Tires, Tires, Tires...

[Mike 91 318ic]

what to get??? I've narrowed it down to these...

Dunlop SP SPORT FM901 $179 ea.
Falken FK-451 $175 ea.
Pirelli P-ZERO NERO M&S $200 ea.
Toyo PROXES T1-R $260 ea.
Toyo PROXES 4 $184 ea.
Yokohama AVS ES100 $196 ea.
Fuzion ZRI $145 ea.
Bridgestone RE 750 $250 ea.

Experienced opinions greatly appreciated.
tks
Mike

[Spalding]

I had the cheaper Toyos on my Prelude. I bought them new.

I looked at both types but I decided the T1-R were too much tire for my car and also were too soft, I thought they would wear out really quickly.

I really liked the tread pattern on my Proxes and they were great tires in the rain. If you live on the North Shore they might be a bit risky in the snow. Otherwise a nice driving tire.

[Mike 91 318ic]

after hours of reading reviews, and weighing the pros and cons the Pirelli Pzero Nero M&S seem to be the best bang for the $$.
I've had Pirelli's before and I was happy with them so I'll probably try them again unless someone and gives me a reason why not.
tks
M

[kowalski]

iv got the Proxy FZ4 too, i like them as well. but really its personal opinion if you'v had good experiences with that tire then do it. why change a good thing:)

[Dubly]

Mike,

what are you looking to get out of your new tires? There is a big range listed above.

[e30_m3]

i'm not a fan of pirellis at all, i have had 2 sets and both had problems, one tire the belts came apart on a tire with just over 1000km and the other side the side wall bulged, no rim damage was found. and the other set was just garbage for the price i paid they had bad, dry traction and terrible wet traction. after that i got some t1-s's they where replaced by the t1-r, great tire, not the best wet traction but very predictable and drivable.

i have alot of friends who really like the yokohamas, i think the es100 is a great tire.

[FrustratedMunky]

When I pick some up, I think I'm going to get BFG's Traction T/A's... I looked into it a while back and they seemed pretty good, pricewise as well as far as i can remember. If you like, you can check those out as well, but looks like you have enough to choose from from that list haha.

[Geo_e30m3]

Try Tirerack.com or Discounttire.com . I bought Yoko E100 from Discount Tire in Bellingham. Very nice tire for about $105 CDn . Or you can buy from Tire Rack for about $78US and have them shipped to The Letter Carrier in Point Roberts for pick up

[Dubly]

If you're going to go with an average summer tire like an es100 (which I have on my car) you might as well go with a P-zeros M&S and get year round use. If you’re going to take it easy and keep off the track just get an inexpensive Asian all season. There is no need to buy more tire then you need.

[VtwinVince]

I'm running the Pirellis right now, and no issues so far. I'm also running Pirelli Diablos on the bike, and they are the best tire I've ever run.

[Chris]

Toyo T1-S are fantastic so far. Lots of stick at the track, though not nearly RA-1 levels. For the street I like them a lot. $$ though, and perhaps not the best bang for the buck factor.

[KDS]

I had a set of the PZero Neros mounted a few months ago and have been very pleased so far. Quiet, sharp handling, lots of grip. Excellent in the dry and predictable in the wet. Haven't tried snow (don't intend to). Note: they handled like CRAP for the first week or so, until the factory tire release wore off.

I picked them up from TireTrends.com. It's the same idea as TireRack, but right here in Vancouver--if Pitt Meadows counts. Paid something like $170 per. You may want to check them out.

-Kyle

[Dubly]

two big thumbs up for tiretrends

[Mike 91 318ic]

Well I have the Pirelli's on, and wow what a difference. The car no longer tramlines like it used to, and what I thought was a noisy bearing in my lsd turned out only to be noisy tires! I'm glad I didn't have to rebuild my diff. It's odd my tires went noisy right after the new/used lsd which is why I thought the lsd was the problem. I haven't driven the car hard yet as I want to break them in first. On a negative note I found out that all 4 of my rims a out of round, and one wheel is pretty bad. I guess these Kopi's are fairly soft cause I really try and avoid pot holes but that's what caused it. The car didn't shimmy with my old tires but it does a little bit at 90-95 kph, but after that it's smooth... Since I drive in the city I'm not going to worry about it for now. I'll wait untill I get some more curb rash then I'll take them in to Greens and get them restored or buy a new set. BTW I also had them put on one 45 series tire just to see what they looked like and they looked HUGE so I stayed with 215/40/17's.

M

[go4carter]

I guess the only thing left to do is get some pics in the VB Garage for us to oggle...