Best tyre for 17"s

valveman

valveman

Member
I am currently running Pirelli P-Zeros on my 1.4TDI Sport and need to think about replacing them as they are wearing out and the ride is getting worse. I currently have been running some Falken 452's on my 350Z and have found these to be very good for road use. Anyone else had experience with the 452's on their A2?
 
Wasn't over impressed with the Falkens on my A2 on 17's, noisier than the Pirellis i had previously and didn't wear too well.
 
I will not get the Falken 912s ever again. My current set covered only 150 miles and i had a 4 wheel skid in the wet yesterday! Ok in the dry though. But even my old worn down Toyo T1-Rs were better in dry or wet. I may push the car a little too hard at times but these Falkens are not giving me much confidence at the moment. When it let go on a tricky gradient turn, i felt like playing air hockey! The Toyos never did that. If I could choose again, I would have the Toyos again even at £80 a set more expensive!


P.S. any one want to buy a nearly new set of Falken 912s (195/50/16) ;-)
 
That is very strange, the exact same thing happened to me on the falkens the day before yesterday, the back of the car went out and the asr did absolutely nothing and it just would not stop wheel spinning when pulling out of junctions, i am sick and tired of the falkens now and just waiting for them to need changing (very soon!)

Chris
 
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I had thought about the Toyo's and will probably get a set of R888's for my track car which is currently running Falken 452's on standard rims. I have just bought wider rims for the R888's. I was at Silverstone last week on the new GP circuit and the Falkens were OK both in the dry and in the wet. In fact I was surprised how much grip they had in the wet with 330hp going through them.

Anyone got any better suggestions than Toyo T1-R's?
 
Ive only ever heard bad things about Falkens. If I were getting new tyres now I would get those GoodYear Sport Eco Efficiency tyres or what ever they called. R888s are fantastic cant believe theyre road legal! For the record Ive got Nankangs which are doing well grip and wear wise.
 
dan_b said:
Ive only ever heard bad things about Falkens. If I were getting new tyres now I would get those GoodYear Sport Eco Efficiency tyres or what ever they called. R888s are fantastic cant believe theyre road legal! For the record Ive got Nankangs which are doing well grip and wear wise.
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When I used to run an E46 M3 the garage who used to prep the car for me used to recommend Falken 451/452's and said they worked well on the M3, certainly no worse than other makes. I guess it depends on the tyre type and the compound. R888's are supposed to be excellent in the dry - not sure about the wet though. Probably would have to be extremely careful, especially if there were pools of water and a chance of aquaplaning.
 
valveman said:
When I used to run an E46 M3 the garage who used to prep the car for me used to recommend Falken 451/452's and said they worked well on the M3, certainly no worse than other makes. I guess it depends on the tyre type and the compound. R888's are supposed to be excellent in the dry - not sure about the wet though. Probably would have to be extremely careful, especially if there were pools of water and a chance of aquaplaning.
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Well, R888 are available on A2 sizes, 195/50/16 :) but I wouldn't want to tip toe whenever I see a drop of water on the road! A friend prefers Avon on his exige over the R888 while another 111S owner is on Hankook Evo and happy (previously R888). I think ian (driveforward) had R888 on his FWD Arosa track car and was tearing the tarmacs on the 'ring! I was offered a pair of semi-used 888 to see what they're like on the A2's front... tempting but I wasn't going to drive them in the wet with baby on board!

Back on the A2 though, Hankook Ventus Prime seems to gather some fans recently and I would love to try if I could source them. I know a couple of Porsche owners who likes Conti SC2/3 and I think SC2 is available in some A2 sizes.

I think we can have a thread on member tyre reviews, specifically for A2s!
 
I cannot comment on the A2 but I have had a set of 452's on both an A4 and S3 and found them to be very good indeed. I spoke to me local supplier and he says that he considers the 452's leagues above the 912's as they are a completely different compound.
 
I think right now I'm going for Kumhos as they're dirt cheap and they have a very good rep with the scooby club here. OTOH, if someone can recommend me something else at around fifty quid a corner, I'm listening....

Bret
 
Bret, what size? because the price can be so different! If I was prepared to go 195/45 instead of 195/50, I would have the Toyos T1-Rs for £47 a corner (plus fitting) and never would have ordered the Falken 912s!
 
I have just been told the Falkens I have (205/40x17) are on the way out. They are just over 2 years old so that must be about 25k miles. They cost £275 from Micheldever. I have just phoned them and they are offering Kumho KU31 at £258.

Any thoughts?
 
You can get all four fitted on black circles at the moment for 217.52 y rated tyre.

You can also get the falken 452's for 273.24 z rated. Both have 84 load index.

Personally I would get the falkens from personal experience simply as I know they are good and wear well and have no experience of Khumo's other that a friend hated his!
 
The Kumho KU31 is a very quiet and extremely progressive tyre that is highly thought of on many motoring forums.

I've used them on a Mercedes A Class (now replaced with the A2) and just put a set on my Elise.

In both wet and dry conditions they give a smooth progressive transition into slip once the limits are reached.

The performance of this tyre belies it's bargain price!
 
Probably a bit late for this topic but I have recently bought Continental SportContact 3 (215/40/17) for one axle of my A2 and I have been impressed with their grip, quietness and lip that helps prevents kerbing. However I should be impressed because they are expensive!

I was previously happy with Dunlop SP9000's on all four but as I discovered on holiday in North Wales when I got a puncture, these have now been discontinued and replaced with Dunlop Sport Max's. I had alot of driving still to do with a trip down to Devon then back to London and despite shopping around at three places was only able to get the expensive Continentals. Grrr. I now have a spare near side Dunlop SP9000 if anyone is ever desperate...
 
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i just had 2 Accelera tyres fitted to my 17" wheels, they came reccomended by my old employer who sells tyres/wheels.
Initial thoughts are very good. cost £45 each

When they were balanced it was found that there was no weights on the wheels, so whoever fitted the last set of tyres for the previous owner did not balance the wheels, or the weights dropped off (unlikely)
 
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