Uniroyal RainSport

Using The Rain sport 2 on my Mazda 3 sport 2.2 185BHP model and have done about 10K with them they are quite a noisy tyre but now the rear ones are producing excessive road noise as if a wheel bearings had gone so when I had it serviced I asked that the rear wheel bearings be checked. The outcome was that the inside edges of block treads had worn into a wedge shape causing the tyres to bounce. I returned to the tyre supplier and they have said it's a suspension problem(Rear shocks)which I find hard to believe as nothing has shown up on the service, the car is a 2010 model and not driven hard. If any one else has experienced the same and knows why this has happened I would love to know. I am now faced with having to buy replacement tyres and the worn ones are going to be sent to the manufacturer to be tested. So far very disappointed with these tyres, never had a problem like this before with tyres. I was also told it may be that these tyres just don't suit the Mazda 3!

Had to get a full set of tyres for my Mazda 6 estate. Looked through various review sites looking for a good grip tyre in wet conditions. Chose the Uniroyal Rain Expert. I can not criticise the tyres performance in terms of grip. Grip in both wet and dry is brilliant. Very safe tyre. I have driven 1500 miles on these since purchasing in November 2011.
I have been driving for over 35 years, in this time I have driven on many different tyres, makes, tread pattens, etc.. so I can honestly say the noise is the WORST I have ever had from a tyre. My daughters liken it to a pod racer in Star Wars, or the sound you get from the tyres of jet landing on a runway.
I did offer Uni Royal via there web site comments link, to listen to the tyre on my car and discuss why they do not put a warning about the sound these tyres make, but it seems to have fallen of deaf ears.... ! perhaps that is why the do not realise there is a noise problem !

This is a review of the Rainsport 1's on the front of my car, a follow on from my previous review of these on the rear.

I have to say that I have really not been overly impressed by these. You get more feel of how good or a bad a tyre is when theyre on the driven wheels and what felt like an alright if a little grip deficient tyre on the rear felt completely numb on the front.

Straight line grip in the dry was actually quite good. I didnt find wet grip to be any better or worse than any other tyre ive had, so dont get this tyre if your sole concern is better grip in the wet. As I have said, the tyres feel very numb and made the steering of my car feel overly heavy. One of the biggest things about the st170 is its sublime steering feel, but with these on it was reduced to what i can only describe as steering through sludge, no sharpness or directness. Although there was little feel, the tyres progressed into understeer gradually. The main issue I feel is that the sidewalls are incredibly soft, ompared to continential sport contact 1's, pilot sport 1's and my latest rainsport 2's. I can squash the sidewall with my hand incredibly easily with the rainsport 1's. This soft sidewall is totally apparent in any kind of at speed cornering. Going round a large roundabout with the window open, you can physical hear the point where the sidewalls of the tyre fold on themselves. At this point you still have some grip, but zero feel.

Wear has been ok, at a total of 24000 miles. Not as good as the Michelin Pilot Sport 1's which lasted 30000. Comfort is excellent, I assume as a result of the soft sidewalls and quite soft compound. Of course, in a 'sport' tyre this isnt really what your looking for.

Always run Michlin Pilot Sports on my BMW since I bought it and always had good traction wet and dry with more than just spirited driving and very rarely saw any traction control lights even after I had a DMS remapto 270bhp/410Ibft.
Thought I would see what tyres other people rated and saw these rainsports were in the top 3 when my michlin's were rarely in the top 20 so I thought I would give them a try. Must say they were harder to get hold of but they did come in cheap @ ?150 each. I had both rears changed to rainsports and kept the Michlin's on the front as they are only 1/3rd worn. First impressions were not good as the tyres had zero grip like most new tyres but they also have very soft sidewalls so the car feels like the rear tyre's are flat even though they are pumped up to 3 bar. They got better after around 500 miles but they are still struggling to maintain grip. I find when I exit a motorway and the road bends round the DSC flashes on the instrument and I can feel the car automatically braking individual wheels to keep the car from sliding out as the rears can not live with the front grip. I wouldn't mind if I was really pressing on but this happens when driving normally. (depending on what you class as normal I suppose)!
Overall I'm dissapointed with the Unirayal's mainly in the dry but they are no better than the Michlin's in the damp so I think the reviews for these tyres have been posted by someone from Unirayal's sales team!
You do pay for what you get I suppose so I'll be back on to Michlin's asap.