Looking for tires for the FRS. Not a trivial thing north of the border due to cost and availbility.
Original plan was to get the Continental Extremes.
Vendor says it will take an unknown amount of time to source and run about $200/tire
Suggestion was the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 ( quite the mouthful) $145/tire
Any insight into these? Reasonable reviews on Tirerack, but for some reason I have never considered Firestone for a performance tire?
Pete
I get these my vote 100%. I ran these on the BRZ and really, really liked them. They were my daily commute tire that I also ran my first season of auto-x with and did two track night events as well.
Quick Summary:
In reply to carczar_84 :
Encouraging.. NOt looking to win any races, just want to try the car on some tires that might be more exciting than the taxi cab rubber that came on the car to see if it is a better FRS experience.
Edit:
Previous post stock tires have all been Falken Azenis 615 and we have liked those, so that is where the bar is set.
Pete
I have them on my '04 Boxster S and like them a lot as a street tire. I have not tracked with them at all, but they do have a lot of fans on the 986Forum. The one complaint I remember was vibration on the track that was attributed to a defect in a particular tire.
I have them on the 944. Of course, I haven't driven the car very much, but I did do one track day and they held up well. There was a thread on here a few years back speculating that they were a rebadged Bridgestone Potenza of some kind or another.
In reply to NOHOME :
That was my plan too when I got them, something with a little more stick than the stock rubber. Definately not going to get you to the pointy end of the standings, but if you do want to go put in some track time they won't fall on their face.
Not the same stick as the 615+ that I ran later on a second set of wheels, but a great daily/backroad tire.
I'm pretty sure I've posted this before, but my opinion is that the indy 500, conti ECS, and michelin PS4S, when plotted on a quality/cost chart, make up pretty much a straight line. Which is to say, they're all about the same value, so pick whichever one you budget can support. The conti probably would have been "better" for you, but not by some insane margin that you'll be missing out by going with the cheaper option. I have both at the moment; unfortunately they're on very different cars so it's hard to compare them directly. But nothing about the ECS makes me want anything else on that car for street driving, and nothing about the firestones makes me wish I spent more money on tires for a daily driver.
Pulled trigger. Drop the old rim/tires off later today.
Puts $500 back in my pocket over the Continentals.
Good decision. :) Until these tires were released there probably a very long time where there was no reason to consider a Firestone performance tire. They have a nice sharp turn in feel and should pair nicely with the FRS' strengths. I was about to post to suggest that you could come over to my place and try them on my FiST.
I'm just finding this discussion, but I really like the tires, so I'll add my experience. I only have about three to four thousand miles on them, so I can't address long-term use.
They ride well, not overly loud, grip in both dry and wet conditions is quite good. I've driven at highway speed in an absolutely torrential downpour, and felt very confident.
I normally autocross an es Miata on 200tw tires, but at the one event I ran on the fire Hawks on my wagon they worked surprisingly well.
I'm going to buy another set for the WRX wagon I just bought.
2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart wagon. FWD, automatic, 162/162.
Edit: approximately 3000 lbs.
You won't be disappointed, those are a cheater tire for their treadwear rating, they feel like EPS/200TW tires.
I really liked them in the rx8 they were quiet for the most part and were very consistent. Now that the rx8 engine is dead I have them on my mazda6 for daily use and its quite nice and great bang for the buck I was surprised myself. I need to get them out on a track though, it has just been normal commuting + spirited driving but was pleased so far.
I have a set that I use for the track, autocross, and daily driving. They won't likely let you play at the pointy end of the field but they are predictable, perform reasonably well in the rain, wear well, and have plenty of grip to be fun.
In reply to fusion66 :
Sounds like the perfect tire for what I want. Will report back in a bit with some first impressions. Been a weird year; its June and the FRS is still on snow tires!
GameboyRMH said:You won't be disappointed, those are a cheater tire for their treadwear rating, they feel like EPS/200TW tires.
I'm not sure I agree. They came up short on my experience 205/55/16 on an e28 535i.
Lovely street tires though, didn't make a lot of noise, and they grip well enough. They just don't quite impress me on a road course.
In reply to Cactus :
I'd agree running similar sizes also on an E28 as well as my Legacy. They're great tires that will hold up on the track but are definitely a step down grip wise compared to the Hankook RS-4 in the same size. I love these for the street though on a car that occasionally gets taken to the track or an autocross.
These tires are known as Bridgestone RE003 in other parts of the world such as Australia
Adam
Had them on my G35, freaking loved them. Good grip when scrubbed in, progressive breakaway in the dry, surprisingly inexpensive. A touch edgy in the wet but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them as a 300TW street tire.
Oh MY!
First impressions on drive to work this morning are good. "Who glued my car to the road?. Steering effort is noticeably different but not in a bad way, just "solid"
NOHOME said:Oh MY!
First impressions on drive to work this morning are good. "Who glued my car to the road?. Steering effort is noticeably different but not in a bad way, just "solid"
awesome!
You've already made your decision, but i'll add to the chorus. I also run these on my 335D for a summer street tire and they're great.
I have them on my M3 (it came with them when I bought it.) I have been very impressed with them. Silly amount of grip in warm weather for a street driven tire, similar to the leading crop of 200TW tires.
My only gripe about them is that they cold-flatspot pretty bad. I have about ~3mi drive before I get on a divided 4-lane hwy, where I accelerate to 70~80 and drive for 20 miles. Get a lot of vibration from the cold tires for the first 8 miles or so. After they're fully warmed up they smooth out.
To be fair, I have experienced this with the Continentals you were considering as well, across multiple sets of them. This may just be inherent to UHP Summer tires?
NOHOME said:Oh MY!
First impressions on drive to work this morning are good. "Who glued my car to the road?. Steering effort is noticeably different but not in a bad way, just "solid"
Just goes to show perspective and how you drive are important.
I had 255/35/18 Direzza II Star Specs on my BRZ. A grippy tire, but never had a problem making it dance.
Late to the party, but I have a set as my street tires on my STR Miata. No complaints on the street, they are round and tires. Totally adequate. I found they fall down on the autocross course, nowhere near the grip or turn-in of my RE71s. 2seconds off pace on a 45second course. On track, again they work fine - not pointy end, but they don't fall apart or die. Not as sticky as my Maxxis RC1s, but again not thier role. Work fine in the rain, though my Miata has upgraded to weekend/autox/track car and isn't pulling DD duty anymore.
For the price, definately a good buy I think. However, now that I'm not DDing the MX5, she'll get Kook RS4s for street tires next time around.
I had these in my FRS and was planning to get them for my S4. They were a good tire for fun summer driving and were fun at at autocross. Especially enjoyed the price.
I was fully planning to buy them for my newly acquired S4 (it was on the original 10 year old tires!) but I got a great deal on some of the General G-Max RS's so I went that route. I do wish I had the FRS still so I could really see how they compared.
Excellent. I've had Indy 500s waiting for the FR-S since the Black Friday sales at Simple Tire. They get smashed on my new/used Motegi MR140 wheels next week.
I've had these on my S2000 for the past 4 years/11k miles. I've done a few track days and autoxes with them too. For daily driving I have no complaints at all. For track use they got greasy and slick 15 minutes into a session however they handled well even in that state. For autox they aren't great but it's autox soooo does anyone really care?
I have them on my 99 E36 M3 as well. I haven't tracked that at all but same thing for daily life. They work well. They seem to be wearing out more on the M3 than the S2000 but that might be due to the RTABs.
They get a 9/10 for me for daily drivability.
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