re: Tire advice needed

[iduff@charter.com]

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Original Text
>From Quattrofan@aol.com, on 3/5/96 9:10 PM:
To: <quattro@coimbra.ans.net>

A friend of mine is in need of tires for his Thunderbird Turbo and asked me
for some help, since he usually buys no-name "performance" radials from the
local tire guy. He's finally ready to step up to real tires. We're looking 
at
Yokohama A509, BF Goodrich T/A, and Dunlop D40 M2 in a 205/50-16. He drives
extremely hard, doesn't care about
all season capabilities (he has a Suburban 4x4), and of course wants them 
to
last long. Naturally, I knew the Q-listers would know all about tires  ;)  
He
doesn't wish to spend more than $130 per tire. I'm of little help at this
point as I'm running Yokohama Avids and am leaning towards the A509, but he
has this thing for them 'Merican BFG's. Advice?

Dwight V.   '86 Coupe GT, '89 Jetta GLI 16v ABS, '84 Subaru 4x4 (sorry), 
'70
Fiat 124
I have Yokos now, and have had both BFGs and D40s in the past. I am a great 
fan of BFGs, for a variety of reasons. The Yokos I have experience with 
(AVS now and A008 in the past) are excellent for somewhere between 15K and 
25K miles, then it's time for new ones. They both handle superbly in the 
dry, but watch out in the rain. The D40 is better for wear, better in the 
rain, and not quite as "on rails" as either of the Yokos. The BFG has the 
same "on rails" feel as the Yokos, is excellent in the rain, and wears 
well. It gets my vote, to the extent that I will replace my AVSs with BFG 
when the time comes.

Ian Duff, New Bedford, MA
'90 Coupe Quattro