New tire season - advice thread

IceBone

Blue Wheel Hipster
Joined
Jan 14, 2007
Messages
27,221
Location
Slovenistan
Car(s)
Audi A5 Quattro
So... only 5 more days until it's legal again to drive around with summer tires only and I'll be getting a brand new set to fit the 17" rims I got in autumn. I'm looking for something sporty, not a compromise tire, but not semi-slick either, as they're too expensive. I was thinking about sticking to Bridgestone Turanza, which I've had before and can't really fault them and will cost me ?100 a corner, but I'm open to other options too.

These are the ones in stock atm at my tire place (Turanzas will have to be ordered, at no extra cost, so that's not a problem if there are popular tires, which are better for that price, but not on that list).
 
Do they sell Dunlap Star Spec's in Europe? IF so those are absolutely my vote.
 
So... only 5 more days until it's legal again to drive around with summer tires only and I'll be getting a brand new set to fit the 17" rims I got in autumn. I'm looking for something sporty, not a compromise tire, but not semi-slick either, as they're too expensive. I was thinking about sticking to Bridgestone Turanza, which I've had before and can't really fault them and will cost me ?100 a corner, but I'm open to other options too.
Hrm, perhaps the tires are labeled differently over there, but the Turanzas are... not a sporty tire. There are a few different Turanza models, but none of them are in the class I'd consider sporty. The Bridgestone tires I'd be looking at, if sporty is the goal, would all be Potenzas, specifically RE050 (whichever variety would fit your car and uses best) or RE-11 for even better performance. The Star Spec would be the "budget" option in this class, and the Yokohama Advan Neova AD08 a similar option to the Bridgestones. The Kumho and Hankook tires offered in this class aren't tires I'd recommend for a daily driver/primary car, as they're not that great in wet.

By the definitions I'd use, these aren't semi-slick tires. The semi-slicks would be the Yokohama A048. Neither Bridgestone nor Dunlop have a semi-slick option sold through TireRack, but there are other options. I get about 8,000 miles on the Star Spec class of tires, but that's with a lot of track time. Without the track time I'd expect around 15,000 miles, in my car, with my street driving.
 
If your tire places stock the Toyo T1R, I'd add that as a recommendation; very good in the wet and fairly good treadwear for a tire of its class. Not a track tire by any stretch of the imagination, but as a daily driver tire it's pretty good.
 
If your tire places stock the Toyo T1R, I'd add that as a recommendation; very good in the wet and fairly good treadwear for a tire of its class. Not a track tire by any stretch of the imagination, but as a daily driver tire it's pretty good.
I'd say the T1R is close to, maybe a bit better than, the RE050 for grip, very similar in wear, better wear than the RE-11 and that class but a touch less dry grip. Definitely a worthy tire. :)
 
The Toyos look sexy as hell. I hope they're around ?100 a piece for 225/45 R17.

EDIT: They're 410 for 4 on ebay.de, new. I bet I can get a price like that at the local place.

EDIT #2: Found them for the same price in the country, so the local dealer should have them.
 
Last edited:
w00t. If you're not completely wedded to the T1R, there's also the Sumitomo HTR Z series of tires; the local Jaguar shop swears by them. No personal experience with them though.
 
Local search engine only finds 3 forum threads, nothing for sale or anything. :/
 
I can vouch for the Conti Extreme DWS but I'm not sure if those are available in Europe. Excellent performance tires! Just stay away from snow...
 
w00t. If you're not completely wedded to the T1R, there's also the Sumitomo HTR Z series of tires; the local Jaguar shop swears by them. No personal experience with them though.
None of the Sumitomos offer the level of performance the T1Rs and better offer. They're perfectly good tires, and their price tends to be good, but they don't offer enough grip and feedback for picky me.
 
So... only 5 more days until it's legal again to drive around with summer tires only

I learn something new about U-rope everyday on here...most tend to be reasons I would not want to live there. Being told which tires/tyres I can/can't drive on, :lol: F that.
 
I learn something new about U-rope everyday on here...most tend to be reasons I would not want to live there. Being told which tires/tyres I can/can't drive on, :lol: F that.

You don't have any driving-related regulations over there?
 
I currently run on Yokohama AD07's, I love those tires.
Very grippy, doesn't squeal easily and when it breaks away, it's nice and controllable.
But good god those things have gotten expensive, TireRack is selling them for almost $350 a piece now.
That's almost twice the price that I paid for them a year or so ago. :?

The stock Bridgestone RE070 tires that I had half a lifetime ago squealed very easily and didn't have all that much grip.
However, the sidewalls were extremely stiff and gave a very good initial turn-in response.

I've heard good things about the Toyo T1R, but I've never run on them.
 
What about BFGoodrich G-ForceProfiler? They're about the same money, if not cheaper.

bfgoodrich-g-force-profiler.jpg
 
Top