[V8] tire musings

[NIck Miller]

If you are going with an all-out performance tire for the summer, there
really isn't much anything better than the Dunlop Dirrezza Star spec for the
price.  Its getting a bit dated now, but god, what a tire.  Falken Azenis
615's are ok, but a dated design now and they have some odd habbits such as
getting a bit slick when overly hot,   and the Hankook RS2's were amazing as
well, so one can only assume the Rs3's have improved on a wining combo.

If you are going for the most grip you can get from a tire, my personal
choice would be 1. Dunlop star spec 2. Kuhmo Ecsta XS  3. Hankook Ventus RS3
(kinda spendy)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the General's offering will not be on
par with these competitors.

Also, you may want to check out some "tire shootouts" from Road and track,
or Grassroots motorsports, or a number of other magazines, where they test
sets of tires using the same rubric.


On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 8:13 PM, George Tur <getur at optonline.net> wrote:

> Roger, this is a late reply but I have the General Altimax tires on the
> Allroad and they are a pretty good tire in regard to noise and handling.
> They are very good in the wet compared to the Pirellis I had before. As far
> as noise they have been pretty good until about 5 or 6k miles ago, I have
> about 25k on them, when they've started getting a little noisier. Even
> though they are a little noisier now they are still much quieter than the
> Pirellis I had before.
>
> Also, I had to have the wheels rebalanced about that same time, I was
> getting a slight vibration when going over 60 mph. I'm pretty sure it was
> the tires since I rotated them back to front and the vibration persisted
> through the steering wheel. I bought the tires through Tire Rack and at that
> time with mounting, balancing it came out to about $90 a tire. Even though
> they are a little noisier now they are still much quieter than the Pirellis
> I had before.
>
> My wife's car has Michelins Pilot MXM4s on it currently which are pretty
> good on the road and very quiet, plus expensive. She had Continentals before
> and they were good as touring tires, but were noisier than the Michelins.
> Cost wise both the Continentals and Michelins ran close to $200 with the
> mounting and balancing but to balance that out both the Michelins and
> Continentals had/have good life in them. The Continentals had almost 50k
> miles on them before we went over to the Michelins and those now have a
> little over 20k miles on them and still ride very well.
>
> HTH
>
> George
>
>
> On Jul 20, 2010, at 6:21 AM, Roger Woodbury wrote:
>
> > Alas it is about tire time, and sooner rather than later I must replace
> the
> > horrid Fusion tires that I put on my wife's 100CS thirty thousand or so
> > miles ago.  Tread depth is really shy on the rears and the fronts aren't
> > great.  They will not pass state inspection in October, I know.
> >
> > I am having a flirtation with a set of '95 S6 wheels and tires, used. The
> > wheels look very pretty in the pics, but the wheel/tire size is a plus
> one
> > for the '94 100CS Avant we have.
> >
> > Any comment about whether these would be a direct fitment, or will I have
> > clearance problems with tire width?  I cannot for the life of me remember
> > whether or not the S6 had slightly flared fenders in '95.
> >
> > The cheapest deal in town is Super Walmart. Right now they mount and
> balance
> > free, and will meet any price from anywhere if you bring it in, in
> writing.
> > I am in the process of choosing tires, and am reading the tire ratings,
> > particularly noise levels with feverish frenzy.  The Fusions have been
> sort
> > of OK.  They provided decent service and value for the price, which was
> > cheap, and have worn OK on the heavy Audi.  But NOISE?  OMG:  can you say
> > LOUD?
> >
> > What is the current opinion about the "hot hand" in tires?  The choice
> will
> > need to be a decent, quiet, all season standard duty or touring radial.
> > Would love to put Michelins on this car, but they are probably going to
> be
> > simply too much money.  The car came with a set of Michelins that had
> about
> > ten thousand on them or so, (39,000 miles at original purchase date).
> >
> > Then I bought a set of Dunlop D40's (?) on the Fuchs rims that the car is
> on
> > now, because I had one OEM wheel that had a cracked rim.  Those tires had
> > some miles on them as the wheels were used.  Worked great and the wheels
> are
> > MUCH lighter than the OEM star wheels, whatever those are/were.
> >
> > Then the Fusions that really, really suck in terms of road noise. The guy
> at
> > Tire Rack warned me that these were "Bridgestones on a budget", and he
> > wasn't kidding.  If we were doing any really long distance driving in
> this
> > car, they would have had to be sacrificed a long time ago.  One thing
> most
> > Audis are is pretty quiet from underneath if the tires are any good.
> > Anyway, we're at the end of the road with these, and now, something
> better.
> >
> > So as usually, to break the monotony of a Tuesday morning, I am poling
> the
> > brain trust.
> >
> > Roger
> >
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