Best Tire (Tyre) Manufacturer

cdbob

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2006
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Location
Edmonton, Canada
Car(s)
'09 STi (soon gone),'04 TDi, '96 MX-5 M
It seems that theres always a lot of talks on cars engines, transmissions, brakes, turbo, supercharger, exhaust, intake manifold (warming dangerz to teh manifoldz), headers, seats, colour options, styling, space and the general interior the make a car either really good, bad, average or better then it was before, but what tire companies are best since that is techically the most important part of the car. I mean there are so many applications for tires, the best Snow, All Season, Dry, Performance, Slick, Drag Slick, Rally, Off Road, Intermediate Racing, Racing Slick, Full Rain Racing, and all the others. So which manufactor is the best, keep in mind that you can you more then one for different kinds of tire.
 
bfgoodrich.

they make superior summer, off-road, performance, high performance, ultra-high performance, all-terrain, d.o.t. drag radial, etc. they're priced well - you actually get your money's worth. also, their treadwear ratings are outstanding, as are their selection of sizes.

i love 'em!
 
No single manufacturer makes "the best" tire in all the categories you've listed.
 
I did not mean one for all, I meant which is the best at a certain kind.
 
Performance street tires for everyday dry use?-Falken (RT-615), no question, if you argue with this then your dumb and haven't actually done any amateur racing in the last 5 years and your only making it plainly obvious to anyone who has.

Performance Street Tires for a rainy day?- From what i've heard and read the Goodyear "Eagle F1 GS-D3" are supposed to be about as good as it gets, Apparently they also are very nice to drive on during a sunny day as well. If i could recommend any tire to the layman auto enthusiast i think it would be this one.

Winter Tires-Bridgestone, I like blizzaks, but i don't have as much experience with winter tires as i do with summer tires. From experience though i do wish every-tire was as predictable and linear as the blizzaks are both in the snow and in the dry. Not much grip in the dry but they made my MR2 so easy to dance with it wasn't funny, if anything it was a bit scary what i got away with.

Barely Street Legal, Just live-able,all-out Weekend tires?-Yokohoma, the AO32s in particular are supposed to be some of the most fun you can get from buying a tire alone, but their not as fast as super competitive tires like Hoosiers or Kuhmo (race tires, not their street tires) Put it this way, if i had a F40 you something similarly hardcore, and i wanted it to be as enjoyable as possible, but still driveable, i would put AO32s(preferably) or AO48s on it.

DOT Approved Race Tires?-Kuhmos are faster and more economical for most people, but i know many national champions who run on Hoosiers, between the two the Hoosiers wear out faster but are supposed to be about the most forgiving tire you can buy, period. Whereas the Kuhmos are a but confusing to drive on, but they last longer and can usually turn times at least as fast as the Hoosiers.


All Season-I don't believe in all season tires, so i won't comment too much on what i know almost nothing about, but Continentals are supposedly the best bang for the buck. I know from personal experience however that their pretty limp wristed and soft in the dry though. Just get a extra set of rims and tires for the winter and stop being such a stingy bore.


I personally know little about drag tires, rally tires, or cheap drift tires so hopefully somebody else can help out there.
 
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Nitto's DRs are weak for grip, nice for wear.

And when you want to make a quick daily, they are option number 1.

I dont want uber super sticky grip, because then i would break my rear end every time i hit the right pedal.
 
All I can say is after having sampled winters in products by Goodyear, Michelin, Bridgestone, Nokian and a few others, by far my favourite winter tire is the Bridgestone Blizzak WS-60.

For summer tires, I find Yokohama gets the best performance per $$$$, but in absolute terms, there's probably something better.

What I'd be interested in is who makes the best semi-slicks.
 
Performance street tires for everyday dry use?-Falken (RT-615), no question, if you argue with this then your dumb and haven't actually done any amateur racing in the last 5 years and your only making it plainly obvious to anyone who has.
People have been having good luck with NT-01's, there are quite a few RA-1 to NT-01 converts.

Performance Street Tires for a rainy day?- From what i've heard and read the Goodyear "Eagle F1 GS-D3" are supposed to be about as good as it gets, Apparently they also are very nice to drive on during a sunny day as well. If i could recommend any tire to the layman auto enthusiast i think it would be this one.
Great tires, I will likely have them when I buy another performance car (for daily use)

Winter Tires-Bridgestone, I like blizzaks, but i don't have as much experience with winter tires as i do with summer tires. From experience though i do wish every-tire was as predictable and linear as the blizzaks are both in the snow and in the dry. Not much grip in the dry but they made my MR2 so easy to dance with it wasn't funny, if anything it was a bit scary what i got away with.
Blizzaks own.

And when you want to make a quick daily, they are option number 1.

I dont want uber super sticky grip, because then i would break my rear end every time i hit the right pedal.

Option #1 would by MT, then BFG...that's assuming you have $ to go through tires, but still #1. The point of a tire is grip, and in a DR it's what you want, with streetability. If you're worried about breaking your rear end, your car will never be "quick" and you shouldn't be racing anyway.
 
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Depends on what you mean by quick, i just think that spinning the tires a bit in first is ok, to keep some stress from the gearing. You cant expect a GM product to take that force and not break :D.
 
nankang.................. haha nah

I'm running nexen n3000s at at the moment and have been really impressed with them for price as an all round tyre (205/45/r16)
 
bfgoodrich.

they make superior summer, off-road, performance, high performance, ultra-high performance, all-terrain, d.o.t. drag radial, etc. they're priced well - you actually get your money's worth. also, their treadwear ratings are outstanding, as are their selection of sizes.

i love 'em!

Get my vote too, the fact they have dominated the 4x4 market worldwide with there AT and MT products for so many years now, the wear rate is the best I've every seen in a tire too.

But it's a tough question, as there are some many tire uses and so many specialist manufacturers.
 
I'm only into racing tires (a bit), and I say this: best long-range racing LM-spec slicks/grooved F1 tires are/were made by Michelin. Took the F1 titles in 2005 and 2006, before pulling out of F1 (best tires, EXCEPT FOR T13 AT INDY); at Le Mans they were an integral part of Audi's crushing dominance and Peugeot's response. BFGoodrich is probably the best manufacturer of rally tires, and in touring cars... Dunlop(DTM) or Yokohama(WTCC)? No idea.
 
Bridgestone Blizzak (all two million versions of them) aaaaaare rubbish!
It's the worst winter tire family of all from a major manufacturer, it's finished last in an impressive number of tests. You could just as well buy cheap korean winter tires, they're equally crappy but at least not full-price.

Of course I do not consider any winter tire without studs to be very good, although there are some who are better than others. Continental ContiWinterViking for example does grip pretty good on snow and asfalt. Gets tricky when you encounter ice though.
 
I will throw in another vote for the Falken R-615 those things have amazing grip reasonable wear and the price is fantastic. I am sure there are grippier daily driver tires out there but they sure are not any that have a price point near the falkens.

also falken makes some really really nice gravel rally tires or so my GTX bretheren have been saying of late
 
For a daily drive toyo T1-Rs are great. They do give a good ammount of dry grip and are great in the rain... There's a catch though, the sidewalls are quite sloppy.

Bridgestone used to have the market covered with their S-03s and blizzaks. The did away with the S-03s but the blizzaks are still there and they even came out with a better version this year the WS-60. I have the WS-50(outdated version) and couldn't be happier.

As far as I know the RT-615 isn't all that great in the rain but it really grips in the dry and has stiff sidewalls. The downside to this tire is if you track and see high temperatures they will get greasy. If you want either this tire or the T1-R check out www.edgeracing.com they have by far the best prices around for those tires.

Another tire to consider would be the BFG TA KDW 2 and the goodyear eagle F1 GS-D3 as I think someone already mentioned. They are also great tires for both wet and dry. I think (don't quote me on this) the sidewalls are a little less stiff then something like the KDWs and certainly less stiff then the falkens.

Another tire that I might as well mention since I have some experience with this as well is the hankook RS-2. It has quite good dry grip and at first it does great in the rain. Then after a few thousand miles the rain qualities just go to crap and you'll wish you didn't have them. Would not recommend them overall.

Really it depends on what size you need, your budget, and your needs are but at the moment it looks like the best tire would be the RT-615s for daily performance if you can live with their wet properties.

Other honorable mentions would be michelin and their X-ice winter tire and nokians winter tire. Both are great but don't quite stand up to the bridgestone tire. The one advantage they have is the siping (which is part of what makes a winter tire stand out in the snow) goes all the way through the tread. In the bridgestones it only goes through about 55% or so of the tread. However when you think about it you really don't want to be driving on tire with 4/32nds tread left in the snow anyway so IMO that is a moot point.
 
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