Best Tires For Original Wheels?
 

This is a cart-before-the-horse thread, I guess. I just ordered 4 tires from The Tire Rack to be drop shipped to a tire shop near my house. What I decided on after much comparing of performance and price was this one:

Firestone Firehawk SZ50EP

Size, obviously, 225-50ZR16 and the price delivered was $545 for 4 tires. These were rated 3rd out of all tires tested regardless of price, and 2nd in wet traction, aquaplaning and cornering.
My last 2 sets were Bridgestone Potenza RE730 (not great) and Potenza S-02 (excellent). The S-02s were about $200 ea. and I couldn't see that much again.

Anybody have any experience with these tires? YEAH I KNOW... should have asked before buying...

Thanks for any comments.

Fred Robbins

Just thought I'd add one of the reviews of these tires:




Vehicle: 1995 Infiniti Q45
Location: San Jose, CA
Driving Style: Fast and Aggressive
Driving Condition: Combined Highway/City
Reviewer's Overall Ratings: 9.88 out of 10
Review Submitted 2003-05-30

These are by far the best tires I have ever purchased. In over twenty five years of driving, I have tried Dunlop, Michelin, Bridgestone, and Goodyear tires. The Firestone SZ50EP has the best wet handling (traction and braking) of all of them. Cornering is superb and highway quietness is excellent - you can hardly feel the California inter-lane dots! Get these tires for your car - you will be amazingly pleased. Even on a heavy car like my Infiniti Q45, I have been very surprised at how agile they made my car feel. Directional stability was improved and I feel a lot safer in wet conditions.

Did you ever try any Yokohamas?:( (AVS db S2)

For an all season performance tires, I'd go with what I have:

Yokohama A550Vs.

I can't find ANYTHING on the net about them, but I purchased them at sears. 30k tread warranty, traction rating of AA, and speed rating of Z.

Bad-ass. Especially for under 100 bucks each (sale! Woohoo!)

- Rob

John,

I haven't tried Yoko's but looked at AVS Intermediate and A008 both. Friend of mine is an SCCA racer and uses them on his race cars. Can't remember why I didn't pursue them furthur, but I seem to remember one was too pricey at the time --- I'll see how these work out. I was hoping somebody here had these Firehawks.

Thanks,

Fred

Can't remember why I didn't pursue them furthur, but I seem to remember one was too pricey at the time --- I'll see how these work out. I was hoping somebody here had these Firehawks.

Thanks,

Fred [/B][/QUOTE]

Sorry, no Firehawks here, but my Yoko AVS dbs were only $104 each plus shipping from Tirerack about a year ago. Quite a few of us have these tires. They were judged competant & quiet. Mine have 18K on 'em & have been fine for my mostly conservative driving. Good luck with Mr. Firestone.

Ron.

My favorite all-seasons are the Dunlop SP Sport A2. If I didnt live in such a harsh climate, though, I would have the Yoko AVS dB2's.

Mike

Well Mike,

I guess I'll soon be the "go-to" guy for Firestone Firehawk
SZ50 EP !

BTW, I notice most of the forum members put their SVX info in the signature area. I may do that later, but for now I'll just add it here:

1994 SVX FWD; 99K; Blue Mica. Bought new 8/95 for under $18K
plus title, tag and taxes. Only real problem in Florida is a heckuva
lot of torque steer with only 2 wheels pulling. Pretty damn quick
though with 150 lbs. weight savings over AWD. Probably not a car for a real "purist" :-)

TIRE DEBATE
 

My 1995 SVX had some kind of Bridgestones with about 1/3 tread when I bought it 2 years ago (with 30K miles! In Arizona! Now has 69K!). [I have a bias against Bridgestones since both my wife's Camaro (drifted crazily at high speeds!) and my Isuzu Impulse had B. tires wear out prematurely. They were also very expensive!] I switched to (Subaru-SVX.net recommended)Yokohama AVS dB's (now on second set). I only got around 25,000 miles on first set, but had horrendous inside outer edge abnormal wear on (esp. one tire) one side due to alignment being toed-out.

I liike this tire a lot, but don't have anything to compare it to (?)!

Good "Luck" with your Firestones. You're a trailblazer! :D

SVX's had Bridgestone RE95 tires as OEM's. Mine were good for about 28K miles --- or so I thought --- but were excellent in performance. I could have gotten 35K, but I was still enamored with performance and wet-weather security, so pulled 'em off a little early. The second set were Bridgestone Potenza S-02's which were the top of the line back then. You could drive through standing water at high speed and see 2 dry strips in your mirrors.
They had a tread wear rating of 140 (low mileage) which is typical of Ultra Performance tires. I replaced them at 57K with cheaper Bridgestone's - RE730's. The tread wear has been very good. I have about 42K miles on them. But wet-weather performance has left a lot to be desired.

I know Firestone and Bridgestone are both owned by the same Japanese corporation, and I also know that Firestone has been spending a lot on the high performance product line over the last 10 years. The lawsuits involving SUV rollovers made them pay much more attention to Quality --- not that didn't before. But they sponsored the IMSA Firestone Firehawk Racing series and made spec tires for all the race cars, and followed that up with more production tires in the High Perf. area. I feel pretty confident in this purchase, but "eating the pudding" will tell the tale.

I have to replace the tires on the 92 before the snow flies. I just looked at the UHPAS tires on tire rack. I narrowed it down to 2 tires the Continetal Exteme Contact EP and the Yoko AVS dB S2. The Conti has the same noise rating (quietness) as the Yoko seems to be much better in the snow and is cheaper. I think that I'll have to investigate further.

I thought that the Dunlop SP-5000's on my 97 handled the snow pretty well last winter. But they were rated just about as poorly as the Yokos in snow. Go figure.

Does anyone have any experience with these Contis, especially in snow?

I swear by the AVS db!! The "S2" in an improved edition of the tire. These are the second set on my SVX and I vow to never use a different tire! Only wish I could get them on my Jeep!:D

The continentals are the next tire I am going to buy. One nice feature that they have is a rim gaurd. The tires are very quiet and have good wear. :)

John,

You wrote " These are the second pair on my SVX and I vow to never use a different tire!"

Do you really buy tires in pairs? :D


Fred

"Set" damn it!!...Skipped the hooked-on-phonics classes when I was younger!!