Help choose tyres
- Thread starter cyclopopcicle
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A vote for the rainsports here, almost hit some idiot walking down the middle of a pitch black dual carriageway in very heavy rain last night, but stopped PDQ with no loss of grip on a set of RS3s.
As others have already posted, they're the only thing keeping you on the road, and it doesn't matter if you don't drive like an idiot, you can always rely on someone else to
As others have already posted, they're the only thing keeping you on the road, and it doesn't matter if you don't drive like an idiot, you can always rely on someone else to
Michelin all the way, goodyear tends to wear faster and dunlop can be a bit inconsistent with grip.
Michelin cross climate are sure footed and wear well, quite happily put my life in their hands.
Used to travel 400 miles pw, so got to play with a few brands.
Michelin cross climate are sure footed and wear well, quite happily put my life in their hands.
Used to travel 400 miles pw, so got to play with a few brands.
What kind of reviews are you looking at? Professional testing or people that have purchased them? Even the very worst budget tyres will get positive reviews from those that fit them as ultimately they fit on their wheels and allow the car to move down the road. For some people that's all that's needed to give a tyre a positive review. Especially if they are moving from old budget tyres on the limit to new budget tyres.
The problem with peer reviews is that they don't take into account what happens when a tyre is on the limit. Ultimately a new premium tyre could easily shave 10-20M of your stopping distance compared to a budget tyre. This makes no difference at all 99% of the time. With the exception of that one time you are travelling at 70 on a wet motorway and need to perform an emergency stop. In this situation that breaking difference can be the difference between completely avoiding a collision, or piling into the back of the hatchback in front of you still doing 20-30mph. Alternatively it can be the difference between safely exiting a misjudged corner you have entered too fast, or spinning off into a tree. The kind of people that suffer this fate don't then immediately hop onto a tyre review site to post a "I wish I'd bought better tyres" review.
Ultimately it's all about safety. If you were talking a £50 tyre vs a £100 tyre and you were driving a car worth pennies I could understand the need to budget. But if you are running a mark 7 golf and can't find the extra £15 a corner to have quality tyres I would suggest you need to rethink your priorities.
You may even be better off in the long run as premium tyres tend to last longer.
To get one of the best tyres avaliable for a mere £13 more than a budget set - how is this even a debate?? Ok, I can understand the OP not wanting to spend £105 per corner on Michelin's because it's nearly £30ea, but 13 quid...?
And the chances are that as it's a fairly new FWD car, it'll only be the fronts that need changing meaning the total cost to have a pair of top rated tyres is £26 more than ditchfinders.
And the chances are that as it's a fairly new FWD car, it'll only be the fronts that need changing meaning the total cost to have a pair of top rated tyres is £26 more than ditchfinders.
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Had these on my 6mps and hated them, had no confidence in them at all and they seemed pretty sloppy in the rain.
Back to rainsports and I happily chuck it about again.
I think I'll be sticking with rainsports for a long while unless there's some drastic changes. Cracking value for the money
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Rainsports must be in with a shout of beating the Toyo Proxes or Falken FK452 as 'most over rated internet hero tyre ever'
It's a good tyre but it's a midrange tyre not a performance tyre and isn't comparable to uhp tyres.
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2016-Summer-Tyre-Market-Overview-Braking.htm
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Rainsports must be in with a shout of beating the Toyo Proxes or Falken FK452 as 'most over rated internet hero tyre ever'
It's a good tyre but it's a midrange tyre not a performance tyre and isn't comparable to uhp tyres.
http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2016-Summer-Tyre-Market-Overview-Braking.htm
Dont get me wrong, I know its a mid range jobby and there'll likely be better available
But for the money in my size 225/40/18 they were the obvious choice tbh
others I know have been happy with the eagles but i just didn't feel confident with them on.
The other common choice in this size was the vredstein sessantas but I think they've gone now
Soldato
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They're not that bad, certainly not ditch finders which is what you call no name tyres half the price of the Toyos.
Plenty of new cars in Japan (and elsewhere - pretty sure Mitsubishis and Mazdas in the U.K. come with Toyos) come with them from the factory. They're a mid-range tyre manufacturer.
I suspect there is a degree of tyre-elitism going on here. Most people don't need Pilot Sport 4s or other UHP tyres to be perfectly safe on U.K. roads.
For the OP with a Golf GTD however, yes he probably should pay a bit more for his tyres and at least match the OE it came with.
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Caporegime
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I have done 10k already on my AS3's. 4k of that across Europe in a heavy high powered fwd estate. Still got plenty of meat on them and still fantastic levels of grip.
I have Proxes T1R's on my MX5 and on the back of the BMW.
They are fine in the dry, in fact id go so far as to say they are good! But in the wet, if you do anything other than poottle about they are shockingly poor to the point of being almost dangerous in certain situations amd conditions.
Takes almost nothing to make them come unstuck, and when they do come unstuck there is no progression at all, the back end just goes. They are a very old tyre in terms of design as well. They came out over 15 years ago.
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They are fine in the dry, in fact id go so far as to say they are good! But in the wet, if you do anything other than poottle about they are shockingly poor to the point of being almost dangerous in certain situations amd conditions.
Takes almost nothing to make them come unstuck, and when they do come unstuck there is no progression at all, the back end just goes. They are a very old tyre in terms of design as well. They came out over 15 years ago.
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That's a very good point, it was last year and they were on the car when I bought it, never checked version number just remember them being GY Eagles Assy. I'll havea look at pictures I haev if any of them show a 3, was the 3 a huge improvement over priors?
In what areas is the performance of the 3 worse than that of the 2?
Which is odd as both were/are consistently high scoring tyres with compromises coming mainly in areas like driver feedback and sidewall stiffness rather than objective performance.
The 2s I used to have were night and day better than the Pirelli I am now stuck with.
I had 2's on my first Evo for about 3 months. Fantastic in the wet don't get me wrong but I would not call the sidewalls stiff and to me they left a lot to be desired as a drivers' tyre. Against my better judgement I put a set of 3's on my second Evo and that jelly like feel came back. I swapped them over for Cup 2's which as expected were night and day different.
Saying that I couldn't fault the 2's on my A5, I think they are more suited to larger German cars rather than smaller sports/hot hatches/cars.
Saying that I couldn't fault the 2's on my A5, I think they are more suited to larger German cars rather than smaller sports/hot hatches/cars.
If your idea of what a tyre should feel like is based on using a PSC2, then it's not really surprising that they felt like jelly? What road tyre has the tyre wall stiffness, feedback and dry performance of a PSC2, which is essentially a track orientated tyre?
Most of us would comment on how harsh and unforgiving the PSC2 was, rather than how soft the AS2 is.
Most of us would comment on how harsh and unforgiving the PSC2 was, rather than how soft the AS2 is.