[s-cars] Re: Firestone Firehawk series tires

[CyberPoet]

Living in Florida, I've used the Firestone FireHawk SA, SH and now SZ
series tires on a large variety of cars (including, over the years:
Saturn SC2, Volvo 740GL, Audi 200Turbo, VW Golf [beater]). I'll be
putting them on the Audi 100S here in a couple months when the current
rubber is replaced. Why? Because no other tire I've ever used has
handled heavy rain at high speeds as well -- and in this case, without
any loss of dry-weather performance. Now for the review of the tire:

The Firestone Firehawk series provides a pretty good dry-weather tire,
but where it really excels is in wet-weather and severe-wet-weather
usage. If you live in the desert, I'd suggest the toyo's  or pirelli's
instead; if you live where it rains, these are awesome :)

Wear is usually slightly accelerated from the manufacturer's idea of it
(they claim it's a 40k or 50k tire -- I claim that it's a 20k to 35k
tire). Having said that, it's an extremely high grip tire that rides
quietly and handles extreme speed well (did 150+ mph on a set of them
from here to Atlanta one night the whole stretch -- 450 miles, and
there was no significant issues over a variety of wet and dry
surfaces). They run just a hair louder than traditional hard-compound
touring-oriented bridgestones or dunlops or michellans (by about 5%),
but are quieter than anything I've found with their wet weather
capabilities by a long shot.

I've never had one blow out on me even when punctured (the compound mix
& tread design tends to suck up nails if you roll over 'em), and they
have a dual-compound concept where a softer, gripper compound sits at
about the 30% tread height, so as you wear away your tread over time,
you won't feel any significant loss of control. This makes it important
to use your eyeballs on the tread wear rather than just the seat of
your pants...

Braking: I've never had them turn under or be the source of braking
distance loss.
Acceleration: you can burn these tires, and it will wear their compound
fairly quickly. If you tend to spin your tires, find something else.
Lateral Stability: it's hard to roll these under from lateral moves but
it can be done (overloading), and when they break contact, it's the
back end that will break away first. Unfortunately, if you do get them
to break away, it can be hard to get them back under control (it seems
almost a stiction concept -- once the stiction is lost, they don't want
to reassert quickly).
Touring: Great sense of control, good road-feel.
High Speed Stability: A
Snow: D
Rain: A++++
Dry: A- or B+
Dirt: B-
Leaves, wet: C
Leaves, dry: B+

Cheers :)
=-= Marc Glasgow
www.cyberpoet.net

On Wednesday, March 19, 2003, at 11:25 PM,
s-car-list-request at audifans.com wrote:

> What about the Firestone Firehawk SZ50 EP's?
> Anyone had experience with these tires? They seem
> comparable to the T-1S's but less expensive.
>
> Sandy