hard or soft??

[moose]

If I wanted to purchase a set of "16 rims, what tires should I go with? Should I use hard rubber so I don't have to buy new tires every 2 years? Or should I buy low-profile tires that will wear out faster. Also what company would you buy from, whether hard or soft rubber?

Thanks in advance.

[Dousan_PG]

fm901
decent. cheap. fun. good grip. bad when want and just nice inexpensive all around tire.

[240 2NR]

Low profile = small sidewall height. Absolutely no relation to tread compound, which is what would indicate the hardness/softness of a tire, it's treadwear, and grip capabilites.

Super lowcost and high grip right now is the yokohama avs intermediates currently on sale at the tirerack. Old design but super cheap if you can live with the limited sizes available.

The new high grip tire is supposed to be the falken azenis. Pretty cheap, insane grip, short life, and again, limited sizes.

The street tires I'm currently looking at are the kuhmo ecsta 712's (which I already have) and the yokohoma ES100's. Both are decently priced with good street traction and ride with a ton of available sizes.

In general the trade off of long life is performance. It's up to you to decide how long you need them to last, and also under what circumstances. Dry only? Winter? auto-x? One or two sets total? These answers will narrow down your choices pretty quick. The one that will the quickest of course i buget.

A couple other tires to consider:
Bridgestone potenza S-03 $$$
BFG KD's $$$
Michelin pilot sport $$$
Kuhmo MX $$

Again, all tires are a tradeoff somewhere. Perfomance tires give up winter drivabilty for excellent summer performance and a stiff ride.

All season tires are a compromise in every season to work in all

All street tires are a compromise in grip from a set of competition or race tires

[JasonNagra]

The Kuhmo MX tires are pretty cheap, a lot cheaper than the BF's or Michelins you mentioned. I would say go with the FM901's like Aaron said, or go with the Azenis. Those tires are sweet...

[240 2NR]

The MX's had fewer $ signs. They're not quite cheap like the 712's or the azenis's but they're not expensive. GRM recently did a comparo between the MX's, the KD's and the Pilot Sports and the MX's, while not better, were as good in almost all respects while costing almost half. Definetly a tire worth looking at.

The Azenis are also killer.

I've heard extremely mixed reviews of the FM901's. Some love them and others abosuletly despise them. For the same price my money would be with the proven 712's. Of course they could be a quality tire without a reputation. My experiences with dunlops hasn't been stellar though so I'm inclined to have reservations.

[tnord]

if you think a tire should last 2 years..........you're crazy.

i usually get about 10-12k miles out of mine, and i drive nicely.

[AKADriver]

10-12k would last me 2 years.. heh.

I wouldn't consider the Azenis of only because it doesn't come in a good size... 205/55-16 is the right diameter for the 240SX, but it's so NARROW... It seems like a waste to buy aftermarket wheels and put stock-width tires on them. Go for something in a 225/50-16, it's a great all around size. Don't stagger unless you've got 250hp+.

Other than that...

No performance tire is going to last more than a year or two if you have "normal" driving habits. It's just a fact of life.

If you want a good all-around summer tire that you might be able to wrench 20,000 miles out of, check out the Yokohama AVS ES100. It's inexpensive, sporty, good in the wet, etc. It won't have the ultimate grip of tires like the Ecsta MX, BFG KD, etc. but IMO it's a better deal than the popular Ecsta Supra 712.

[JasonNagra]

Originally posted by 240 2NR
The MX's had fewer $ signs. They're not quite cheap like the 712's or the azenis's but they're not expensive. GRM recently did a comparo between the MX's, the KD's and the Pilot Sports and the MX's, while not better, were as good in almost all respects while costing almost half. Definetly a tire worth looking at.

The Azenis are also killer.

I've heard extremely mixed reviews of the FM901's. Some love them and others abosuletly despise them. For the same price my money would be with the proven 712's. Of course they could be a quality tire without a reputation. My experiences with dunlops hasn't been stellar though so I'm inclined to have reservations.

Yea I saw that review in GRM. For the price I really don't think that spending the extra money on the BF's is worth it, what do you think?? Kuhmo is really making some nice stuff. I use to have the 712's on my integra, and I thought they were okay. Azenis are honestly my tire of choice. I use the Z rated ones in 215/45/16, and they are excellent. Haven't really driven in them too much in rain because of SoCal, but I never push my car in the rain. I'm expecting the Azenis to last me about 20k miles, if I stop learning how to drift that is...

[240 2NR]

Originally posted by tnord
if you think a tire should last 2 years..........you're crazy.

i usually get about 10-12k miles out of mine, and i drive nicely.

Well except for those track days:D

[moose]

Originally posted by tnord
if you think a tire should last 2 years..........you're crazy.

i usually get about 10-12k miles out of mine, and i drive nicely.

I'm going to run summer tires w/ rims and for the winter a good set of winter tires, with any rims I can find.

[tnord]

the fact of the matter is, a tire's useful life is about a year. the sun, temperature changes (heat cycles), and just pure age deteriorate a tires ability to grip. even though you may still have enough tread depth, the tire just isn't what it used to be. i change my tires pretty much ever summer (of course i trade cars about every summer as well).

the "life" of a tire may be even shorter than that.........i dunno. all i know is my tires sure as **** don't grip like they used to.

which gives me an idea.......

[moose]

wul when you don't live in so cal, you can keep your tires for more than one year. Up here in canada it barely ever get's above 40 degrees celsius, and that's a good thing. And you knows maybe they will last for a couple or years. You are right about the age tnord, it's sort of like an elastic band. It gets old and then breaks. Well that's my story. Anyone have good ideas for winter tires? Studded?

[240 2NR]

Originally posted by moose
wul when you don't live in so cal, you can keep your tires for more than one year. Up here in canada it barely ever get's above 40 degrees celsius, and that's a good thing. And you knows maybe they will last for a couple or years. You are right about the age tnord, it's sort of like an elastic band. It gets old and then breaks. Well that's my story. Anyone have good ideas for winter tires? Studded?

Well I think track days put a heavy cyle load on your tires. I bet you would get two or three years out of your summer tires if you ran a different set for track days, and even a third in the winter. Of course at that point you're at the same cost of getting new ones each year, but you get the point. While those avs intermediates are so cheap, I'm tempted to get a set for my stock alloys as auto-x only tires. ~$6 is pretty hard to beat. I only worry they were manufactured like 8 years ago.

I'd avoid studded tires. In a lot of places (US anyway) they're illegal and the new studless snow tires are really rather amazing. I'm getting great results from my michelin artic alpins and I know uiuc240 loves his blizzacks. The only trade off is very poor dry weather performance and a soft ride (though it is sort of welcomed in the winter when tires would normally ride very stiff on an already stiff suspension). You really can't carve a carner on them and if you did would be taking a lot of miles off their life. But once the powder falls they're a night and day difference from any all season tire I've ever driven.