Author Topic: Any tire gurus around here? (Read 827 times)

beet1e · « **Reply #15 on:** October 21, 2005, 08:40:13 AM »

AHGOD69

Rgr that about the ACS - my Golf has a similar device. They call it ESP. It dampens the drive in such a way as to reduce (but not eliminate) wheel spin. Turn it off, and there will be much more wheel spin with a "clutch dump" start. I just tried it out today, before coming back to this thread - just doing it once made me wince at the thought of what it was doing to the tyres.

The answer to your tyre wear conundrum is in three parts.

Sports tyres - as ROC put it, they are designed to "melt and grip" = short life.
"a suspension control system that reduces engine output, until the vehicle can move or acceleration can take place, without the wheels spinning." - your car has this system, but you disable it every time you drive, even though you know that "Turn it off and you know have instant tire degradation"
"My style of driving is hard and fast." I underlined the keyword. This surely is another contributory factor to the short life of your tyres.

I'm amazed that you're using tyres with 40/45 profile for normal road use. I would never go below 50 because if you hit a pot hole, you're going to knacker the wheel rim. Bet that's happened to you a few times.

I've never been to MI, but I saw how bad the roads were in IL due to extreme winter temperatures.

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So a change is in order. Any comments would be helpful, well usefull comments.

Sure, but you're not going to like it. If you want to see longer tyre life, you're going to have to change your driving style!

In which case you might not need a tyre with so soft a compound as you have now. Either that, or you'll have to feed your family on grits in weeks when you buy new tyres. Jackal1 has an excellent grit recipe!

As threads go, this one is in the "gas price whine" category. "Waaaah - I have a problem. Oh wait, I'm causing it myself" But I think AHG69 has a little more class than those who drive 10mpg gas guzzlers and then whine that gas is costing them $4/gallon.

Mustaine · « **Reply #16 on:** October 21, 2005, 08:49:47 AM »

Chris... living in Wisconsin i have a set of michelin X1 tires, they have lasted 4 years. snow, salt, and all

Hangtime · « **Reply #17 on:** October 21, 2005, 09:20:11 AM »

I have a set of the goodyears on my all wheel drive astro. work really good for me.. and we get some really crazy weather here; full spectrum sucks bellybutton driving conditions every winter; ice, sleet, snow, slush, hard pack, powder, crunchies, everything. Never have to shovel the driveway, just get in 'n go.

SlapShot · « **Reply #18 on:** October 21, 2005, 11:17:52 AM »

Nice ride Chris ...

If I were you ... instead of looking for a High Performance tire for the winter, I would just get myself a set of Blizzacks (or comparable) for the winter ... especially where you are.

Then during the spring ... get yourself a decent High Performance tire.

I'll bet that car has a lot of torque to the rear (hence rear tires wearing out way before the fronts) so anything outside of a blizzack ... can you say SPIN !!!

I have a set of Bridgestone S02 - Pole Position on my car (original tires that came with the car) which are a fantastic all-around High Performance tire ... sad thing is that they don't make that tire anymore. So, next season I will probably get a set of Goodyear F1 GS-D3s or Kumho ECSTA MXs.

I run

205/50ZR17 (7") front
255/40ZR17 (8.5") rear

Check E-Bay ... tons of tires for reasonable money ... I am sure you can find something there that will suffice for the winter.

Here is my money bucket ...

ahgod69 · « **Reply #19 on:** October 21, 2005, 01:06:48 PM »

Hey slap beautiful ride my man!!!! I agree my driving style is the culprit for the excessive wear. And in essence I guess I was looing for a tire that would last a little longer (and) still have the same grip. If I was going to whine about gas it would have been a month or so ago. Freakin amost 4 dollars a gallon over here lol. But the price has gone down to below 3. I will check out Avons and read up on them as well.

Slap, I was looking at those as well. 1995 Porsche Carrera Coupe, was my main interest but I called my insuance and well the BMW was a hell of a lot cheaper lol. Thanks all, it's good you get to learn stuff each day.

StarOfAfrica2 · « **Reply #20 on:** October 21, 2005, 02:14:02 PM »

I can second the nominations for both Bridgestone and Yokohama. Excellent tires and much better wear than alot of their contemporaries. I'd have to say Bridgestone has slipped a bit in the last few years, but still an excellent tire.

Still wont do squat for you in the snow though. But then you know that.

Hawklore · « **Reply #21 on:** October 21, 2005, 02:40:05 PM »

We paid $900 for our tires on our truck..

Well, needless to say, I'm helpiong with budgeting now..

ahgod69 · « **Reply #22 on:** October 21, 2005, 04:23:54 PM »

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Originally posted by Hawklore
We paid $900 for our tires on our truck..

Well, needless to say, I'm helpiong with budgeting now..

rofl. IF you have ever been to Michigan you would know we are notorious for having potholes tht swallow cars the size of cadilacs. Are 4 seasons consist of: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.

Widewing · « **Reply #23 on:** October 21, 2005, 04:30:48 PM »

Two words: Falken and Nitto

Buy 'em here and save a bunch of money. Great prices, free shipping.

I use Falken Ziex ZE-512s on Godzuki... Superior grip in wet and dry. Excellent wear as well. I recently switched my daughter's car over to Nitto NT 450 Extreme Performance tires. Again, superior performance for a very reasonable price.

By the way, they stock the SP Sport 8080E in 225/45ZR-17 at $126 with
free shipping.

If you want to go top shelf, consider the Pirelli P-Zero Rosso. Prices are similar to what you would spend on the rather ordinary Dunlaps.

235/45ZR-17 $155.00

245/40ZR-17 $175.00

Plus a $50 mail-in rebate.

My regards,

Widewing

ROC · « **Reply #24 on:** October 21, 2005, 04:35:06 PM »

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consist of: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.

LMAO!

crowMAW · « **Reply #25 on:** October 21, 2005, 04:50:35 PM »

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Originally posted by ahgod69
18 for the back so that may be an option for different sets of tires for the season.

I'm not sure I would go with the 18s on that car. If you had the S54 engined 315hp M Coupe, then you would probably be OK. But you need to think about weight and those 18s are probably going to be heavy, which will significantly reduce your performance. Remember that to get the car going forward, the engine has to spin the weight of the wheel...18s have more rotational mass whose inertia the engine has to overcome...braking will be effected too.

It can also effect handling and steering response. The rule of thumb is that 1lb of unsprung weight, ie wheels, will feel like 3-5lb of sprung weight. So if your new wheels are 3lb heavier each it is like having 36-60lb of dead weight in the car.

I agree with Slappy (nice C2 by the way Slap)...get some Blizzacks for winter. Buy the lightest 17s you can afford for mounting summer tires and run the snows on the stock rims.

ahgod69 · « **Reply #26 on:** October 21, 2005, 06:09:04 PM »

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Originally posted by crowMAW
I'm not sure I would go with the 18s on that car. If you had the S54 engined 315hp M Coupe, then you would probably be OK. But you need to think about weight and those 18s are probably going to be heavy, which will significantly reduce your performance. Remember that to get the car going forward, the engine has to spin the weight of the wheel...18s have more rotational mass whose inertia the engine has to overcome...braking will be effected too.

It can also effect handling and steering response. The rule of thumb is that 1lb of unsprung weight, ie wheels, will feel like 3-5lb of sprung weight. So if your new wheels are 3lb heavier each it is like having 36-60lb of dead weight in the car.

I agree with Slappy (nice C2 by the way Slap)...get some Blizzacks for winter. Buy the lightest 17s you can afford for mounting summer tires and run the snows on the stock rims.

Crow thanks for the tips, something I didn't know. I have already added 31 HP, exhaust came today and will be installed next Monday, might get an extra 5-10 if I am lucky out of it. Been shopping for a Turbo as well.

One thing I have noticed with the m3 engine is the lack of guts persay at rolling speed. A friend has a 05 330 CI with the m package. Had over 100 more ponies then I and was still able to inch out beating him 10-125. Haven't driven his car, but it seems there are a few flat spots in it. And he agrees, its like the old adage of turbo lag.

Prices I listed are aroundabout, after mounting and all that crap. And I wouldn't say the Dunlops have been ordinary, the grip has been excellent they just wore rather quickly. Handled very nice in the rain too, when we had it.

crowMAW · « **Reply #27 on:** October 21, 2005, 08:27:21 PM »

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Originally posted by ahgod69
Been shopping for a Turbo as well.

Hmmm...you might want to find a Z3 forum to discuss that. I know I've heard about the Z3 auto tranny not being able to take huge hp/tq. That is kind of backed up by the fact that the Dinan supercharger for the car is for manual tranny only. I might be remembering wrong...but check into it.

Also...turbo kits for BMWs are HUGE $$$...like $8k for the cheap ones and $11k for the good ones...they are also more complex to install. Consider a supercharger instead. Take a look at the SC from Active Autowerke and the Dinan...they are both in the $6k range. Plus they leave room for header/exhust and possibly cold air intake. Dinan has a great reputation and there are retailers in most large cities that can install and warranty. However, the Active Autowerke system includes some nice items the Dinan does not: intercooler, SC oil cooler (longer life to the SC bearings) and bigger injectors.

Definitely get a header/exhust at some point if you go SC...more volume air in needs more room to get out after combustion for max gains.

ahgod69 · « **Reply #28 on:** October 22, 2005, 01:31:44 AM »

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Originally posted by crowMAW
Consider a supercharger instead.

One of the reasons why I have been shopping arond. Dynan for what I can see is you're paying for their sticker underneath your hood. Just got back from the bar so if I slur well forgive me. BUddy I ran into at the bar tonight who races a 3 series was against well everything I had to say. For some odd reason he is a purist. Don't change what ya have thinking. He has an older 89-90 model 3 series he is dropping a v8 into for racing. So his story ran as fast as helen keller. Granted his car now wll beat most if not all performance cars from 0-140, but he was an idealist.

Crow, from what I have gathered you know your ****, and I thank you. Slap, well we will drink some rum together soon enough

beet1e · « **Reply #29 on:** October 22, 2005, 05:12:05 AM »

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Originally posted by ahgod69
rofl. IF you have ever been to Michigan you would know we are notorious for having potholes tht swallow cars the size of cadilacs. Are 4 seasons consist of: almost winter, winter, still winter and road construction.

Pretty much like Chicago then. There, they have only two seasons - winter and August, or so the joke goes. Same deal about the potholes, which seemed to be much worse in the city than out of town on the interstates or even the backwater state roads.

I've looked at what you're doing to your car, and it seems like you're not short of a bob or two to spend on it. Have you ever considered NOT disabling that ACS thing every time you drive? It's there to help you! When I did that test yesterday, it wasn't just the wheel spin that made my CC twitch in my pocket - there was also the horrendous jarring felt through the drive train. If you're doing that on each start, something's going to break, eventually, and this is going to become more than a tyre wear whine thread.

I'm still itching to know how often your wheel rims need repairing, given the state of MI roads, if you're running 40/45 profile tyres.