WildChild

Let me first say that I just searched and don't know what the hell I read. So bare with me. I'm looking to buy some GSR fat fives for my boosted Del Sol and need tires. The cars been low lowered on Tein SS and i'm not sure how much but the front tires are a little tucked. Help me out. Here's some stuff that's requested in other posts.

-Daily Driver - 200hp
-$$$ is a factor
-Would like something that handles well on wet pavement and rainy conditions
-Would also like to get decent wear
-Overall handling would be nice

Here are some tires i've researched
-Kumho MX
-Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212
-Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3
-Yokohama AVS ES100
-Falken Azenis RT-215 (discontinued)
-Avon Tech M500
-Fuzion ZRi
-Dunlop Direzza DZ-101-
-BF Goodrich g-force Sport

Speak to me in lames.

EK k kay

http://www.ec-securehost.com/O....html

$60 each on special for Toyo Proxes T1-R 195/50/15.

So far I love them in the dry and wet on the streets. Very quiet and they seem to not want to let go of the pavement. No slipping or wheel spinning in the rain. I've read reviews on other message forums that they compare to the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3. You can't go wrong with $60 a tire either.

nsxtasy

You have two questions: (1) what tire and (2) what size. So let's look at them one at a time.

What tire?

You've presented a bunch of priorities, and any tire is a trade-off among those priorities. You've also listed a lot of very different kinds of tires! The tires you list, and performance tires in general, can be grouped into the following broad categories (the tires within each category are all basically similar to each other):

1. R compound track tires

Examples: Toyo RA-1, Hoosier R3S04, Yokohama A032R and A048
Price (typical): $120+

Advantages: Highest level of traction on dry pavement
Disadvantages: Extremely rapid tire wear (3-5K miles typical treadlife, even less with track use), poor traction on wet pavement, expensive, little to no warning when they lose grip

Note: I know you didn't mention these, and they're not really suitable to most of your needs, but they may appeal to other folks with extreme horsepower applications as well as those who go to the track.

2. Specialty street tires

Examples: Falken Azenis RT-215 (discontinued) and RT-615, Hankook R-S2 Z212
Price (typical): $75-100

Advantages: Very high level of traction on dry pavement, moderate price
Disadvantages: Very rapid tire wear (10K miles typical), okay but not great on wet pavement

3. Top-of-the-line street tires

Examples: Bridgestone Potenza S-03, Goodyear F1 GS-D3, Dunlop SP Sport Maxx
Price (typical): $90-130

Advantages: High level of traction on dry pavement, high level of traction on wet pavement, reasonable treadlife (15-25K miles)
Disadvantages: Fairly expensive (Goodyear is less though)

4. "In between" tires (sorry, I can't think of a better name for them)

Examples: Kumho Ecsta MX, Toyo T1-R
Price (typical): $80-90 (except BFG is more)

Advantages: Traction on dry pavement and on wet pavement is very good (better than "budget performance" tires), reasonable treadlife (15-25K miles), less expensive than top of the line tires
Disadvantages: Traction on dry pavement and on wet pavement is not as good as top of the line tires, more expensive than "budget performance" tires

5. Budget performance tires

Examples: Yokohama AVS ES100, Dunlop Direzza DZ101, Kumho Ecsta SPT, Avon Tech M500, Fuzion Zri, BFGoodrich g-Force Sport
Price: $60-65 (Avon is a bit more, Fuzion a bit less)

Advantages: Inexpensive, reasonable treadlife (20-35K miles), very good traction on wet pavement, good traction on dry pavement
Disadvantages: Traction on dry pavement is not as good as the other categories

Recommendation

As you can see, your decision comes down to what is most important to you. If you care mostly about wet traction, price, and wear, then get one of the "budget performance" tires, which do well in all of these criteria. However, they aren't going to handle as well as the other tires, and they may not have enough grip for your high-horsepower application. To the extent you're willing to trade off price and treadlife for better handling and grip, then you can consider moving up the scale a category ("in between" tires) or two (top of the line tires); each step up will give you more handling and grip, but will cost more and won't last as long. If you move up still another step to the specialty application tires, you'll get even more handling and grip, and prices aren't as high as the top of the line tires, but treadlife gets even worse and wet traction isn't as good.

Bottom line: There's no single tire that does everything well. Choose your own preferred trade-off.

What size?

The del sol S has a stock size of 175/70-13, and the del sol Si uses a stock 185/60-14. For either of these models, on 15" wheels like the GS-R's, get 195/50-15 tires.

The del sol VTEC uses a stock size of 195/60-14. For the del sol VTEC, on 15" wheels, you can use 195/55-15 (slightly larger outer diameter) or 205/50-15 (slightly smaller outer diameter). I would recommend the 205/50-15 over the 195/55-15, except that a few of the budget performance tires (Kumho SPT and Yoko ES100) have a significant price advantage to the 195/55-15.



Modified by nsxtasy at 5:05 PM 9/5/2005

WildChild

Great review. You just put me on the right track on selecting the "right" tire. I'm thinking about getting these:

Toyo T1-R $60.00
BFG G Force Sport $68.00
I couldn't find the Kumho Ecsta MX in a 195/50-15 size.

The Toyo look better but, that really has nothing to do with selecting a tire. The Toyo are a better price but, I don't know how they compare to the BFG G Force Sports.


Modified by WildChild at 2:49 PM 9/5/2005

nsxtasy

Oops! I just realized that I put the BFG tire in the wrong category. I was thinking of the BFG g-Force T/A KD, which is their top of the line tire but belongs in the "in between" category since it's not really as good as the S-03 etc. The BFG g-Force Sport tire you mentioned is really just another "budget performance" tire. I've corrected my post.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by WildChild &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Great review. You just put me on the right track on selecting the "right" tire. I'm thinking about getting these:

Toyo T1-R $60.00
BFG G Force Sport $68.00
I couldn't find the Kumho Ecsta MX in a 195/50-15 size.

The Toyo look better but, that really has nothing to do with selecting a tire. The Toyo are a better price but, I don't know how they compare to the BFG G Force Sports.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Again, my error. The BFG G-Force Sport is not as good as the Toyo T1-R.

The Toyo T1-R is an excellent tire and, in your size, a great deal for $60. If you wanted better performance, you would need to spend $89 for the Goodyear F1 GS-D3. If you don't want to spend the extra money for the Goodyear, then get the Toyo.

WildChild

Toyo's it is! Thanks for the help.

EK k kay

Trust me the T1-R's will be more than enough for street use in the rain and dry conditions. Just make sure your car is well aligned in terms of toe settings so you don't eat these tires up on the insides.

teggsr925

nitto nt 55