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Personally I would like to see someone like Topgear to take 10 high end & 10 low end tyres on identical cars and then test them to destruction I'm a bit of a tyre whore and have tried most brands over the years, my personal favorite at the moment is Michelin Exalto 2's, they are an awesome tyre in both the wet and dry, and put over 300hp down to the ground very well concidering my pickup is FWD (and have lasted near on 25k miles). In contrast I recently put two 17" budgets on the front of my Volvo T5 whilst I was refurbing some other rims, and they are k'in scary, I cant touch the brakes in the wet without the ABS going nuts, and when accelerate hard the torquesteer is noticibly worse it might just be the brand I'm using but IMO there is still quite a big margin between premium and budget
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I like Maxxis and Kuhmo personally. Not premium brands, but not made from recycled school erasers. I hadn't really heard of Maxxis until recently, but I've just fitted a pair of 165/80/15s ti the amazon and am very happy with them, going back for another pair in the next week or so
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Remade In Australia thereimaginarium.com.au
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Hirst
Posted a lot
This avatar is inaccurate, I've never shaved that closely
Posts: 3,930
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What surprises me is the little price difference between good and bad tyres. For most sizes I've needed it's about £30 for some really lousy ones by "Triangle" or someone, or about £40 for various well-known premium make.
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What surprises me is the little price difference between good and bad tyres. For most sizes I've needed it's about £30 for some really lousy ones by "Triangle" or someone, or about £40 for various well-known premium make. This is true Michelin Exalto 195/50/15s ae only £50 a corner I bet you would pay £35-40 for budgets
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I like Maxxis and Kuhmo personally. Not premium brands, but not made from recycled school erasers. I hadn't really heard of Maxxis until recently, but I've just fitted a pair of 165/80/15s ti the amazon and am very happy with them, going back for another pair in the next week or so I have never used their cars tyres, but Maxxis MX & Enduro tyres are sposed to be the dogs danglies
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Strange to here about people not liking continentals. We've had them on a few cars (2 volvos, AX and 500) and they're always worn well, given predictable grip levels in all weathers and they have relatively stiff sidwalls (both PC2 XLs and SC3s). They're not the pinnacle of grip (hence they don't go on the Impreza) but as an all round tyre there aren't many that are better. Obviously its very much down to the car but they wouldn't be fitted as standard by a lot of manufacturers if they weren't worth the money and they thought it would undermine any aspect of the car (performance, ride, economy etc), as this would look bad for the manufacturer.
My dad used to swear by the Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD2s but they went downhill with the gsd3s.
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1997 TVR Chimaera 2009 Westfield Megabusa
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they wouldn't be fitted as standard by a lot of manufacturers if they weren't worth the money and they thought it would undermine any aspect of the car (performance, ride, economy etc), as this would look bad for the manufacturer. Adam, put this statement of yours in a time capsule some where at the house. Print it out. Into a jar. Brick it into a wall. Open it up in 20 years, and have a good cry, OK? Your Doting and Affectionate, but yet Aged and Cynical, Uncle Norm
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Team Blitz Ford Capri parts worldwide: Restoration, Road, or Race. Used, Repro, and NOS, ranging from scabby to perfect. Itching your Capri jones since 1979! Buy, sell, trade. www.teamblitz.com blitz@teamblitz.com
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namless
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 577
Club RR Member Number: 26
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simples, you get what you pay for. Budget tyres are half the price and seem to give half the mileage, twice the road noise, and less then half the traction. Budget tyres might be owned by bigger brands however the rubber compound used for them are not the same, the tread pattern is also different, and these are important factors in tyres. There might be one or two decent budget tyres makes out there but I personally would not say budgets are as good as premium even though it was the same company.
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,191
Club RR Member Number: 170
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IMO it's down to the car and what you want.
My dad and I have Triangles on the Mondeo. They are a bit curse word in the wet (170BHP via a Spazmatic FWD box causes the fronts to light up and spin the wheels with the ESP light flashing like mad), and they are very noisy tyres too but at £50 a corner in a car that covers many miles a year (way over 50k a year) there is not much choice. Oh, and they are very noisy. Kumhos weren't too bad on it but they were the 712s. Saying that, it was the car I felt safest in when it was snowing (it never got stuck) just after the Peugeot 306 (but that did lift off oversteer a little a couple of times).
Porsche was on 7 year old P6000s. Good in the dry, awful in the wet. That's now on Kumho KU31s. They have taken a while to scrub in, but now they actually are quite surefooted to be honest and are not a bad all rounder. I'd say they're fine in the budget range. I thought I'd rather put the money towards renewing suspension rather than getting Eagle F1s etc. (IMO, suspension plays just as important a role a tyres, something many people underestimate until they change the dampers on their own car.
Pug 306 GTi-6 had Couriers on the front, who are made by Pirelli. Bar the Triangles and Wanlis they were awful tyres. No control whatsover in the wet, and snappy characteristics in the dry. The Toyo T1-Rs that replaced them were much better grip wise but they were boring in the handling department. I suspect the baloon type sidewalls played a part there.
IME Contis and Michelins (especially the latter) have been great tyres. The Michelins on my sister's car were fantastic in all conditions and wore very well. They were an improvement over the Vredestein Sportracs on there TBH.
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I've got a tyre that's not on the list: Kingstar. Apparently made by Kumho, according to the tyre shop bloke. I got a pair for the rear of my Beetle when I first got it and was broke, only $75 each fitted and balanced. The grip is average at best but they don't seem to have worn at all in the distance which I drove them, which included plenty of wheelspin and handbrake work in motorkhanas, etc. The Bob Jane Aussie All-Rounders (home brand of an Aussie tyre chain, made by Bridgestone) which were on the front of the Bug were okay for grip, but pretty stunning for wear. Over 46,000 miles! And they still had legal tread when I got them taken off and swapped for something better.
The tyres I'm running now are Sumitomo HTR 200s, made in China. They give absolutely excellent grip in all conditions and are still only $105 a tyre. They really are excellent, probably the highest-performance tyre you can get in a 70-series 14" tyre, lol.
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kenb
Part of things
Posts: 604
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Bout 2 years ago I bought some Goodyear Wranglers to go on my 4x4 on the front. 2 months later bought some Hankooks for the rear. The goodyears were moved to the rear as they seemed to be wearing a bit fast, Hankooks now still on front having 1/2 their tread left, just had to replace the G/years as they as bald as my head. Replaced with Hankooks at a fraction of the price of the g/years. So Hankooks get my thumb up and they quieter too.
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THe last car I had with budget tyres was my old 405 with 'Arrowspeeds' (Kwik Fit's own brand I think) all round. I know they handle well with good tyres, but that was an understeering mess in wet conditions. I put some Kingpin remoulded winter tyres on my more recent 405 not expecting much for £25 a tyre, but they are excellent for the money, resisting aquaplaning and understeer and providing a lot of grip in the snow and ice - not quite as good as the big brand Silica compound winter tyres though. I've had cars with Barums and Klebers, both E. European brands backed by big brand names and they've been excellent.
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I'm with ChasR on this one- Kumho KU31s are the shiz!
My missus' BMW 528 had Linglongs on when we bought it and they were, frankly, dangerous- no grip in the wet or the dry and my tyre guy couldn't balance one at all, so there was always a vibration (these tyres were bought by the PO to sell the car, so they were brand new)
Bought a full set of the KU31s and they take a while to scrub, but they feel nice and grippy and the cars been transformed- I then put some on my mk3 Golf and I'm about to put some on my e38 BMW 740...
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,712
Club RR Member Number: 34
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some of my experiences- the only premium brand tyre ive had that i thought were worth the money were dunlop sport sp9000. excellent in wet or dry, medium wear rate, on a car driven to the limit (and beyond ) continental ecocontact- ok, but wear way, way too quick. lasted half as long as the dunlop. they have a rep for delaminating when hot too, not happened to me personally but have seen others where it has. pirelli p6000- less said the better- absolute sh!t no grip in wet or dry, perish badly, delaminate/ chunk on the shoulders when pushed hard, just overpriced rubbish. uniroyal- also all rubbish, especially 'the rain tyre', which had the worse wet grip ive ever experienced?! never wore ot, but never gripped either....... but, ive had really good experiences of budgets/midrange tyres. ling long- curse word but smoke nicely= carcass too stiff, no wet grip, passable in the dry. event- suprisingly good, especially when warmed up in the dry. a good summer tyre, very grippy and don't wear too bad even when given some serious abuse. a bit iffy in the wet though. maxxis- really, really good. suprised me how good actually!! not quite as good as nankangs in the wet though. hankook- not bad, ok in the dry, but again carcass a bit too stiff for them to be good in the wet. and lastly, the nankang NS2- simply the best tyre there is, period. quite cheap, excellent grip in wet and dry, soft, stretchy carcass, and don't wear to quick either. don't bother spending more on 'premium brand' tyres, cos I'm certian they wont be better.
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I have "Lassa" on my fiesta, long lasting, hard wearing and hold pretty well, although i don't drive fast, they're aparently a budget Bridgestone product! But'd i'd certainly recomend em!
Civic has the Goodyears it came with on still, pretty soft, but other wise top notch!
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CIH
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,466
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Silvia has Nankang ditchfinders. Combined with knackered subframe bushes and it's an absolute curse word to drive. Any kind of fast, sweeping bend is absolutly terrifying as the rear decides if it feels like snapping out or not....
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I can recommend Kuhmo Ecsta Sport's, really good, excellent wet grip, predictable in the dry, and are very hard wearing.
J
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Yea, I had Kuhmo's on the Corvette and they were superb. Also had Falkens (912s off the top of my head) on the 325i and they were really good too
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Mike D
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,196
Club RR Member Number: 57
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I'm another big fan of Nankang NS2's, I've fitted them to the majority of my cars now and they are superb in both wet and dry, you'd have to be driving pretty terribly to get into a load of trouble, but then the same goes for a lot of tyres!!
Krislap 3 winter tyres suck however, never have I driven on anything quite so awful!!
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Michelins,BF Goodrich and Kleber are all from michelin and a tyre brand named Riken is imported BY Michelin and sold through ATS only. As for choice in tyres i always ran yokohama A539s on my other charade.Used to get about 7-8000 miles out of them but for grip i couldnt find anything better. At the other end of the spectrum i had a set of Uniroyal rainsport 2s and took them off with more than half life left in them as they were appaling in all situations. If you want a good budget tyre i would say either Maxxis or Federal.Ive sold loads of these and the customers are happy with them.
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