scapamouche
Member
Now that my Azenis are DEAD DEAD DEAD, I thought I'd post up a few pics and give my input about whether they're worth it for the MSP. I had a set of 225/45-17 Azenis on the Stock 17x7 wheels.
I had them for 3 months, with 4000 miles and about 120 autox runs. They gripped very well, although the car tended to understeer more with them than with the stock tires. Below are a couple pictures of the tires after I had them removed.
I had some significant rubbing issues in both the front and the rear. In back, the driver's side tire rubbed at the tread corner against the plastic shield over the gasoline purge filter assembly at the back of the wheel well. There was also rubbing against the fender lips when the car was heavily loaded (4 people plus weekend bags...) and the road got bumpy at all.
The front was a bit more severe. There was a sharp edge on the passenger side subframe to the rear of the suspension. When the wheel was turned, this edge cut into the corner of the tread block, as shown below. This rubbing was unpleasant and worrying, but not really dangerous since the tread was VERY thick there.
The limited camber available in the front suspension helped make the wear worse on the outer edges, and the overall life shorter.
On a mostly unrelated note, I have now bought a set of race only wheels and tires: Team Dynamics Pro Race 1s in 17x7, 50mm offset with 205/40-17 Kumho Ecsta V700s. I got them from AutoRND, who had them specially drilled in the 5x114.3mm bolt pattern we need...They are about 1.5 inches shorter than the stock rubber, which was another inch smaller than the Azenis. I can feel the improved acceleration with the new tires: they are about 12lbs LIGHTER than the Azenis setup was, and about 2.5inches, or 10% smaller in diameter!
The new wheels are shown below:
Holy wheelgap, Batman!!
I had them for 3 months, with 4000 miles and about 120 autox runs. They gripped very well, although the car tended to understeer more with them than with the stock tires. Below are a couple pictures of the tires after I had them removed.
I had some significant rubbing issues in both the front and the rear. In back, the driver's side tire rubbed at the tread corner against the plastic shield over the gasoline purge filter assembly at the back of the wheel well. There was also rubbing against the fender lips when the car was heavily loaded (4 people plus weekend bags...) and the road got bumpy at all.
The front was a bit more severe. There was a sharp edge on the passenger side subframe to the rear of the suspension. When the wheel was turned, this edge cut into the corner of the tread block, as shown below. This rubbing was unpleasant and worrying, but not really dangerous since the tread was VERY thick there.
The limited camber available in the front suspension helped make the wear worse on the outer edges, and the overall life shorter.
On a mostly unrelated note, I have now bought a set of race only wheels and tires: Team Dynamics Pro Race 1s in 17x7, 50mm offset with 205/40-17 Kumho Ecsta V700s. I got them from AutoRND, who had them specially drilled in the 5x114.3mm bolt pattern we need...They are about 1.5 inches shorter than the stock rubber, which was another inch smaller than the Azenis. I can feel the improved acceleration with the new tires: they are about 12lbs LIGHTER than the Azenis setup was, and about 2.5inches, or 10% smaller in diameter!
The new wheels are shown below:
Holy wheelgap, Batman!!
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