can't decide

[TURBO2GO]

After 4K miles the tires on my 05 are showing signs of serious wear. The fronts especially are looking bad.

After reading Car and Driver's latest tire test I am trying to decide between the Eagle GSD3 (first place) and the Yoko Advan neova (third place). The Yoko only comes in a 225 front, whereas my stocks are a skinny 215.

I don't want to lose any of the car's responsiveness. With a 225 I am increasing width 10mm and overall diameter by roughly 9mm. I am not sure how significant that is. Its small, but its something.

The eagle is 1 pound lighter than the Yoko.

I drive easy in the rain... my performance driving is only in the dry.

Really having a hard time with this one... what would you do?

 

[BioBanker]

Dave - i looked for Neova sizing to fit and I couldnt find any, at least in a 17/18 set up.

1cm is A LOT to increase the front diameter. Is that a 225/45/17? You really need a 225/40/17 if you dont want to rub IMO.

Then you have to consider TCS. Take the rear diameter, divide it by the front diameter. The further you are, plus or minus, away from 105% the greater your TCS issues will be.

If you stay between 102% and 108%, you should be okay.

 

[TURBO2GO]

Dave - i looked for Neova sizing to fit and I couldnt find any, at least in a 17/18 set up.

1cm is A LOT to increase the front diameter. Is that a 225/45/17? You really need a 225/40/17 if you dont want to rub IMO.

Then you have to consider TCS. Take the rear diameter, divide it by the front diameter. The further you are, plus or minus, away from 105% the greater your TCS issues will be.

If you stay between 102% and 108%, you should be okay.

Is 1 cm really a lot? I mean tires wear 5mm don't they? yeah I love my stock wheels. I don't want to change them. So I need 215/45/17 and yoko only makes 225/45/17. Honestly there aren't that many great tires in a 215/45/17. PS2 is out too... so if this 9mm is going to be an issue then I guess the GSD it is...

 

[nsxtasy]

Is 1 cm really a lot?

Yes. It's the difference between not rubbing, and rubbing.

Get the F1 GS-D3 in 215/40-17 for the front. Anything bigger will probably rub.

 

[Understudy]

Yes. It's the difference between not rubbing, and rubbing.

Get the F1 GS-D3 in 205/45-16 for the front.

You mean -17, right Ken? :smile:

The ADVAN Neova is a FANTASTIC tire in my limited driving experience so far. It's too bad that they don't have a larger selection of tire sizes that are suitable for the NSX front. We were looking at getting 18's on the front, but ran into a problem finding the right size. Therefore we stayed with our 17's, but the tires are great and hopefully as time goes on Yokohama will expand the tire selection so others can try them too.

 

[nsxtasy]

You mean -17, right Ken?

My bad. :redface: Correction posted.

Incidentally, compared with the Goodyear F1 GS-D3, the Yokohama Neova AD07 offers better performance on dry pavement, but the Goodyear is superior on wet pavement and lasts longer (and it's still pretty darn good in the dry). If you're interested in a tire like the AD07 - with superior dry traction, at the expense of so-so wet traction and rapid tire wear - but one that comes in sizes suitable for the NSX, I recommend the Falken Azenis RT-615. Falken tires aren't available from the Tire Rack, but you can get them from Vulcan, Discount Tire, etc.

 

[WingZ]

Goodyears are great I got them for my 04 ( tires were gone at 5K ) no complaints and they work good at the track. I just went with the stock sizes like NSXTASY recommends.

Get the Goodyears and drop in the Type R braces and and front sway:biggrin:

sorry I'm starting to say that in almost all my posts nowadays. I'm gonna get some help.

 

[docjohn]

You mean -17, right Ken? :smile:

The ADVAN Neova is a FANTASTIC tire in my limited driving experience so far. It's too bad that they don't have a larger selection of tire sizes that are suitable for the NSX front. We were looking at getting 18's on the front, but ran into a problem finding the right size. Therefore we stayed with our 17's, but the tires are great and hopefully as time goes on Yokohama will expand the tire selection so others can try them too.

Were those the tires I drove at firebird?,,if so you are right, very impressive dry grip for a non r street tire.What is the utog rating on those?

 

[Understudy]

Were those the tires I drove at firebird?,,if so you are right, very impressive dry grip for a non r street tire.What is the utog rating on those?

Actually they weren't John. The tires you drove on at Firebird were our old Yokohama AVS Sport which were pretty good tires (significantly better than the ES100's), but the new ADVAN Neova's initially seem MUCH, MUCH better. Since you seemed to like the AVS Sports for a street tire, I think you'd love the Neova. The UTQG rating for the AVS Sport & Neova is 180/AA/A.

We'll see how the new ones hold up, but at least we already have a backup set of rears ready to go. Here's another link that Ken pointed out to me earlier and which results he references a couple of posts earlier regarding a recent Car & Driver tire comparison: http://www.tirerack.com/images/tires/tests/CandD_gy_f1_gs_d3/CandD_gy_f1_gs_ds.pdf

 

[john@johnhudakracing]

Actually they weren't John. The tires you drove on at Firebird were our old Yokohama AVS Sport which were pretty good tires (significantly better than the ES100's), but the new ADVAN Neova's initially seem MUCH, MUCH better. Since you seemed to like the AVS Sports for a street tire, I think you'd love the Neova. The UTQG rating for the AVS Sport & Neova is 180/AA/A.

We'll see how the new ones hold up, but at least we already have a backup set of rears ready to go. Here's another link that Ken pointed out to me earlier and which results he references a couple of posts earlier regarding a recent Car & Driver tire comparison: http://www.tirerack.com/images/tires/tests/CandD_gy_f1_gs_d3/CandD_gy_f1_gs_ds.pdf

Relatively, the Neova is a significantly better performing tire than the AVS or Advan sports, which I never really cared for, particularly on the track. The Neova is the factory tire on the Elise without the track pack.

In general, I would shy away from using UTGQ ratings as a measure of a tires performance, particularly manufactuer to manufactuer, they aren't really even comparable.

The Falken Azenis RT-615 Ken mentioned is an awesome dry only still street-able performance tire, one of my favorites, if it is available in the proper sizing for your application.

 

[TURBO2GO]

Thanks for the feedback. Looks like $500 for a set of the falkens at vulcan tire and $668 for the eagles at the rack.

The falkens look very aggresive. Do they need to warm up before performing well? Is the ride super hard?

I am just wondering if I am going overboard on performance with basicaly a streetable track tire instead of just getting the goodyears. I mean msot of my driving is just street.

 

[Hugh]

I am just wondering if I am going overboard on performance with basicaly a streetable track tire instead of just getting the goodyears. I mean msot of my driving is just street.

I migrated to GSD3s earlier this week after using SO3s for 2 years. I have 17/18 wheels and 215/40-17 and 275/35-18 tires. After the first 500 miles with these babies I can tell you that I LOVE them. They are fantastic in the rain and stick like super glue in the dry.

Make sure your alignment is correct if you're experiencing poor wear. The SO3s netted me about 12,000 miles on the rears and 25,000 miles on the fronts. My car is lowered about 1" and my rear camber is about -2 degrees. The toe settings have a big influence on the wear of the tires. Make sure yours are correct.

 

[TURBO2GO]

Guys does the Azenis need to warm up? Can someone answer this for me? I know some of these track/street tires are not good at all when cold. Being most of my driving is street, is this a bad choice?