Summer tire ideas?

Looking for the best summer tire for street use, any suggestions?

FYI: Primarily around town and highway driving with the occassional fast corning....

these will be on 18x7.5 wheels.

 

best choice: eagle f1's...hands down. around 160/tire. i think fong or someone posted an article from some company doing a test about the top ten tires...f1's ranked first. it was maybe road and track that tested.

 

In terms of really aggressive street tires there are really only a few choices. If you're talking summer only tires then you have a bunch of options that are less expensive than the f1's and all grip better:

Advan neova - expensive but very good

Falken Azenis - Wears quickly but top grip levels. Stiffest sidewalls of any street tire.

Kumho ectsta MX - Wears better than the azenis but has a less stiff sidewall. Better in rain than the Azenis 215 but overall worse than an azenis 615.

Hankook z212 - despite the fact that hankook makes them they are shaping up to be the most highly competitive summer tire for the price. Probably the best for street use treadwear wise.

most of what you need to know is here:

http://sccaforums.com/forums/thread/139406.aspx

 

Good thread idea, I'm going to have to replace my S03 PP's this spring and will definitely be doing so on more of a budget.

 

i have heard some good things about the new fusion line of tire, enough to look into it, but not enough to base an opinion on.

zach: how does the azenis 615 match up the 215 in tread life?

 

The 615 has better tread life, better in the rain and less heat soak/rapid heat issues.

theyre more squirmy initailly unless shaved, but this is really a 9/10ths-10/10ths driving issue i wouldnt worry about unless competing in them.

I get 2 summers out of my azenis' with autocrossing which takes off most of them, but i dont put a lot of street miles on my subaru (about 2-3k a summer.) but at the end, theyr'e slicks on all 4 corners.

 

i think when i go dedicated summer/winter i am going to go w/ teh 615s

 

This spring if all goes will, I will be getting new tires, and possibly rims as well. It is time to replace the RE92's

 

I've been researching my summers also. I'd really like to get the 615's but I'm afraid I'd go through them too quick as I put uber amounts of milage on my car. I'm might have to try out the hankooks....

 

i feel the same way. i bet they wouldnt go that fast. highwasy is nto auto-x. and if your only using em in the summer, they should last for 2-3 summers.

 

Yeah, but I drive about 85 miles round trip to work 5 days a week, so with that and other driving, I'm expecting at least 15K a summer.....boy, that's depressing to think about.

 

It should also be noted that most of my miles on them were pretty rough driving city miles.

I'd recommend the Ectsta MX for a daily driver extreme summer tire that will hold up ok. the 'kooks are probably the best treadwear for daily driving/highest performing/cheapest.

never thought the day would come when I'd recommend hankook. Maybe Avon will get their **** together one day too and be recommendable.

 

I would consider getting some Falken Azenis RT-615 for daily and Nitto NT-01 for the weekends.

This place has probably the best prices I have been able to find on the net for RT-615
s. Enjoy

http://www.vulcantire.com/azenis_rt615_t.htm

 

so they finally decided to make the rt-615 in 215/45/16. i'll be picking up a set for myself this summer then when it comes out.

 

I totally trust Car & Driver's editors 100% because they got Forester XT to run a 13.8 in the 1/4 mile that I couldn't duplicate. Anyway, this is an article that C&D printed on their test of several summer rubbers: http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=10252

I hope you make your choice well.

 

wow i dont see any reason not to get the kooks

 

thanks for the ideas...is there a better place than tirerack to buy tires in general?

 

you have to remember that most of these asymetrical tires you are all mentioning are going to be horrible in the rain compared to a symetrical tire. yes the asym's are going to be better on teh track, but the sym's rain factor make it no competition on my book.

 

i'd say Discount tire for the Kooks, Sears (yes, sears) for the falkens.
otherwise, edgeracing.com is a good place too... lot of autocrossers have gotten theirs through them.

 

S0rry sahne I have to say discount tier for whatever tire you want, if they don't have it they can get it and there customer service is way better then sears. I have had 2 flats, and 3 tire rotations done on my car for free for 3 reasons.

1. bought tirres from them before.
2. plan on buying tires from them again.
3. they work in junction with tirerack.com. (my old roomate ordered tires from tirerack and discout mounted them for him.)

 

Sears.
why? because they were WAAYYY cheaper per tire than Discount tire.
Try $18 per tire cheaper.

plus, they were really cool at sears. i brought the wrong lug nuts by accident, and when they couldn't actually put the new wheels/tires on the car, they didn't charge me for mounting and balnencing.

Plus, they also have free rotation/balncing.

Discount says they'll match/beat any price, but when i walked in with the quote from sears, they told me to go back to sears. :roll:

 

I don't think any of the tires I recommended are "horrible" in the rain... I think that some tire companies sell tons of tires by only discussing their ability to evacuate water *ahem goodyear*

The point is that al of these tires are perfectly safe on water if you're not driving like a maniac. the testing data for the in development azenis 615 and what was published later proves that they're as good as any all season tire is on water so long as you are not driving way too fast on water on public roads. and if you are racing on water keep in mind that usually Kumho MX's or Azenis 615's and 215's are also a top rain tire choice for autocrossers on the national circuit.


I'd say the only thing these tires dont have over more expensive ones is treadwear, but i've gotten 4 summers out of 2 sets of azenis' and never had any problems, and I know guys are getting way more out of the hankooks.

 

I have fuzions on my 19's... gone thorugh 1 summer so far.. probably 10000-15000 miles and havent seemed to show much wear yet... and I drive on gravel roads too...

 

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/home.do I wouldnt buy tires from tires plus and I also wouldnt reccomend the Yokohama es100(they suck!)

Any tire place around town should be able to price match anyone even the internet. keep that in mind.

 

I am very happy with my BFG G-force tires, and they were pretty damn cheap.

 

what you have to understand is most internet retailers are shop fronts... so too speak.. they have virutally NO overhead, so they order then have it shipped straight to you from their suppliers, so they dont have lifts, employees (most) etc etc to pay for... when you go to a place like Discount Tires etc.. they have to pay for the person top mount and balance, and install etc....

I would go Discount Tires.. we work hand in hand with them as we sell tires but dont carry stock, and we do all their wheel lugs (broken) and alignments.. the guys at the SHakopee one are good guys

 

I picked up a set of RT615s from vulcantire.com for abot $40 cheaper per wheel when they were having their "05 blowout sale."

For strictly a summer tire I'd second the Hankooks and my #1 choice would be the RT615s.