| 09.04.2010 from Steve Mullett | Note 1.46 |
| (30,000 km driven) | |
- Grip in dry conditions
- Braking in dry conditions
- Grip in wet conditions
- Braking in wet conditions
- Grip in snow
- Driving comfort
- Internal noise level
- Tyre wear
- Fuel consumption
N/A
Tyre size and vehicle make
255 / 40 R17 ZR
BMW M3
Result: Would you buy again? No way
Comment:
Extremely dangerous tyre on a high-performance RWD car, especially on wet and/or cold! The grip is totally binary, goes from OK to zero within a split second, with absolutely no warning, and does NOT come back easily. I personally did a 1080' on a wet highway ramp at ~65km/h with the gas fully off even before the tail took off, ended on the side rails. Another incident: starting to accelerate on wet at ~50km/h -> four tail spins with counter-steering correction attempts and then ran out of room and hit the side rails again. On dry, a hard(ish) acceleration from traffic lights intersection (turning), first tail slide was nicely under control with counter-steering but then the grip re-appeared suddenly, which lead to four more side to side tail slides even with the gas fully off. Must have looked cool, but this was totally not what I was going for. I try to leave most of the crazy stuff on the track. Noise level is average. Treadwear is excellent, probably as the compound is rock-hard, which obviously cannot yield a good traction. After losing confidence on the tyres, I have been doing tons of burnouts to get this crud quickly into junk yard condition, yet there is still plenty of surface left. Actually (and funnily enough), the grip behavior/linearity has clearly improved now that the tyres are worn to 'slicks' at about 5cm on the inside edges. On track (perfect clean pavement, dry and warm), the grip and handling are OK, at least on a perfectly balanced car with excellent suspension. The lap times are obviously pretty bad, but at least there is no sudden and total loss of grip even when pushing really hard. Conclusion: I SERIOUSLY recommend updating your insurance for your car AND yourself if you get these tyres for a powerful RWD car, especially if you drive on wet and/or cold conditions. I actually doubt that even a top-of-the-line ESP/DSC could deal with the instantaneous and total loss of grip. Personally, I would not put this garbage on my car even if I got for free.