kumho? any good? the ecsta MX to be exact. what other tires are of good quailty and lower price? i dont do much spirited drivin anymore… just lookin to cruzin and look sharp.
also lookin at Sumitomo HTR Z II ( real cheap… kinda worries me)
theyll be on a set of 18x8’s
any other tires to look into?
I’m really enjoying the Falken ziex ze-912’s. Paid 74$ shipped a tire for 215/45/17. Super quiet, awesome handling, 40,000 mile warranty, 360AA treadwear.
I have some Nexen’s on my SHO right now. 225/50/17 were $268 shipped to the door for 4 of them. After ~5000 miles I’ve burned off .5/32nds of tread…not too bad if you ask me. My SHO sees spirited driving maybe 1% of the time I’m driving it.
Edit: 400 treadwear rating
I agree. Good tire for the price.
If you still like to do your spirited runs here and there, I would personally stay away from Ectsas. They were much too noisy at the edge of adhesion. Though I haven’t run them in quite a few years so maybe their compound is different now but generally the higher the treadwear rating, the noisier you can expect the tire to be.
Materials have come down a lot in price and now that I think of it, it’s been a while since I’ve heard some tire-squeal coming from the average driver taking a turn a bit too hot. My last paragraph may now be some out-dated hooplah.
haha thats allright… thanks guys- ill look into the falkens that sounds pretty good
FWIW, I’ve been running the HTR Z II’s for 2 years now with NO problems what so ever. They handle good, look good and tire wear isn’t too bad. I notice slight traction problems if I’m running out the gears aggressively but nothing too bad.
Great set of tires for the $$$ IMO. running them on a 17x8 wheel (245/45)
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=4
Kumho Ecsta SPT are a great tire, great price, and kicking ass in head to head reviews. I don’t like putting much weight in customer reviews on tires. The majority of drivers don’t know shit about tires and when they go from their old, bald, factory tires that were out of balance to a new set of tires of course they give the new tires glowing reviews.
That said, I’m really happy with the compromise of the Ecsta SPT. On the GTO I’ve run the factory performance all season and a set of Ventus RS2’s. On the previous car I ran a set of Yoko AVS ES100’s and Azenis RT-615’s. Out of all those tires the Ecsta SPT was the best performance street tire. Less grip than the 200 treadwear RS2’s and 615’s, but 200 treadwear tires wear out way too fast. The 320 treadwear SPT is a much better balance between grip and treadwear for anyone not trying to win a street tire class autocrossing.
I had Kumho Ecsta SPT’s on my Jetta and I liked them.
I put Nexens on my wife’s Protege and they’re good too.
The Nexens have stayed nice and quiet. The SPT’s got cupped and loud, but only after a couple of autocross days. Both stick fine and wear well for spirited street driving.
I was in the same boat as you for my DD. I don’t drive too spirited in it and wanted excellent wet traction and good grip for the few times I do want to turn hard. My 3 that I narrowed it down to were the SPTs, Exclaim UHPs, and HTR Z II. From all my readings, fuck the HTR. I actually was going to get the SPTs but they cost a tad more than the UHPs and they were backordered. So UHPs it was. So far I’ve got about 5k on them with very little wear at all. The wet traction is absolutely excellent (I’m not saying there isn’t better out there, but for the cost WOW) The SPTs actually tested better in the wet than the UHPs. The dry hard cornering I’ve done has been better than ecsta 712s, and toyo proxes FZ4s hands down. both the previous mentioned tires only got me 10k miles tops. These UHPs look like I’ll get 20k all day long. I’d say SPTs or UHPs no question. The only thing that sketched me out with the SPTs were a lot of people saying they only got 5-10k out of them (but I highly imagine they have bad alignments or perhaps there was a bad batch of rubber or something) Many people are getting 30-40k from some of the reviews I’ve read. Either of those 2 tires, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
edit: Be sure to come by Swerve Motorsports to get em professionally mounted and balanced too! 
what are your needs from these tires? can’t recommend without knowing the use.
I just ordered myself a set of Kuhmo ASX’s last night, based on the tire testing I did on them a few weeks ago. Very predictable, and very fun for the times I want to romp on them a little.
wow awesome feedback… thanks everybody. TheBlue, i drive a lot so im lookin for good wear n tear, a pretty quiet and comfy ride, but also a great lookin and preforming tire for when i feel like gettin rad. im still lookin for some wheels at this point… i didnt want to spend the cash but i might just bite the bullit and get some CH’s or something. i just want a good lookin car for my minimal driving needs haha
in that case I say: don’t get a cheap Z rated tire, get a decent high performance all season like the falken 912. The “money is no object tire” for your needs is the Continental ContiExtremeContact.
I’m actually looking at the Ecsta MX tires as well. They seem to be offering what I’m looking for. Is the noise from these tires really that bad?
^ I didn’t really think so, then again my exhaust is usually too loud to hear road noise anyway
wow i wish my tires lasted half as long as yours! i have had good luck with dunlop sp sports and their direzza. the direzza’s rock for drifting and they are really really nice on the street too.
the MX was a decent tire when it was new. The problem is that they are very heavy, they make a lot of noise (without the higher performance return), they tend to get very greasy at their low limits. They’re a LOT better than the HORRIBLE 712 aka “I couldn’t afford real tires after buying my rims”.
Pick the falken 615 or the ventus RS2 over the MX.
After seeing the review of the UHPs you posted, I ordered a set. They should be here Friday. :tup: