tire choices

[nealtovsen@yahoo.com (Neal Tovsen)]

> Any reason why you wouldn't recomend the Azenis over
> the Paradas for a
> street application?

The Azenis do work for the street (I have them on now
actually), but I still wouldn't recommend them for a
daily-driver car, and I intend to remove them from the
daily driver ASAP.

One reason I wouldn't recommend them is because they
wear very quickly, but the biggest reason is because
they hydroplane BADLY even in small puddles. It rained
a little on my way home yesterday, and I had to slow
down even on city streets because the steering wheel
went numb every time I hit a puddle.

They are the ultimate in dry grip, but that means they
have almost no ability to evacuate water. This is made
even worse by the way Azenis are known to wear. No
matter how much neg camber you have on the car, you'll
wear the outer shoulder much faster than the rest of
the tire. This will quickly remove what few sipes are
there, making the tire even worse in the wet.

Though they're not considered "R" tires, the Azenis
are still special-purpose tires, and need to be
treated that way. They're not very different from the
Yoko A032R, which is considered an "R compound" tire.
They were built to dominate the SCCA Street Touring
classes, and they have pretty much succeeded at that
goal. They're very streetable for a special-purpose
car that goes out on nice days, and if you're aware of
the wet traction issues you'll be fine. But they're
not designed to be a "performance commuter tire" that
you can drive everywhere, anytime. 

FYI, the new Kumho MX is probably also in this
category, but I haven't seen them yet.

Neal

--- Jason Adams <roclist@accessconsulting.ca> wrote:
> Any reason why you wouldn't recomend the Azenis over
> the Paradas for a
> street application?
> 
> Jason Adams
> Fahrvergnugen Forever!
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Neal Tovsen" <nealtovsen@yahoo.com>
> To: "Wes Brockway" <kywes@bellsouth.net>; "Scirocco"
> <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 2:02 PM
> Subject: Re: tire choices
> 
> 
> > What class are you running and what are your
> goals? Do
> > they have to be "streetable" or do you have a
> second
> > set of wheels for autocrossing? Several different
> > options depending on the answers.
> >
> > Prepared or Mod car: Goodyear or Hoosier slicks
> >
> > Ultimate Stock, SP, SM tire: Hoosier A3S03
> >
> > Best Stock, SP, SM tire for less $$: Kumho ECSTA
> V-700
> >
> > Ultimate STS tire (more-or-less streetable, but
> not
> > recommended): Falken Azenis Sport
> >
> > Best STS "real" street tire: This is where your
> > options explode, as there are many good ones
> depending
> > on budget and brand preference...Pole Position
> S03,
> > BFG g-Force KD, Kumho ECSTA 712, Yoko Parada
> Spec-II,
> > Sumitomo, others...
> >
> > Neal
> >
> > --- Wes Brockway <kywes@bellsouth.net> wrote:
> > > No not another query on tire or wheel sizes but
> > > favorite choices for
> > > Autocross. I have some Khumos Ecstas and they
> are
> > > good and reasonably priced
> > > but what is the real choice for a great sticky
> tire.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Scirocco-l mailing list
> > > Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > > http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
> >
> >
> > =====
> > ~Neal
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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> >
> 


=====
~Neal

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