Hi guys. I'm looking for a sticky, reasonably light, affordable summer tire with a stiff sidewall in 245/40/18. Any suggestions??



Oh yea...the budget is up to 150 per tire.

 

How about the falken fk451? or if you wait long enough, during may 06, falken is going to release the fk452....heard its a great summer tire and reasonably good price...

or how about the toyo proxes t1-r? it's $165/tire at edgeracing...heard they have stiffer sidewalls than t1-s...

 

I was actually looking at the Nitto NT 555 Extreme Performance tires. Can anybody offer reviews on those, the Falken FK451's and the toyo t1-r's? Or any other good summer tire with a stiff sidewall?

Thanks for the feedback BTW.

 

i have the falken 451 (235/40/18) and my pzeros m+s (225/5016) are stickier. of course there is a big price difference there.

 

ive run the 555s for a while. i run 245-45-17 on 17X8. tread life is great even considering my driving. great bang for the buck tire with my only issue being wet traction but ive got about 30k on my current set. when they were newer, the wet traction was very favorable. i expect that with the number of miles on them and i plan on going with them again shortly. a couple of local members run them with great results. not the most specific review but if you want to know anything else, feel free to ask.

 

if your considering the nitto's, i would suggest the falken st-115's.. about the same price, excellet tire. ive had both and would def go with the 115's again. there almost silent, they ride a tad better than the nitto's. i never had a problem with them. no bubbles in the sidewalls, even after slamming into potholes. they never failed me, never had a flat, even hitting a hole hard enough to bend the rim..

 

What's your requirement for wet traction? Hankook Ventus RS2 is great in the dry, like, very great (I'd say without question the best dry traction/cost ratio out there, they are very cheap) but it's not too hot in the wet.

I'm starting to read some less than favorable reviews of the T1-Rs. I've read some reviews in tire comparos in which professional drivers lumped them in the middle to lower portion of all the tires tested, and the drivers called them "over-soft" (sidewall) and "dull and disconnected". Decent in the wet, decent in the dry, but fairly unremarkable was the general consensus. Decent prices too.

Both the Hankook and the T1-R are pretty light.

Toyo T1-S is a tire which I really loved, I've had multiple sets. They are discontinued now, replaced by the T1-R. If you can find the size you want (try edgeracing.com) they will likely be really cheap. Good in the dry and the wet, though I'd say it's a tire designed a little more for wet traction than dry. Very light, second lightest max performance summer tire out there.

Nitto 555s I had a set of. Wasn't a huge fan. Didn't drive on them very long though before wrecking the car and two of them were destroyed, so that was the end of that. Never did get to the road course on them, so I never really had them "at the limit" like I've had other tires. Didn't get to do much wet driving on them at all that I recall.

Hankook Ventus RS2 is what I'll be putting on my turbo car next for "just driving tires." I don't drive the car in the rain, so wet traction is no consideration for me but that is not typical. I'm getting them because I believe they are going to be the best combination of dry traction and price I'll find, and I've got multiple other sets of wheels and tires for track, racing, etc.

 

I just got some Ecsta 712s in 245/45-16, they're pretty decent in both wet and dry, they supposedly have a pretty stiff sidewall and they're pretty crisp. While I don't have much experience with high performance tires yet, I like 'em.

Neal, how do the RS2s ride, and how are the sidewalls? How's tire noise?

Same for the T1-S... I might have to get another pair of tires soon.

 

I don't have the RS2s and haven't ridden in a car with them, just read alot of reviews, all saying they are great in the dry. Best for the money by far. They are definately what I'm getting next unless I hear of some other tire that is even better in the next week or two.

T1-S will blow your 712's out of the water. 712's were the first "summer" tire I ever had and I thought they were pretty good - then I got the T1-S and it blew my mind. The T1-s in the wet is almost comparable to the 712 in the dry. dry vs dry there is absolutely no comparison. T1-S has better ultimate grip, stiffer sidewall, better turn in, better in transitions from braking to acceleration and from left to right, and their MUCH lighter. Like I said before T1-S is the 2nd lightest max perf tire out there, a pirelli tire is the lightest (P6000 or P8000 is the lightest, I forget which of those.) T1-S was 21lbs in the 235-40-17 size I was using, 712s are like 25lbs iirc. 4lbs is a pretty big difference.

 

I just looked at 18" sizes for the RS-2, unfortunately the largest they make is 225-40-18 so that's quite a bit smaller than you were looking at getting, bummer.

 

Try here for reviews.

http://www.1010tires.com/

 

so t1-r is a replacement for t1-s then huh. i had a set of toyo proxes 4 and i liked the tire overall but now i am also looking for a summer tire that has excellent grip in the dry. but what makes the t1-s better then the t1-r? also any opinions on bridgestone potenza so3?

 

Yeah it is... ironically enough, however, I seem to have badly FUBAR'd one of my brand new 712s. I'm thinking of selling the surviving twin and moving on to something else. The RS2s are very tempting, however I DO need a tire that will perform in rain.

T1S' are a little more than I can comfortably pay right now, how long will they last me? If they are as good as you say they are (4lbs at the very outer radius is quite a lot), they may be worth it.

 

The S03s have long been the supposed king of summer tires, dry traction and handling response out the ****. They ain't too cheap though, and they don't wear very well.

 

S-03 is actually a tire designed primarily for wet traction, BFG KD, Azenis 215 and 615, Ventus RS-2 blow it right out of the water in the dry. The old S-02PP is a better tire in the dry than the S-03 is. S-03 is a very heavy tire. I've driven them on a road course and they were pretty decent, they started chunking a bit though which is not cool. (I'm not saying they are bad in the dry by any means, they are a very good tire, but there are better dry tire choices out there.)

I want to clarify what I'm talking about when I talk about wet performance. The RS-2 isn't "oh my god I'm going to crash and die while driving normally" in the wet. They are just not a tire that you want to go and try to rip exit ramps and canyon roads in the wet. I don't know about you, but I never tried to drive like a badass in the wet. I drive like my mom in the wet, so a tire's wet autocross performance means absolutely zilch to me. As long as it's not UNSAFE, I don't have any need for a tire with incredible wet performance.

 

Oh, I never thought it was scary in the wet... but I do like the extra wet performance, seeing as I've already spent $50 on windshield wipers I'd like to not feel crippled.

How many miles do people normally get out of the RS2s and the T1s?

 

s-o3 for wet traction? you sure about that? and by looking at the stats on tirerack its excellent in the dry.

 

Yes I'm sure. It is great in the dry, it's a great tire all around, but there are tires that are even better in the dry, like the ones I listed, but they aren't as great as the S-03 is in the wet.

 

I don't really pay attention to how fast tires wear, and the RS2 is new this year so no one's used up a set yet I'm sure. I couldn't tell you how fast my T1-S wore out I never made a note of the mileage on them but I got one season out of them, however that is with lots of track time, lots of drag racing, hard driving, and pretty severe camber settings (lowered 2.75" in the front with no camber correction) so I wouldn't be the best person give a mileage rating anyhow.

 

Damn. I take it you don't pay attention to how they ride either then.

 

My coilovers were 500lb/in in the front so even snow tires were really stiff lol, I don't know how they rode in a normal car.

 

Hahahha, oh well... how about road noise?

 

They weren't too bad on road noise but they were louder than normal all season tires were. Car was pretty loud with the exhaust on it and I almost always had the radio on so I didn't really notice it at all.

 

Hm, okay... where do you find most reviews for this tire?

 

For the T1-S? I'd never really read any reviews for it before I bought it, my brother had their predecessor (T1+) on his BMW and I liked those, and I got a good deal on them so I bought them and I turned out to be really happy with them.

 

Yeah, I just read about 35 reviews, all of them were really impressed with the wet and dry traction. But a bunch of them biitched about tire life and price. Honestly, $122 a tire isn't all that bad in my book, but okay. I think I'm gonna go with these. Meanwhile I have to find something to do with the 712's twin...