at 4mm and 5mm at the latest service so it is time to get new tyres soon (3mm). I've rotated them so its now 5mm at the front and 4mm at the back which should last the summer I guess. I've only done 8k miles in these so these Hankook V12 doesn't last very long do they?!

So, I guess I better start saving (that with a new alloy needed or total refurb), the one I got off eBay turned out to be warped :/ Which means I better start saving!

Anyway, the stand out tyre choices are (205/45/17R) from Blackcircles, fitted for the set.

Bridgestone Potenza RE040 (84) £564.00
Bridgestone Potenza RE050A (88) £588.00
Bridgestone Potenza RE050A (84) £644.92
Michelin Pilot Sports 3 (88) £609.16
Hankook V12 Evo (88) £446.16
Continental Contact Sports 5 (88) £585.04
Continental Contact Sports 3 SSR (84) £669.40
Uniroyal Rainsport 2 (88) £495.60
Pirelli P Zero Nero (88) £552.52

The logical thing is to stick with what I had last year, which is the Hankook (paid £396!) but i feel like a change as I think I could get less road noise with a different make may be. Now, without knowing much about tyres, and i am thinking CS5 is newer than CS3, CS5 is the one to go for on that list, seeing it is not the most expensive set anyway.

Thoughts?
 
Raymond Lin said:
Continental Contact Sports 5 (88) £585.04
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These.

Continental Contact Sports 3 SSR (84) £669.40

Now, without knowing much about tyres, and i am thinking CS5 is newer than CS3, CS5 is the one to go for on that list, seeing it is not the most expensive set anyway.
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You are correct. The CS3 SSR is a Runflat tyre, hence it being more expensive.
 
Not to get into the 3mm replacement debate... but it's summer... I'm fairly sure you'll survive using the last extra 1.4mm, you'll get thousands more miles out of them

<debate>
 
acemastr said:
Not to get into the 3mm replacement debate... but it's summer... I'm fairly sure you'll survive using the last extra 1.4mm, you'll get thousands more miles out of them

<debate>
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Dunno what country you live in but it's probably going to rain more in the summer than it did this winter gone.
 
We've got the same size on our MX5 and recently went for Yokohama S.Drive's

Really rating them so far, loads better than the old Toyo T1R's they replace, but thats no supprise as the T1R's are a quite old design now.
 
Dont you drive a Yaris or something?

Why on earth are you changing tyres at 3mm, totally pointless exercise on 99.9% of vehicles particuarly a shoe-box car.
 
TRNC said:
Dont you drive a Yaris or something?

Why on earth are you changing tyres at 3mm, totally pointless exercise on 99.9% of vehicles particuarly a shoe-box car.
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Yeah, good point. You only need good grip and water clearing capabilities on Ferraris.
 
Dear god, what a surprise the OCUK bandwagon has rolled in. :rolleyes:

Tyres are made with wear markers for a reason. If they NEEDED 3mm of tread to be safe and work properly, they would have markers for replacement at 3mm. FACT.

End of story. Case closed. Bye.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I've rotated them so its now 5mm at the front and 4mm at the back which should last the summer I guess.

Thoughts?
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As far as I am aware, you are doing this backwards. It has been proven a few times (someone around here will have the links) that regardless of FWD/RWD its always best to have the better/stickier/newer boots on the back of the car.
 
TRNC said:
Dear god, what a surprise the OCUK bandwagon has rolled in. :rolleyes:

Tyres are made with wear markers for a reason. If they NEEDED 3mm of tread to be safe and work properly, they would have markers for replacement at 3mm. FACT.

End of story. Case closed. Bye.
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Well, legally is 1.6, we all know that.

However, under 3mm the stopping power goes down. Sure I got that "grace period" before I need to change them before they get to be illegal. I am not changing them smack bang on at 3mm. There is no harm however to ask. By the time I get to order them when its at 3mm, i won't get them fitted the same week, my schedule is such that I need to plan weeks ahead and i do mostly 50miles round trips and then now and again 500/600 miles round trips ! (I got 3 of those coming up before August) I figure, with miles i got to cover in the next 2/3 months, by summer's end i will need to change them judging how much wear has gone in the last 8k miles.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
Bridgestone Potenza RE040 (84) £564.00
Bridgestone Potenza RE050A (88) £588.00
Bridgestone Potenza RE050A (84) £644.92
Michelin Pilot Sports 3 (88) £609.16
Hankook V12 Evo (88) £446.16
Continental Contact Sports 5 (88) £585.04
Continental Contact Sports 3 SSR (84) £669.40
Uniroyal Rainsport 2 (88) £495.60
Pirelli P Zero Nero (88) £552.52
Click to expand...


Are these including fittiing? If not you can get 4 V12 Evos from Camskill for £320.30
 
SoundsGood said:
Are these including fittiing? If not you can get 4 V12 Evos from Camskill for £320.30
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Yup, fitted.

I can't really order them for delivery as I am not at home to sign for them and having 4 tyres delivered at work is a no no!

Even if i could, getting 4 tyres back home on the train is not going to be easy or fun lol
 
TRNC said:
Dear god, what a surprise the OCUK bandwagon has rolled in. :rolleyes:

Tyres are made with wear markers for a reason. If they NEEDED 3mm of tread to be safe and work properly, they would have markers for replacement at 3mm. FACT.

End of story. Case closed. Bye.
Click to expand...

Perhaps you should do some research before spouting off? The markers are there to indicate you are increadibly close to the minimum depth allowed by law. Just because this minimum depth is allowed, does not mean the tyres are as safe as they can be. There is a huge difference between running to the absoulte minimum the law allows, and being as safe as you can reasonably make your car.

If you can't cope with watching the 7 minute video Fox has posted, this much shorter video should illustrate the point for you. Skip to 1:40 and you only need to watch 30 seconds of footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA6MUlVNkLM

The BMW goes from a stopping distance of 195 feet on brand new tyres, to 290 feet at 3mm, all the way to 378 feet at the legal 1.6mm minium. To really throw this home, the car at the legal limit was still doing 44MPH when braking from 70, at the point on which the car with 3mm of tread had stopped completley! This isn't a small number. It quite simply illustrates the difference between not having a crash, and most likely ending up in hospital should you need to do an emergency stop in poor conditions from 70.

Now to the OP, despite all this I think you might be jumping the gun here. brand new tyres only tend to come with 8mm of tread. So the 8000 miles you have done so far have only scrubbed off 4mm at the front, and 3 at the back. At this wear rate, you looking at another 4000 miles before you scrub your fronts down from 5mm (as you have now rotated them) to the 3mm you want to change at. Although the rears are already at 4mm, they will now be wearing slower as they arent taking all the work. Even if you knock a bit off for being extra safe, I would hazard a guess you have a good 2500 miles to go before all 4 tyres are down at the 3 - 3.5mm mark.

Not sure how many miles you do a year, but I would stick it out for a little while yet and re-assess when you have another 2000 miles done on them.
 
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