Tire Rack Consumer Reviews

Initial Review, 1,800 Miles on Tires
April 26, 2011

For regular all-season street use, these are great tires. They have good grip even at low (ambient) temperatures; they have good wet traction and hydroplaning resistance; and they have good cornering response, grip, and stability. Given their performance characteristics, I'd even say they are pretty comfortable and sufficiently quiet.



The important thing to keep in mind, however, is the qualifying statement "for regular all-season street use". While they do a good job for regular street and highway duty, don't be misled into thinking they have any sort of real performance potential. I tried the tires out at a local autox event, and very quickly found out the limits of their capabilities. Despite the "high performance all-season" designation and the favourable impression I had of them on the street, they proved to be woefully inadequate in any sort of aggressive driving. In a constant radius turn about the size of a typical major intersection left turn (say, 6 lanes wide road with 3 lanes in each direction), the tires started giving up before I even got to 50kph on a warm sunny afternoon in spring (must have been at least 15-16C). So as far as lateral grip is concerned, I wasn't very impressed. However, at least the lost of traction was gradual, linear, and relatively easy to recover from.