gribbs

I am looking to put some grippy 14" tires on some steelies until i get more cash to by rims. I can get some Azenis in 14", but what size to you guys/gals think would be optimal? I want as little sidewall as possible, but still enough to fill up the wheel well with my h&r sport sized drop

Thanx for any help!

nsxtasy

It depends on what kind of car you have. Care to tell us the year, model, and version of your car?

old man neri

Niagra falls eh? Please tell me you have dedicated winter tires if you are planning on getting Azenis's.......

gribbs

I've got a 99 ek hatch, all stock right now

And ya i have ran winter tires on the front every winter on my cars....dont feel having them on the rear represent good value.

My current tires are 185 70 14s ...so what you think for Azenis or any other sport tire???

nsxtasy

Don't do that with tiny tires. If you're looking for as little sidewall as possible, the proper way to do so is to get larger wheels, keeping the outer diameter of your tires the same as stock. That will give you the shorter sidewalls you're looking for, without screwing up your car's suspension, speedometer accuracy, etc.

Your car came with 185/65-14 tires stock, so that's one 14" size you can use. Unfortunately, there aren't any high performance 14" tires in that size. (There aren't all that many high performance 14" tires out there in ANY size.) You can go to a 195/60-14 size, which is 1.1 percent smaller in outer diameter, not a huge difference so that's a pretty good match to your car too.

The Falken Azenis RT-615 is available in 195/60-14. It's a super-sticky tire, great traction on dry pavement, excellent for autocrossing. Traction on wet pavement is so-so (not as bad as its RT-215 predecessor, but not as good as other street tires), and it wears extremely rapidly (you might get only 10K miles to a set). Price is reasonable, at $64/tire at Vulcan. If these characteristics are what you're looking for, go for it!

If you are looking for a tire that will last a lot longer (30-45K miles), offers excellent wet traction, and has decent dry traction (by no means super sticky like the RT-615, but pretty good, more than adequate for spirited street use), the Yokohama ES100 is also available in 195/60-14 for $70/tire at the Tire Rack. So if you would prefer longer life and better wet traction instead of getting the ultimate dry traction, then this would be a good choice.

These are the ONLY decent performance summer tires available in either 14" size.

Using winter tires on the front and non-winter tires on the rear is a VERY BAD idea. It can result in huge oversteer on slippery surfaces - you enter a turn and the back end comes around on you because it grips so much worse than the front end.

Here's what the Tire Rack says about it:

"When you put winter tires on your vehicle, always put them on in a set of four. If you were to put winter tires on only the front or rear of your vehicle, you would create a vehicle with a split personality. The traction capabilities of the tires on a vehicle play the largest single role in determining how that vehicle will react in any given situation. And with the great difference in traction capabilities between Winter tires and All-Season or High Performance tires, you can understand the loss of control when one end of the car performs very well and the other end just seems to have a mind of its own. Consider the fact that leading automobile manufacturers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Nissan, and Toyota recommend in their owner's manuals that you install four winter tires for winter driving. By installing four winter tires, you maintain the most balanced and controlled handling possible in all winter driving conditions. It is imperative to keep the same level of traction at all four corners of the car; otherwise, the full benefits of ABS or traction control systems will be lost."

old man neri

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by gribbs &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've got a 99 ek hatch, all stock right now

And ya i have ran winter tires on the front every winter on my cars....dont feel having them on the rear represent good value.

My current tires are 185 70 14s ...so what you think for Azenis or any other sport tire???</TD></TR></TABLE>

You cannot get sporty tires if you plan on using them in the winter. Also running winters on the front and something else on the back is a bad idea.

Also the correct size for your car is 185/65/14

The azenis RT-615 comes in 195/60/14 at Vulcan Tire This size would be perfect for your 99 hatch.

But if you run this tire it won't last very long (20 000 KM or something) and you cannot run it in the winter even in the back. This tire is fairly high end. It really depends on what you use your car for. Track/Daily driver....etc.?

If you want sport tires get 4 winter tires. If you don't want to get 4 winter tires get 4 all seasons and run them all year long.

crslowx

Just get the falken ziex'z they are good tires Falken=Badass

old man neri

If you are going to order from tire rack or whomever, be prepared to pay a substantial brokerage fee from UPS, they LOVE to screw Canadians. Might be easier for you to have them deliverd to an "authorized installer" in the states and just drive over there and pick them up or get them mounted there and drive back and just pay the tax on them. Just make sure to research how much the brokerage will cost you, it is not included in the shipping costs.

Also it looks like http://www.tiretrends.com carries the RT-615 in 195/60/14 and costs 135 CDN a piece. They are a Canadian company so no brokerage. Somethign to also consider.

I don't know which comes out to be more expensive $64 US at vulcan plus shipping and brokerage or $135 CDN at tiretrends plus shipping only. Research.

Best bet is probably just ship them just on the other side of the border at a mounting place, drive over, get them mounted, drive back, pay the tax, and enjoy the rubber.

Cheers.

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

Blah blah blah, something about tires, ....blah blah more words.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

.......lol

Damn Ken, beat me to it, I think you must of posted when I was writting mine up. At least we more or less said the same thing.

Cheers.


Edit: a bunch of stuff


Modified by old man neri at 5:06 PM 2/3/2006

nsxtasy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by crslowx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just get the falken ziex'z they are good tires</TD></TR></TABLE>

No, they're not. Unless you need to use them on snow. Like any all-season tire, the Falken Ziex ZE-512 all-season tire is a "compromise tire", designed for use in all weather conditions, from snow and winter cold to warm summer temperatures. The compromise is that it won't perform as well in the winter as a winter tire, and the rest of the year, it won't perform anywhere near as well as even an inexpensive summer tire like the Yokohama ES100. And even among all-season tires, the ZE-512 is nothing great, nowhere near as good as the better all-season tires out there like the Kumho Ecsta ASX or the Pirelli PZero Nero M+S, just to name two decent ones. In moderate to warm temperatures - outside of winter - the Yokohama ES100 (as well as the Falken Azenis RT-615) that I recommend offer much much MUCH better performance than those crappy Falken all-seasons.

Also, the Falken Ziex ZE-512 doesn't come in any 14" sizes at all. So there's no way he could even mount them on his wheels. (Didn't you bother to read the title of this topic?)





Modified by nsxtasy at 5:43 PM 2/3/2006

nsxtasy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by old man neri &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Also it looks like [url="http://www.tiretrends.com/catalog2.php3?tireID=478"] http://www.tiretrends.com[/url] carries the RT-615 in 195/60/14 and costs 135 CDN a piece. They are a Canadian company so no brokerage. Somethign to also consider.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Two other dealers north of the 49th parallel you can check:

Talon Tire (QC) sells Yokohama, but not Falken.
1010tires.com (BC) sells both Yokohama and Falken.

However, often the prices from the Canadian dealers are a whole lot higher, even after you consider the exchange rate and other charges like brokerage, shipping, taxes, etc.

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