What Tires are You Running? - 2015 edition

[tptrsn]

Mine didn't really chunk, it was pretty much like that picture of them feathering that you posted in that old thread, but man it happened fast. Think it was because I had so much pressure in them?

Kind of took me by surprise because I'm not exactly new to abusing tires, and I've never seen them show so much damage from it. I'm taking what's left of those 595s tomorrow in case I run out of new tires (which I doubt I will).

[protomor]

That's just how some tires wear. Feathering isn't an issue.

[Novablue454]

I run Hankook RS3 in the front of my car. After every track day they look TRASHED, but then I drive around the block and they're perfectly fine.

[JesterMX6]

let me know how the Rydanz are. Those are what i was eyeballing for my rears.

[tptrsn]

The Rydanz are super grippy compared to the other stuff I ran today. Initially it seemed that they were wearing very well other than there was some odd looking "crackiness" on the outer row treat blocks. Then we got to where there was some borderline hotlapping going on, and there are three big, pretty high speed runs through banked curves at the ends of this little oval track on every run. Eventually the Rydanz chunked... Their grippiness made them difficult to make good runs on.

I need to scrutinize my tires more to be sure of all of this, but I think the Rydanz are the only ones that chunked. However, they were the ones I was running on when we started running in quicker succession. Also, I was running them with pretty high pressures in them to see if I could get them to grip a little less tenaciously. I started them at 56psi "cold" for the second set of runs I did on them. Those were the runs that turned into semi-hotlapping.

The Ingen A1s started off really greasy for the first couple of runs, but then they got okay. They did wear faster than I expected after the reviews on here. I started them at about 36.5psi "cold", just because that's where they were when I pulled them out of the car and I figured I'd try them like that.

My second of four sets of runs was on the 595s that I had run before and that I have been complaining about falling apart above in this thread. They still had about 56psi in them "cold", and I ran them like that. Overall they were pretty nice. They seemed pretty nice for sliding, like they were the easiest to predict and control. I ran the crap out of them and got them pretty stinking hot, and they held in there very nice and overall wore pretty well once the flimsy parts of the tread had fallen off...

However, please take all of these impressions with a grain of salt, this was my first actual drifting event/day. The other time I was out for a formal drifting opportunity, I only got a few little sessions of trying to figure out how to do some of this stuff, and my sh*tbox car broke. So I have VERY little experience with drifting, other than the fact that today I ran dozens and dozens of runs. I cannot believe the abuse my Little Red Sh*tbox absorbed today without ever complaining. And of course it attracted a lot of attention for being an auto when people who wanted rides in it realized it was one, and then started telling other people about it. Lol

[tptrsn]

Have any of you tried Falken ZE950s or have any opinion on them? I just signed up for a halloween event, so I need to replace some of the tires I destroyed last weekend.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Falken-ZI...43739904#about

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Or some Hankook H457s?

https://www.walmart.com/ip/H457-195-50R15/43077478

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Achillies ATR Sports will be right in the proper price range I guess too. 400 treadwear doesn't look like they'll be too grippy for my 170 raging horsepower haha. Thoughts?:

https://www.tires-easy.com/195-50-15...code/MAA195015

EDIT: A quick review back through this thread indicates the ATR Sports having a lot of grip and wearing out fast.... NOT what I'm looking for I guess.

[Novablue454]

I got 2 laps out of a brand new pair of ATR sports, would not run them again. They were really slick and super smokey though. Achilles 123s are supposed to be the grip monsters.

If you ever go up to 17's, you should try a pair of these. They're a lot more, but you'd likely get a full day (possibly more) out of them at your power levels.

http://www.zestinotyreusa.com/acrova

[protomor]

We ran Achilles on the FD team. The 123s were poo and the ATRs were great grip monsters. But none of them lasted long. It was FD tho lol.

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Sorry, I'm thinking sport 2s. not the regular sports.

[tptrsn]

Those zestinos look really interesting, maybe for next year when I have a little bit of power. I just don't think I could slide those very well on my rig right now, especially on this high speed, large radius curve course that is the best place around here to get seat time.

[JesterMX6]

well, I was about to order some tires from walmart....but newegg had the evga 1080 FTW show up in stock so..yeah. money went that direction lol

[tptrsn]

Does wear rating seem to have any meaning to sliding tires (rears)? I'm really thinking of giving a pair of those Falken Ziex 950s from Walmart a shot. 600 wear rating...

I'm probably going to grab another pair of those Ingens A1s too.

[Novablue454]

Treadwear does, the problem is I don't think there is a standard test to get that number. Basically the lower the number the more grip they have but also will last shorter. That's why Zestino offer's the same tire in a 140 - 240 - 280 treadwear. The low HP guys would want the 280 so they could break them loose, while the 600+ guys would want the 140s so they could move.

Now, the problem is one companies 240 might wear better than another company's 360 so that's where trial and research come in.

[Mikestokman]

Falkens are shitty, buy more a1's instead.

[jeepster]

I have been compiling data recently in a scientific manner (using laps/mileage, heat gun, same tire pressures, etc) I have tested the cooper rs3-s, the nankang ns-20, and the kumho asx. In two weeks I will be adding the sentury UHP, the Westlake SA07, Achilles 123s and the Zestino to the test list. All done on the same car. All tests used the Nankang as the base line. I will make a result soon

[DjTyfighter]

^ Just what this thread needed

[tptrsn]

Falkens are shitty

Not doubting you, but I'm curious in what way? Are you able/willing to elaborate on this point?

[JesterMX6]

falken makes some good steer tires, provided you have your understeer under control, but i dont know that they make any burners that have been rated well.

[protomor]

In my experience, falkens are inconsistent through the heat range. They grip like poo at first, ok when warm, then like mud when hot. Once they're hot, they disintegrate.

[tptrsn]

Thanks for the info Jester, and big thanks for the details protomor!

[Mikestokman]

I mean the azenis are decent steer tires, but the fk452 or anything on the lower pricerange just chunk out/tear off
in big strips.

[tptrsn]

Ok, thanks!!

[JesterMX6]

I mean the azenis are decent steer tires, but the fk452 or anything on the lower pricerange just chunk out/tear off
in big strips.

the azenis are the ones i was thinking of as well. i used to autox with them and even in a torquey FWD car the grip was amazing for a street tire.

[tptrsn]

My hands down favorite drift tire, is Velozza, specifically the zxv4. Although, every tire I have run from them I have liked, I just normally run the zxv4

I've run them in 205-40-17, 245-40-17 and 255-35-18 . They have great grip for the price, a lot more than triangles and are the same price, lots of smoke as well. They last as long to longer than triangle as well, i've run them as high as 100psi (205s on full track) and as low as 15psi. I have never had one Delaminate or chunk, best part is they are one of the cheapest tires I've run haha .

Velozza smoke on 245-40-17



My car is a m52 turbo at 400whp for reference.

Did you ever try those ZXV4s for steer tires?

[tptrsn]

Here is my follow-up for the low power, low skill guys out there! haha

I did another full day event yesterday and got 49 runs in. Following up onjus12turbo's post above, the last tire I used was the Velozza ZXV4 205/40ZR17 84W. At 54psi they got to be extremely nice for my low power/low skill setup, and I could do some decent work. After running them for 4 or 5 runs, I swapped them side to side since the track is heavily left turn biased, and then I ran another 4 or 5 runs on them. Based on the wear I see so far, these are the best tires I've tried in terms of wear and performance. If I had 20 more horsepower or another dose of skill, I think they would be even more fantastic. Also awesome is the price, at $49 + $12 shipping per tire.

Prior to running these tires on the back for the last part of the day, I ran them on the front, and they performed perfectly for me as steer tires. Not one instance of understeer, and not one bit of annoying scrub from them when I started to lose angle and get into a four-wheel drift. All in all, I am now a huge fan of them, and I will probably run them daily on my 17x8s. Most likely in a slightly larger size though, so they don't look so tiny in my wheel wells I pulled out for fitting 245/45-17s from my 540i.

Earlier in the day I started out on a fresh set of Antares Ingens A1s 195/50-15. They worked fine for a little while, since my ride benefits from low grip in the rear, and these tires don't seem to have a lot of grip. The unfortunate part about them for me is the fact that they corded on the outer edge of the right side tire pretty quickly. I let them cool while I destroyed another old pair of garbage tires that came on the car ($450 car, so you can imagine the tires). When I put the 15" Ingens back on the car I swapped them side for side. They quickly wore out the rest of the way, and the left one was predictably hard to handle being as it has cord all around the outer edge.

I also had another pair of Antares Ingens A1s, 205/45-16s that I had run a bit at the prior drifting event. I put them on the opposite sides from where I ran them prior. They worked ok, but again they wore fairly quickly, and began to chunk on the outer edge of the right side tire. Over all, from my two sets of Ingens A1s that I've run, they haven't been quite as good for me as they have been for others as indicated earlier in this thread. The lowish grip level is great for me, but they just haven't lasted very well.

The other tires I ran yesterday were the Federal 595s that I put a LOT of runs on in the prior event, and a few runs before that at a Test n Tune day and in a couple of parking lots. These are the tires I initially reported seemed to have the rubber pretty much falling off of the tread. Also these were the ones that made the car sashay down the road because the tread blocks were so sloppy.

But once the tread blocks got good and feathered off, these tires got EXCELLENT as Protomor reported them to be. I can't possibly report the number of runs I got on them, but it is a whole bunch -- by far the most I've run on any set of tires. They have been great fun because the grip of them is pretty low and predictable, and they are ridiculously short in diameter, so they noticeably help the gearing of my car as jalopi instructed.

At the end of this pair of 595s, they got insanely slippery to the point that I started having pretty big problems with them. Taking them off expecting them to be showing cord and other bad stuff, there was really none. What it appears to be is that they have a very durable, hard rubber base layer around the cords and carcass. When you finally grind the tread rubber off of them (which takes a while from my experience), you are basically running on that extra hard layer and it's like running plastic rings on the back ala a drift trike or something. For me, the 595s turned out to be a great buy and I would suggest them to other low-power guys.

In summary, for me the best options so far are the Federal 595 and the Velozza ZXV4. I will definitely put some more time on some Velozzas next spring, and by then it is pretty likely that I'll have a bit more power, so they should be great. I have a significant number of 15x7" wheels at this point though, so I might need to find a slightly better (grippier) option to go on those wheels. Maybe some slightly larger 595s, or something else that gets good comments on the forum here.

Oh, and just for reference so everyone can COMPLETELY discount everything I typed here, haha, my car is a '97 328i AUTOMATIC, gutted, but with a rebuilt suspension and steering, rocking eBay "24way adjustable" coilovers, and a sweet drifty brake handle.

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Pics of reference car for lolz of slushboxer trying to drift:

Velozzas on front, old crappy "Mastertech" or something like that on the rear:
Thad_Drift3-2.jpg

Velozzas on front, 195/50-15 Antares Ingens A1s on rear:
Thad_Drift2-2.jpg

And one of the sweet DOM driftyhandle in action haha:
Thad_Drift4-2.jpg

Big thanks to Spencer Adams for the great shots!!

[Novablue454]

I also ran a federal 595 last weekend. They outlasted my other tires (westlakes) however they don't smoke. At all. Weird.

The main issue with the 595s is that I've read a lot of reports of them full delaming to the point of damaging peoples cars.