Tried searching, but with no luck.

I was looking through tire rack and I came across these tires. I was planning on going with the S-03's as my next tire... but the rating seems to be a little bit better for the goodyears; however there is a lot less feedback, which makes it somewhat less reliable.

Can anyone give some feedback on these tires; comparing the 195/50 S-03's and 205/50 Azenis; the 195/50 Goodyear and the 205/50 Azenis; or either the Goodyear or the S-03's and the stock 195/55 010's. Thanks!

 

The F1 GS-D3 won the British car mag EVO's tire test last year, beating the S-03 and six other tires. This was performed on a Focus ST170, which is pretty much the same as our SVT. If you can get a hold of a July 2002 issue its a pretty good test. They did like 11 different tests to each tire. The F1 GS-D3 was midpack in most of the objective categories, but won most of the subjective categories. It did not place very high in the dry categories and placed pretty high in the wet categories. The S-03 placed first in most of the dry categories, but did poorly in most of the wet categories (which was kind of a surprise). Overall, they ranked the S-03 seventh. Unfortunately, the Azenis is not one of the tires in the test.

As for my personal feelings, I'm still very happy with my S-03s and have been reluctant to change, but may try out a set of Azenis next. Everyone who autocrosses and tracks them have been really happy, plus they are pretty cheap.

I wanted to see if they bring the F1 GS-D3 here in 205/50, then i would probably buy a set to try out.

 

Well, I had a set of S-03's on my car, but instead of 195 or 205, they were 225, and I'm reluctant to hope that the 195's would be as grippy.

I have the azenis on my car now, and I must say that the S-03's were noticibly stickier.... but then again, the were 20mm wider and on bigger rims.

After reading about them on tire rack, I was intrigued. I'm more interested in dry grip and performance, as I live in SoCal... I don't really care about wet performance; as long as I don't drive like an ***, I've never had a problem with any tire.

Bumo for the afternoon/evening croud.

Edit: there's only a $7 difference between the Goodyear's and the Potenza's, so it's neglegible, I just am curious which one to get.


[Modified by SoCal ITR, 2:45 PM 4/6/2003]

 

Thanks again for the review hecklervtec...

anyone else have some input?

 

S-03 are awesome but cost a grip... Azenis for me.

B2 - who aint baller enuf to afford dem s-03zz

 

195/50 S-03's are only $79

 

Oh yeah...the 195 size, forgot about those. No word on the Goodyears though.

 

Something else I forgot to add in my original post was how well the S-03s wear. SoCal I know you said you had a set, so I hope I'm not being redundant. My S-03s have held up to all sorts of abuse, including track days, autocrosses and some aggressive street driving. They've worn much better than the original S-03s and AVS Intermediates I've has on my R. They look much better after track events I've run with other folks that have newer Azenises. My current tires have been through two at least two track days at Sears Point, three at Laguna, one at Thunderhill, and one at Willow Springs, plus a few autocrosses. I've had them over a year and they still look pretty good and finally getting close (guessing 3mm or so) to the wear bars. Not bad for a grippy tire. I would think I probably would have bought close to two sets of the Azenis (judging from what I've seen of other folks tires after track events and autocrosses), so that may have offset some of the cost difference issue there. Like I mentioned earlier I'm considering trying a set of Azenis next out of curiousity and would consider a set of the Goodyears if they made them in the right size.

 

I didn't have the S-03's on long enough to know, so I'm glad you pointed it out.

I noticed the other day that one of my tires was REALLY low, I'm guessing it's all of the on/off ramps because it was the front left.. and the right rear looks almost new.. so I switched them... but I don't know if it's going to last long enough to even them out.

No one seems to know much about the Goodyears, so I may give them a try; otherwise it seems I can't go wrong with S-03's.

Thanks again, hopefully sometime soon I can go to one of the track events near by.