i should have titled my thread "tread pattern..does it matter?" since im not really mounting them backwards.
I'm no tire-idiot I worked at discount tire for about a year so BOOYA look at those credentials...
okay anyway...I hate spending money on tires since I go through them so often. I just bought the rx7 FD wheels to run a larger sidewall/wider tire and hopefully find sizes that dont cost as much but 245/45/16 is actually very limited in selection. (no i dont want to run 245/50's its too large of a sidewall. i have that on there now).

so I found this killer deal on tires on ebay from some guy who overstocked these tires. They are goodyear eagle gs-c's which surpisingly have very good ratings. Here's the thing, they have a uni-directional tread pattern. They arent just DiRECTIONAL where you can mount them to be on either the left or the right side. these tires are designed to either mount on the left or right side because of this offset groove in the tread. the guy had a bunch of right hand side tires left over and said he thought it would be okay to just run them on the left side as well. At 50 bucks a tire, i didnt hesitate.
I honestly always thought companies tried too hard to make impressive, intricate tread designs to dazzle the customer who doesnt know anything about tires. anyone think this is gonna make a difference?

 

It is possible but I doubt it would be anything noticeable. Then again personally I'd prefer to "do it right."

 

65 bucks a tire. i just got a whole set of brand new name brand performance tires for 260 bucks.
i see people driving around with their directional tires on backwards all the time...i figured it was mostly just for rain channeling.

 

Directional tires, yes. But asymmetric tires can have some crazy blocks of tread on the outer shoulder to help withstand cornering forces, for the most part aside from that it is pretty much a marketing gimmick.

 

mehhhh. i hear ya.
i hate tires.

 

Tires are your friend. Treat them nicely until you are about to throw them away, then stab them in the back with a long smokey burnout.

(Just kidding, I beat the **** out of my tires)

 

hahaha. man...tires have me like emotionally torn. Im always beating them up and then i feel so bad about it afterwards. they wear so fast especially the performance ones.
i have these road huggers on there at the moment and they have the best tread life i've ever seen EVER. i beat the crap out of them.

 

I went through a set of RS2s in 4000 miles.

 

lol...thats why i cant come to buy expensive tires...

 

90 bucks a pop for 245/45/16

Really they would have lasted longer if I had rotated them... I wound up getting like 2500 more miles out of them after I rotated them, the rears were cording pretty badly when I finally changed them.

But seriously, if you found some cheap-arsed good 245/45/16s, go for them. That is a very rare tire size to find my friend.

 

These tires he's speaking of arn't directional or asymmetric they are unisymmetrical. Directional tires work on either side of the car when mounted properly, asymetric tires work on either side of car also and don't have to be remounted to swap sides like directional. Unisymetrical tires can only be properly installed on left or right side of vehicle. you have to buy 2 left tires and 2 right side tires.

Buying 4 of the same part# or just right side tires would be a mistake. The car will probly pull one way or another, The traction grooves will be going the wrong way on one side causing uneven traction, and usually with tires like this the styling is ugly on the inside because it's ment to stay on the inside of the wheelwell and never really be seen.

 

morpheus- yeah im gonna try to rotate this time, its just always easier to replace 2 worn tires than 4

00semax19 - I was thinking along those lines too but it just doesnt make sense. The tire is meant to track straight. Why would it matter which side its on if the tread is still pointing forward? the tire doesnt know what side of the car its on. Its not like mounting a directional tire reverse makes your car go backwards when your driving.



the only information i can find about the tread design on their webpage is just htat it helps sweep water away...im not gonna cry if its sweeping water away in a different direction. I donno...hopefully the sidewall looks the same but thats not gonna bother me that much either. ive been driving around with mismatched WHEELS for months.

 

It's not just about going straight. If the tire is going the wrong direction through corners one side of the car is going to bite onto the pavement better than the other.

In the rain when the tire is mounted corectly it pushes the water outward and away from the tire letting more rubber hit the ground.

If the tire is mounted wrong it will pull the water into the center of the tire causing poor traction and hydroplaining.

It matters, and the design arn't just for marketing like somebody previously stated. Lots of research goes into the tire designs and it's not just about whats appealing to the eye

 

you really believe a tire does all that? If the tread pulls the water a certain direction the water is gonna go that direction regardless. lets say it pulls the water towards the outside of the car, in this case it would be pulling the water towards the inside of the fender well...i dont see how it would pull water into the tread more simply cause its mounted on the left side of the car.
like i said, the tire isnt getting mounted BACKWARDS just on the other side.

I can understand your cornering argument if for some reason the outter and inner sidewalls were significantly different.

plus do you see the tread design on that tire? its offset by like an inch.

also, ive been riding on tires that are literally WORTH 50 dollars at most and baldies in the back...i cant imagine this is going to be worse.

btw i just looked these tires up and they go for like 350 bucks a piece. i think they are original equipment on corvettes or something

 

Do what you want.



They will be better then the worn out tires you have.

Yes they do put them on vett's

 

well if i go flying off the road i am definitely blaming the tires, lets put it that way. but if i dont, i sticking with my "story" about how tire manufacturers put pretty designs on tire surfaces.

so it must be a good tire huh, since they on vettes. im gonna tell everyone i got vette tires.

 

The GSCs were OEM for Corvettes, Z28s, Trans AMs. I don't think you will notice a diff on the street with 4 left side tires. As morpheus said the diff is outer tread blocks are designed for better dry traction and the inner blocks a designed for wet traction. I've run track tires inside out, with out issues.

 

thanks for your response. what tires are your favorite performance wise? and for street use? (just curious) ive never been one to splurge and buy nice tires except for when i actually worked at discount and got some bfg gforces (wow what a splurge huh) with bad camber they wore out in like 3 months and i just took tires off the used rack from there on out.
I have driven my car hard but cant seem to really tell a difference when pushing tires to the limit. I have traction problems (As far as drag racing) beyond what I believe any regular tire is able of curing...i think its gonna be straight slicks for the track when i get the money. but i am going to try autocrossing soon hopefully.

 

Performance tires differ about as much as street tires. I normally run Kumho Victoracers for track events and autoX, I like race tires I can drive on the street. Hoosiers and Kumhos full race slicks are not really pratical to drive to amd from events. For the street I still like the Kumho MX for bang for the buck performance tires. the Hankook Rs 212s work very well also. I have a hard tire spending the money for some of the other name brand performance tires, I've found the MXs faster than 95% of the expensive tires. I did put a set of the Goodyear F1s on my wifes car, very nice rain tire but I doubt it's any faster dry than the MXs or RS 212s. I go thru 2-3 sets of tires a year so I go for best bang for the buck over the fancy name brands.