I need new Street tires

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:29 pm

Whats a good kind. I want something sporty with a very stiff sidewall if possible and extremely hard rubber for long treadlife. Does anything like this exist.

Patrick Wellenius · **Posted:** Thu Oct 23, 2003 11:49 pm

can't comment about tread life, but Bridgestone potenza s-03's have about as stiff a sidewall as you'll find in a street tire (save for azenis). Toyo Proxes T-1s are pretty stiff too, but a little softer than the s-03's, so the ride will be a little easier, but not much. i doubt either will have great lifespan. I've had the toyo's on my car for about 750 miles now. they're really good (especially for the price I got 'em at).

TomFreeman · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 8:59 am

Light truck tires ought to do it for you.

I'm assuming a 195/65/15 for your stockers, right?

Yoko AVS ES100 are getting very good reviews on the Miata boards right now. The Toyo that Pat mentions is a constant favorite on the Miata boards also. The Toyos have a softer sidewall, though.

Rarely will you find a hard sidewall, hard tread compound street tire. It's not exactly a popular combination.

How about this - give us a price range per tire, and you'll get tons of suggestions. I love spending other peoples money.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 10:06 am

Not sure about the "sporty" + "extremely hard rubber" part. I would expect those are diametrically opposed qualities. :wink:

I have been a fan of the Kumho ECSTA Supra 712. I think it has a pretty stiff sidewall, but does not have the grip level of the Azenis. They are cheap and come in a ton of sizes, but they may not have the tread life you want. I don’t know anything about them, but Kumho also has the ECSTA 711 which seems to be a step down from the 712. They look sporty and most likely wear longer than the 712’s but I can’t say for sure.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 10:40 am

I also agree that the 712's are hard to beat for the money. With that alignment problem you're having Rob no tire is going to last too long. Ya better get that issue solved first.

Kevin Hoff · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 11:40 am

Good luck finding a long wearing ultra performance tire.

I got 21k out of the S-03's, but a lot of that was highway driving. I'm now using (only about 700 miles so far) the RE750. It's much more civilized than the S-03 and, based on the treadwear numbers (340 vs 200) should last me about 30k miles.

I hate the Kumho 712 with a passion. Every car I've driven with them has had annoying vibration, noise, and roughness after a few thousand miles. The Falken Ziex 512 is every bit as sticky as the Kumho 712 and doesn't suffer from the noise/roughness problems. It even works in snow to some degree!

--Kevin H.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 12:04 pm

Kevin Hoff wrote:

I hate the Kumho 712 with a passion. Every car I've driven with them has had annoying vibration, noise, and roughness after a few thousand miles. The Falken Ziex 512 is every bit as sticky as the Kumho 712 and doesn't suffer from the noise/roughness problems. It even works in snow to some degree!

I never had those problems with my 712's. And I paid $365 for all four mounted and balanced. Richard have you had these problems with yours? Regarding the snow, who buys a tire living in the Piedmont region of NC and worries about it's snow traction? We *may* get only one or two snows a year around here so who cares? Kinda like buying a rain tire when you live in Las Vegas where it rains twice a year. :roll:

Just my .02...

SimonWright · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 1:08 pm

So far I'm extremely (pun intended) pleased with the Continental ContiExtremeContacts that I put on my WRX a couple of months ago. Very quiet and smooth ride and great handling. Cost me $399 all-in.

Simon

Kevin Hoff · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 1:47 pm

Just repeating my real life experiences with the 712's. I know others seem to have had good luck with them. They may just work better on some types of cars. My experience with the 712's was in various FWD cars.

--Kevin H.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 3:46 pm

I love my RE92's... I'm still using the first set I bought off a WRX driver about 18000 miles ago, and they had 7k on them previously, and still have 5/32" left all around. Plus, I have Kevin's set I bought off of him at the Petersburg Pro this year, which I think had 3k on them and looked brand new. I should be ready for new street tires around 2006.

I think they suck on a heavy AWD car like the WRX, and I understand why people dump them for so little, but on a 2500# Celica, they're pretty darn good. For the two sets of them, I've paid a total of $180, so that's averaging $22.50 a tire

- AB

Chuck Frank · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 4:05 pm

We're using the 712's as street tires, although they have gotten noisier as they wear, they are still quieter than any of the performance tires. We've been satisfied with them. Sounds like what you want is a "touring" class tire.

Philip Whaley · **Posted:** Fri Oct 24, 2003 10:28 pm

I run the 712's both street and track and all I can say is rotate often if used on a front wheel drive car. I didn't and they sound like 44" monster truck tires.

Graham Jagger · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 12:53 am **Posts:** 1718

Rob,

I put tires on my 3 kids cars and here is where those stand. All 3 have touring tires. That is as close a compromise to what you want. All these tires were under $70 each when I got them.

99 Prizm - Dunlop SP Sport A2. Sporty, good in wet and dry, 420 UTQG, noisey at slower speeds. She has a year on these and you can hardly tell they have been driven.

99 Grand Am - Firestone LH. Good touring tire. These tires have been through dry, rain, snow, ice in New England. I forget the wear rating but they are at least 2yrs old and still have good tread. Give a nice smooth ride with some amount of flex.

95 Chr Cirrus - Falken Ziex ZE-502. Good comfortable ride. Softer sidewall but hold their grip. Good in dry and rain. Around 300 UTQG, extremely quiet tire. These are over 2yrs old and look like he might get another year out of them.

Graham

Rob Keehner · **Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 10:02 am

The 712 isn't an option, a friend has has two delaminate on his car. I'm not gunna risk quality issues. Maybe I'll just lower and stiffen the car to get rid of some body roll and I won't have some of these tire issues. :wink:

Thanks for the suggestions I've got some good leads now to look into.

PS these are going on 16 by 6 Neon R/T wheels. My 15 inch ultralightweight stock 15 inch steel wheels are my race rims. Another fresh coat of BBQ grill paint and they should be good to go next season.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 10:49 am

Vincent Keene wrote:

Kevin Hoff wrote:

I hate the Kumho 712 with a passion. Every car I've driven with them has had annoying vibration, noise, and roughness after a few thousand miles. The Falken Ziex 512 is every bit as sticky as the Kumho 712 and doesn't suffer from the noise/roughness problems. It even works in snow to some degree!

I never had those problems with my 712's. And I paid $365 for all four mounted and balanced. Richard have you had these problems with yours? Regarding the snow, who buys a tire living in the Piedmont region of NC and worries about it's snow traction? We *may* get only one or two snows a year around here so who cares? Kinda like buying a rain tire when you live in Las Vegas where it rains twice a year. :roll:

Just my .02...

Regarding the Kumho 712.

I didn't have problems with vibration or balancing at all. Mine were a wheel tire combo from Tirerack. I ran them until they were nearly slicks with no problems. Hard to say on the noise side. They did get noiser (and faster

) the more they wore down. The noise level of the Azenis is much worse. :whoknows:

I drove the 712s on snow once while they were nearly slicks and it was scary but I made it home OK. :stupid:

My brother stuffed his Maxima (using 712s) into a ditch in WV while driving in some snow. They are NOT all weather tires, but I doubt you will find many performance tires that will do well in the snow.

IMHO I would buy them again in a second for general purpose every day tires. Especially since we don't get much bad weather in this area.

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