Given
32%
while driving a
Mazda RX8
(225/45 R18 W)
on
a combination of roads
for 500
average miles
In short, if you go to Tesco once a week on a saturday morning in the dry they will be reasonable, but for anything on the motorway or a sportier car please dont put yourself in danger.
These tyres were fitted to my newly purchased toy RX8.
I had already decided to take them off before buying the car as budget tyres are NOT what you should be fitting to a tail happy RWD car.
Part of my job is to design devices that work with tyres and I see a lot of different tyres from different manufacturers. I actually cut these tyres up to use as a plant pot drainer when I got them home from having them changed and boy oh boy do they have poor belt construction and fewer strands than other brands.
Dry Grip:
Good once you've turned in but looses traction with very little warning. Initial turn in is slow as the tyre sidewall is so soft that they deform far too easily under pressure.
Dry braking:
Car squirms around a lot as the sidewalls cant cope with the weight transfer, much longer stopping distance than the new tyres replaced it at a speed of 50mph.
Feedback:
Zero in a high performance vehicle. Might be ok for big people carriers and the like but they feel like the car is always on ice. Grip is there but you've got no idea what the wheels are doing.
Wear:
Cant comment, had about 8mm on when i got the car and covered 250 miles in them, still had 8mm left.
Comfort:
Actually pretty good, soft sidewalls are good for comfort as they add to the cars dampening, just not in a way anyone should want.
Wet Grip:
Utterly horrific and borderline illegal its so poor. The RX8 has very little torque and yet was spinning the rear wheels with very little effort in a straight line on a good surface. The back end broke loose in a straight line too which ive never had in any car. Any throttle input on the car that was not inch perfect began to create a slide. Now this is great fun on a car park at 2am but not on the M1 in rush hour.
Wet braking:
Again, extremely poor. The cars squirms around as though the brakes are not all acting with equal power. Back end tried to brake out too. Stopping distance was scary and more than once at a 30mph stop I was having to apply much more pressure than I should be doing at those speeds with ABS going nuts.
Replaced the Yokohama Advan 105'S and the difference is staggering. Braking distances are several metres shorter in both dry and wet conditions.
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