Justifiable Levels of Grip

[Butuz]

Its just that in situations where the little girl runs out in front of you and you have to stamp on the brakes and steer round her - nangkangs willl ensure you kill her, wheras Goodyear Eagle F1's or Toyo T1's will give you better braking and better steering which may mean you dont end up killing the girl.

Personally, i think there should be a set level of grip for tyres and any tyres that fall below that set level (nangkangs) should be made illegal and fail the MOT etc.

People make so much fuss about having a safe and comfortable bonnet for hitting people with, ABS to help you stop, nice neutral handling to help you steer round little girls, but they completely ignore the one thing that is actually the interface between the car and the road.

Butuz

[Lowe]

You really don't like Nankang do you? But.. did you know this - they're made by Yokohama!

[Butuz]

I dont care who theyre made by, they give anti-grip! Mind you, where is yokohama now in these days of goodyear/mitchelin/toyo?

No where! (apart from on old minis!)

Butuz

[Jiff Lemon]

EX-SQUEEZE ME????????

The only problem with Yoko is they provide TOO much grip and not enough tyre life!

I'd also debate the "made by Yokohama" thing too....

Many years ago, the company I worked for sold Hankook tyres on the premise that "they're made by pirelli". No they're not made by Pirelli. Hankook licensed the 3 year old tread patterns and made their own rubber.

[Rave]

I've had A539s on the front of my MR2 for 10,000 miles now. Plenty of life left in them, albeit that it's a rwd car with a rearward weight bias. The grip, albeit that I don't have much to compare it to, is superb.

Rich :¬)

[Zak33]

Yoko rock

Toyo....oh pleeeeeeeze .....no way.

[Vimeous]

The way I see it.....

If a manufacturer tests a series of tyres ofr their car and decides the best grip, cost and expected usage compromise is a set of semi-race tyres then I'd be inclined to trust them. Afterall they are the supposed experts.
As many of you know I'm an avid reader of Autocar. They've been running an EVO VII and been totally unable to source the originally supplied tyres (I believe AO86's) as they're simply not available in the UK. They've tried the next best from the same manufacturer but want to find the original equipment because they reckon it's better.
Scandalous?
Not really. The Mitsi engineers did their jobs and clearly specced the right tyre for the car. Afterall with 4500mile service intervals, a highly tuned 4wd 2litre turbo motor, and big wings they're repecting their customer to give it some stick and it must be able to handle whatever is thrown at it.
What worries me more is that by limiting tyres to dealership only you escalate the prices uncontrollably. It doesn't stop me thanking the Mitsi engineers for doing their job.

Other scenarios include Porsche who will often supply a different make on a new car at the request of the owner. Autocar fleet cars often go through all the options so they can recommend back to us punters which are a better choice and have in the past berrated suppliers for only offering inferior choices.

There is one last issue regarding imposed tyre choices.
All (well almost all) new BMW's now arrive on runflat tyres. Again it's an engineering decision to save weight by not needing a spare wheel. But by doing so they introduce a significant comprimise in ride comfort as these runflats have much stiffer sidewalls.
In many cases they won't allow you to specify an alternative and that frustrates me because it's quite possibly a compromise I'm not willing to take.
Having never driven a runflat equipped car I can't give quantitative reference but I'd still like to be given the option to feel out the differences and make my own decision.


I guess Zak the answer to your question is dependant on what the individual expects from their car. Most people on this forum require a compromise between ultimate grip and decent value for money. I just tend towards the ultimate grip aspect as I value the grip more than I do the money that buys it!