ok so its time for some new tires,
first I was going to get some 205-50-15 falken azenis,
I do plan to autocross on these, not really competitively, but more of a
for fun type of thing when theres an event nearby.

but i'm going to drive these tires on the street too, and azenis wear out too quickly,

SO, I was thinking yokohama avs es100's

are there any other tires with comparable grip to the azenis that I might consider(i know that there really isnt anything that will grip as good for the money, but something close).

ALSO whats the cheapest I could get es100's for? tires.com hasem for 80somethin and free shipping.

 

I'm wondering the same thing, what's a good daily driver/agressive tire.

rob

 

I've tried a few tires as an alternative
SUMITOMO HTRZ
I heard good things about sumitomo htrz from a fellow canyon racer so i tried um. They were $62 each tredwear was 160 temp A traction A 205/50/15. I mounted them on volk CE28N 15x7 and I have to say that the tires were really wide for the rim it seemed more like a 215 tire or maybe even 225. If I had to choose again I'd try the 195/50/15 (also cheeper $54). I got a chance to take them to one autox and a few canyons before someone stole my car and I have to say they were pretty good. The tread wear is 160 which is lower than azenis but I think the tred pattern is less superior than the flat contact patches of the falkens, also the sumitomo tire had a really soft sidewall but the tires would heat up very quickly and start to melt, thats when the traction really began. Compared to my friend's heavier SI coupe (I had a VX hatchback 95) his falkens stick to the ground a little bit better. All together not a bad tire (I would buy them again) the only bad part was the soft sidewall I would give it 7.7 out of 10
Yokohama AVS ES100
These tires are great. I have them on spoon wheels right now 195/50/15 and they have had a little bit more turning stability than the sumitomo htrz. The tredwear is a little bit more (280) but the sidewall is a lot more stiff which what I think made them more stable through the turn, although still not as stiff as the falken sidewall (which is also the reason why falkens are so heavy), but the tire compound SEEMS softer. I would recomend these to autoxers. Falkens are sold out at a lot of places in so cali (and are heavy as hell) and it would be great to find an alternative that performs just as good for the same price (a032 kumho ecsta are over $100 each) I would pick the AVS ES100 at a whopping $53 ($1 cheeper than sumitomo haha)each for autox, as for the track...... I never have enough money to go to one of those haha btw I'd say about 8 out of 10




Modified by eh2 nihonjin at 3:52 AM 8/13/2003

 

SUMITOMO HTRZ : I can vouch for those because I have ridden in eh2 nihonjin's car. Cheap and affordable but also handles just as good as Azenis.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">but i'm going to drive these tires on the street too, and azenis wear out too quickly, </TD></TR></TABLE>

You should be able to get 10,000, or more street miles out of these.

Look into Kumho Ecsta MX, i autocrossed a car on them last weekend and they felt pretty good.

 

Azenis wear out too quickly? Mine brand new Azenis last year lasted 30-40 autocrosses (4-8 runs each), 2 track days, and 10-15,000 street miles. Figure that would be about 25,000-30,000 miles.

Now granted I was dropped 2" and my toe was 0 front and rear, camber 1.5 negative front and 2.2 rear. My current set which I had shaved I've done about 15 autocrosses and 5000 street miles and they are wearing great.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by .RJ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

You should be able to get 10,000, or more street miles out of these.

Look into Kumho Ecsta MX, i autocrossed a car on them last weekend and they felt pretty good.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Those seemed faily decent. I've talked to a few people that have them, and them seem to like them for the cost.

 

I autoX and drive on my AVS ES100s and I've got no complaints. They handle well, they let you know when they're about to give and they're pretty predictable about how much you can put to them after a few runs. The outer shoulder is pretty round by now, but it doesn't seem to have much effect on driving. They still do real well in the rain, they're pretty quiet on the highway, and despite the beatings, theres still a good bit of tread left.

Try Tire Rack. They were cheapest when I bought mine.

 

You're going to have to sacrifice grip for miles in tires; Azenis are a very good choice when you consider for $60 a tire, you get awesome grip and acceptable mileage. I've put about 15 autocrosses on my Azenis and around 7K miles and I figure I still have around 3-4K left on them (I'm not autocrossing on them anymore, went to R-compounds). Just so you know, when looking for other tires, don't try to compare them to Azenis in terms of grip; you'll come out disappointed in almost every situation.

 

Falkens are definately an awesome performing tires

 

A lot of folks overlook the Sumi HTRZ, but they are great tires and very sticky (especially for the price). Yes, the sidewall is kinda soft, but not any worse than the Kumho 712 or something. And they are indeed wide for their size (195 HTRZ is just as wide as 90% of the 205's out there).

 

ive put 5k street miles on my azenis's and about 25 passes down the strip on them with 25 burnouts before running and they show almost no sign of wear yet.

im guessing ill get roughly 15k miles on them before they are shot. and thats only because ill be using them at some hpde's real soon. they grip great, wear pretty good, and are cheap. ill never go back to another tire for street/track use

 

Falken Azenis are NOT drag racing tires!!! I don't get people who buy Falken Azenis for their drag racing tires.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EM1b18cR y0! &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Falken Azenis are NOT drag racing tires!!! I don't get people who buy Falken Azenis for their drag racing tires. </TD></TR></TABLE>

With the extra stiff sidewall isn't that what do NOT want for drag racing?

Rob

 

well azenis are cheap *** hell, and super grippy, the only downside for drag racing is their stiff sidewall..
I'd say they're a pretty good choice for their price, just set the tire pressure really low.

 

I wish I could find a set of ECSTA MX's somewhere outside of Canada! They are on backorder at Tire Rack for another 4 weeks.

The HTRZ sounds like a great alternative, but if it's super wide, I'm not interested. I just clear my 205/50-15 ECSTA 712's.

*sigh* I guess I'll wait.

 

I was doing some research on the ES100's @ tirerack.com and they got rave reviews. They kicks the 712's ***, and edged out the Sumos in almost every category. They will be replacing my Azenis shortly as I am looking for a tire that wears better and has better "all weather" performance.

 

how about dunlop FM901s, they got a 200 tread wear and have lots of grip for cheap.

 

azenis have '200 tread wear' also. :&gt;

 

I'm also in the same situation, and have been doing tons of research at tirerack to figure out my best solution. I think my choice will definately be the Ecsta MX tires from Kumho. I have victoracers for my autocross tires, love them. My dad has Ecsta V700 autocross tires for his corvette, and I loved running on those as well.

I'm a little worried about going back to a Kumho street tire, as I had Ecsta Supra's on my 17" rims for a while, and they absolutely sucked. I think the only time I was ever decently impressed with those tires was when the roads were almost flooded. They had no grip whatsoever, you couldn't drag or autocross on these tires. And no, it's not just because of the 40 series profile on the tire, I've raced plenty of cars with the same wheel size and profile, and different tires DO work better.

I give a to the Ecsta Supras

 

I had the Sumitomo HTRZ-II as my street tires, with falkens as my autoX/HPDE tires and have driven each of them at autoX and track so I can compare them pretty well.
The Sumitomos pale in comparison to the Azenis. Overheat quickly and dont have nearly as much grip. (but overall a better tire than the similarly priced Kuhmo 712)

I would say Kuhmo MX is the closest thing to Azenis for a decent price. BFG Gforce KD are great, but considerably more expensive.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by KGAccord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">how about dunlop FM901s, they got a 200 tread wear and have lots of grip for cheap. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Supposedly the FM901s have jello-like sidewalls.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EM1b18cR y0! &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Falken Azenis are NOT drag racing tires!!! I don't get people who buy Falken Azenis for their drag racing tires. </TD></TR></TABLE>
i never said that they are drag racing tires. i only stated this as to show that they hold up pretty well. i didnt buy them thinking they are a drag radial or anything. i bought them because they are a great handling tire. my car is by no means a drag car, its set up for autox or track driving but i take it to the strip sometimes for the hell of it because why not? and they work pretty good for me at the strip. ive pulled 2.1's on them but do get the occassional wheel hop because of the sidewall being so stiff.

 

For some more Azenis wear reference, my tires have 4 autocrosses, 2 track weekends, and about 10,000 miles on the street. They are at about 1/2 tread right now.

 

I had Kumho 712's, and went to Yoko AVS Es100's.

I ******* love these tires. They squeal nicely before breakaway, so they are very very easy to push to the edge, very communicative, and I like that.

I've autocrosse on them once, and they worked really well. They weren't quite broken in all the way though, I can feel a difference in them since the autocross, so I can't wait till Sept 14th so I can go again.

They are worlds better than the 712's. Definitely recommend them.