by "Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
Published 11/28/2017 at 16:27
by "Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
Published 11/28/2017 at 16:27
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STARS: 5
On Saturday I finally got to my local America’s Tire and had a set of Falken 615k+ tires installed on my ‘06 STi. The car was long overdue for tires since they were past the wear bars and rode kind of rough at higher speeds. Plus they were cheap no season tires anyways so I was happy to be rid of those. My quest was to find an affordable summer tire that would maximize grip during all of my canyon runs commuting to and from work. My first thought was a higher treadware summer tire (like the Direzza DZ102 I have on the Miata) but then I found the Falkens. These are an entry level 200 TW tire, meaning much more grip but also much less tire life than some 300+ TW other tires. However, these also do not come along with the $150+ price tag that your Hankook RS4, Direzza Star Specs, or Bridgestone RE71R would go for. These were $121 a piece and came out to a grand total of $609.74 installed and with all of the taxes/fees. Not too bad for a 225/45/R17 tire.
Now my impressions so far are that these are VERY good tires. I have not really had a “good” street tire before. The DZ102 on my Miata are “acceptable” and perform like a summer tire should. But they are in no way “grip monsters” or anything like that. I have experience with 100TW tires for autocross, but that is of course more intense than any street driving will be (remotely close to legally/safely at least). Anyways, the Falken 615k+ tire on the Subaru instantly made the car grip ALL the time. I knew with real tires I could finally push the car and so my commute home on Monday was quite exciting. I took the entirety of Mulholland Highway and finally found that understeer at the limit in this car around the tightest of turns. Having actual tires is much more confidence inspiring and makes the car quite more playful. I have found that generally more grip in the Miata makes it less playful while with this car, I really dont want to be sliding around so more grip = more fun.
In the near future, I hope to be able to run an Autocross event or two with this car just to REALLY test out the tires and the car in general. But realistically that duty will be kept to the Miata so I need tires for that car as well. That can wait until after ski season though since I need to shift spending focus onto that activity. I still need another set of wheels, snow tires, ideally a roof rack and ski rack, and maybe a set of tire chains but those should be unecessary with the AWD and snow tire combo. I am assuming I would run out of ground clearance before those are useful.
"Future next gen S2000 owner" (future-next-gen-s2000-owner)
11/28/2017 at 16:39, STARS: 1
Get studded winters if Cali allows it. Otherwise a standard winter set will be fine. Don’t get chains, you’ll probably rip up some fenders and can damage brake components if they aren’t installed correctly. Plus you are limited to ~30 mph with chains.
"ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com" (ita97)
11/28/2017 at 16:44, STARS: 1
They’ll heat cycle out eventually, but you should get a long-life of canyon fun out of them.
"gettingoldercarguy" (gettingoldercarguy)
11/28/2017 at 16:45, STARS: 2
Nice tires. But don’t give too much, if any weight on treadwear ratings.
“When looking at UTQG ratings it is important to realize that the Department of Transportation does not conduct the tests. The grades are assigned by the tire manufacturers based on their test results or those conducted by an independent testing company they have hired”
Essentially, they can and do fudge the numbers, especially for the 200 rating which is the minimum required for certain classes if competitive racing.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
11/28/2017 at 16:45, STARS: 0
I feel like studded tires would be overkill lol. While I only plan on putting the tires on when going skiing and taking them back off for daily driving, it will still likely be dry on 90% of the roads I encounter but just cold on the way to the mountain. Sure that last 10% is where I need the snow tires but considering I’ve done fine with a lightweight RWD car with regular unstudded snow tires, I figure the same on a AWD car should be a little better. I really dont want to deal with the car sounding like tap shoes on dry pavement haha.
But yeah I had planned on avoiding chains since most of the time its Chains or AWD/4WD with snow tires on all four.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
11/28/2017 at 16:49, STARS: 0
Oh yeah I know, but considering my commute it should be worth it. As long as they make it like a year/~10k miles I would be plenty happy. I am thinking they can make it a little longer than that but we shall see. They arent going to see more than a couple autocrosses and definitely no track days so who knows.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
11/28/2017 at 16:51, STARS: 0
Oh yeah I know that, but just selecting a 200TW generally shows that you should get a tire that will perform well. Obviously customer testomonials and comparisons done are more useful information. And these rated well enough that for the price, they seemed like a good option. If I wanted a “real” autocross tire though I would have gotten the star specs or RS4s more likely. That might be my direction for the Miata but I still might just get another set of Maxxis RC1 or Hoosiers since those would do better for track days.
"AestheticsInMotion" (aestheticsinmotion)
11/28/2017 at 16:57, STARS: 2
Hence the unofficial ”super 200" rating given for tires like the re71-r that are faster than 100tw race tires and closing in on Hankooks. Should be interesting to see where this goes, as the Bridgestones are already right around the limit for acceptable tire wear for low-level racers.
Most racing bodies score tires differently even within the same Treadwear rating so those Bridgestones will be 17 points and the stars specs will be 12 for example. Ends up working pretty well.
"ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com" (ita97)
11/28/2017 at 17:14, STARS: 0
You’ll see that out of them easily. In my experience with the Azenis 215's and 615's, you probably won’t actually wear them out on treadwear. As they heat cycle out, they eventually get hard to enough to stop really wearing past a certain point. This also doesn’t mean they necessarily cease to be fun, they are just fun at earlier braking points and lower apex speeds.
"JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t" (jawzx2)
11/28/2017 at 18:45, STARS: 1
Direzza Star Specs are WORTH EVERY PENNY.
"TahoeSTi" (tahoesti)
11/28/2017 at 19:31, STARS: 1
I ran those tires for a year or 2 on my 06 STi, they are a really good tire. The only time I really felt they could be better was on some really hot days when I was really pushing them, either trailing a pack of motorcycles out in the mountains or on a fairly long autocross course, they seem to get a bit slippery when overheated....I was also running 255's all the way around on stock rims so the fitment could have magnified that too.....I need summer tires.....in a few months and the price on these is right....I think I almost got 20k miles on them.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
11/28/2017 at 19:33, STARS: 1
Oh nice, that would surely last me a whole year if I can get that many miles! Since I am in LA, there is not really a season thing to worry about so I will run them year round. Now seems like the best time to buy summer tires though for sure.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
11/28/2017 at 19:39, STARS: 1
I like that, it makes more sense. Yeah, the RE71R is definitely just as fast as my RC1 was. Even though the RC1 says “FOR DRY COMPETITION ONLY”. It seems like a joke that that shit isnt standardized.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
11/28/2017 at 19:40, STARS: 0
Well yeah for an autocross car for sure. Hence why the Miata will probably get those.
"JawzX2, Boost Addict. 1.6t, 2.7tt, 4.2t" (jawzx2)
11/28/2017 at 19:54, STARS: 0
They are a GREAT every day performance tire too. They wear quite well, are intensely communicative with exceptional grip and predictibility, reasonably quiet, and ride pretty well for something so hard-core. ALSO: nothing with that little tread should be that good in the wet and that resistant to hydroplaning. They are genuinely VERY GOOD in the rain. Not just “very good for a UHP summer/AX tire” but actually GOOD. Absolutely stunningly resistant to hydroplaning in the 205 width I’m running on FieSTa. Better than most tires I’ve owned. And the wet grip in warm weather (below 45 degrees F they start to get a little greasy and skate-like (but still fine for normal driving)) surprised the hell out of me. They’re even nice and predictable on hard-packed dirt, and can be flogged quite well off the pavement, if not as fast as a dedicated dirt tire.
"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678)
11/28/2017 at 20:15, STARS: 0
Well I dont really have to worry about rain in Los Angeles lol. The Miata will not see wet ever again if I can control it. I will always just take the Subaru if there is a chance of rain. Ideally I will also never put the top up again too! But rain is so infrequent here anyways so its really a non issue. You are not the first person to sing praises of star specs though! I nearly bought a set before my last set of RC1s, the sale just fell through at the last second.
"gettingoldercarguy" (gettingoldercarguy)
11/28/2017 at 22:31, STARS: 0
In about a year I think Bridgestone’s entire line is changing.
"gettingoldercarguy" (gettingoldercarguy)
11/29/2017 at 14:15, STARS: 0
That makes sense, glad they do that.