Tire choice and size question

[whitey4311]

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...artnum=14YR8GFTAKDW2&fromCompare1=yes&place=3

Have been looking at these for my next set mainly because they came stock on the SRT-4 so I imagine they have to be a godo choice for a FWD big horse power car and are much cheaper then the Potenzas.

The tread rating is double the Potenzas and the performance is still there so I am thinking at $139 its a steal since last I checked they were $175 at tirerack.

My questions is about opinions on the tire and mostly about the size. Will going from a 45 series to 40 be an issue? They dont have the stock size tire as a choice is why I ask.

thanks guys.

PS stock tires are hanging in there pretty good. I have 10k on them and the pair that have been on the front the longest have just worn throught the first stage and the rears which will now be the fronts have a bit more 1st stage to go through. Assuming that and that the first stage wears the fastest they should last 20k total during the 2nd stage life of them.

 

[Sacrilicious]

whoa...i would highly recommend going for better summer tires. these "ultra high performance" summer tires are in a lower class than our "max performance" stock summer tires. yes, they will give better tread life, but if you want tread life, get some goodyear f1 all seasons, and i suspect you will be unable to tell the difference in performance when compared to these gforces.

basically, if you choose to have summer tires, make sure they're GOOD, or it's completely pointless. the latest all season tire generations have really good performance, so if you're not getting summer tires that count, you're just selling yourself short and not really getting your money's worth. if anything, these tires will have less tread wear than the goodyears and have similar or even possibly WORSE performance.

as far as sizes go, the two closest choices outside of our stock configuration are 225/45/18 and 225/40/18. both work pretty well from what many on these forums have seen.

 

[whitey4311]

Those arent a good choice?

I am in Cali and its not summer techincally but here its pretty much 70's all winter long with some rain here and there.

I thought the ratings on those tires were good but maybe I am not understanding something.

Any advice?

Maybe I should just stick with the stock choice if thats going to be the best option. I woudlnt mind a bit of performance loss for longer tread life.

 

[Sacrilicious]

ya, imo, if you're going to go with summer tires, make it count. otherwise, just get all season tires and you will get the tread life that you want (which will be even more than you would get from those summer tires). quite honestly, if you compare those tires to top of the line all season tires, i think you would have a terribly hard time telling the difference in performance. the reason these tires have better treadwear than our stock tires is because it sacrifices performance in order to get it.

 

[whitey4311]

Ok I see your point but I am looking to decrease a small amount of performance for longer tread life.

I dont want to get an all season tire and take away all my performance but am looking for a performance tire with a bit harder compound so it will last longer.

I figured the 300 tread life on those BFG tires would be a good choice and since it was the stock tire on the SRT-4 I cant imagine it would be shity.

 

[Sacrilicious]

honestly, i am willing to bet that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference in performance between those tires and the goodyear f1 all season tires. it's pretty sad these days how little difference you see between standard summer tires and high quality all season tires...=/

 

[Hirudin]

...
I figured the 300 tread life
...

I'm definitely no expert, but I think the tread life rating you're referring to is the manufacturer rating. That rating is only useful to compare between different models from the same manufacturer, it is useless for comparing between different brands.

One brand's "180" might be equivalent to another brand's "400" (I think).

From this page on tirerack...

Treadwear Grades

UTQG Treadwear Grades are based on actual road use in which the test tire is run in a vehicle convoy along with standardized Course Monitoring Tires. The vehicle repeatedly runs a prescribed 400-mile test loop in West Texas for a total of 7,200 miles. The vehicle can have its alignment set, air pressure checked and tires rotated every 800 miles. The test tire's and the Monitoring Tire's wear are measured during and at the conclusion of the test. The tire manufacturers then assign a Treadwear Grade based on the observed wear rates. The Course Monitoring Tire is assigned a grade and the test tire receives a grade indicating its relative treadwear. A grade of 100 would indicate that the tire tread would last as long as the test tire, 200 would indicate the tread would last twice as long, 300 would indicate three times as long, etc.

The problem with UTQG Treadwear Grades is that they are open to some interpretation on the part of the tire manufacturer because they are assigned after the tire has only experienced a little treadwear as it runs the 7,200 miles. This means that the tire manufacturers need to extrapolate their raw wear data when they are assigning Treadwear Grades, and that their grades can to some extent reflect how conservative or optimistic their marketing department is. Typically, comparing the Treadwear Grades of tire lines within a single brand is somewhat helpful, while attempting to compare the grades between different brands is not as helpful.

 

[whitey4311]

Yeah I understand that it doesnt mean double the life by going to the BFG's but I am sure they last longer from reading the reviews.

I really would like some more input and opinions of this since it makes sense to go to an all season tire but I have never heard of doing that on a car like these. Where I live it doesnt rain often and its typically like summer all year around with some odd ball days of being real cold and a bit of slushy roads but seriously we would consider that a freak storm.

I really thought these BFG tires would kick ass if they came stock on the SRT-4 which is comparable to the performance of your MS3.

 

[Kurt07]

I just want something better than the sh!tty Potenzas that came with the MS3. I am far from impress by these tires. Honestly, I think the BFG's are a good choice. They can't be worse than what comes with the car.

 

[whitey4311]

I am going the BFG tires since I read the reviews and other then road noise they soudn kick ass.

 

[MAZDARacing2007]

will a 42mm offset wheel work?.....i want to get some new rims but not sure if that offset will work?