Thread: New Boots ? ? ? ?

Quick question (I need new tyres . .. price not an issue, within reason) . . .

What are, in your opinion, the best tyres. . . ?


At the mo I'm running Verdestien (Sorry if I cant spell it) on an A4 Quattro (B7) 18" 235x40 . . . 95Y
They're OK just seem to squeal like a pig at a BBQ . . . .


What have you got? and what you recommend . . . ?


Thanks ..

Tried a few, OEM Continentals, Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s, etc..

Have been happiest with Goodyear Eagle F1 - quiet, great grip, good wear rate - am on third set now, and still v happy!

decent price as well

Toyo Proxes T1-R or T1-S. Top top tyres IMO.

Running avon ZZ3's on the front, 225/35/19 not bad at £125 each fitted

I've been checking out the Black Circle website - it has an extensive list of tyres and test of tyres. . . .

The Michelin Pilot Sport seem to come out best (What Michelin paid for this I don't know ! ! ! )

But out of 5 for Life - Handling - Noise
They got . . . 4.5 - 4.5 - 4.0

I know they ain't cheap BUT
And ask anyone, all the mods in the world don't mean squat - IF you can't put it down and hold it on the road. . . . .

I'll stop preaching now - Does anyone have Michelins ? ? ? ?

If so whats the verdict - Or have you have better ? ? ? ?

Cheers

very impressed with 235/35/19 pirelli p zero rosso's i'm using,

i had some bridgestone's before which i liked a lot, for outright fun though you can't beat dunlop forumla r's for ultra sticky ultra short life track day tyres, just don't go in too deep a water with them.

I've just had some Continential Contisport 3's put on my A4 Sline - Excellent.

235 40 18

Pirelli PZero's are brilliant. Got Goodyear F1's on at the moment and not impressive with them. They're refusing to wear out too..

On my second set of Eagle F1's can't fault them

Best tyres I've used are Eagle F1 GSD3's. Great grip, not the most durable but good performance.

Feel free to post any reviews of tyres you've used / are using on my housemate's site http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk

Originally Posted by Biglockie

Running avon ZZ3's on the front, 225/35/19 not bad at £125 each fitted

ive just put a set of these on mine (235/40/18) but after about 100 miles scrubbing in i started giving it a bit of stick and ive noticed when swaying the steering too and fro or going into a corner very quick that the back end starts to sway out as though the tyres are flat and sidewalls are bending. lost the back end alltogether the other day in the dry! the car didnt do it before, im going to give them a bit longer to settle in and if it doesnt get better they're going back. im running 40 psi at the moment but it feels like 10 psi when i chuck it into a bend. ive had these before on other cars and they've been great.

Originally Posted by SteveS

ive just put a set of these on mine (235/40/18) but after about 100 miles scrubbing in i started giving it a bit of stick and ive noticed when swaying the steering too and fro or going into a corner very quick that the back end starts to sway out as though the tyres are flat and sidewalls are bending. lost the back end alltogether the other day in the dry! the car didnt do it before, im going to give them a bit longer to settle in and if it doesnt get better they're going back. im running 40 psi at the moment but it feels like 10 psi when i chuck it into a bend. ive had these before on other cars and they've been great.

thats bizarre as thats the feeling I'm getting on my GSD3's at the moment, kind of like the back end's suspension is made from syrup.

Could it be rear end bush wear??
I'm getting it too but my rears are well worn and I thought it was that. Getting it up on the ramps this week to check it out, I've never had any problems with the avons my mate is runnign them on his 300bhp fiat coupe and he swears by them.

The I'm running my rears at 47psi which apparently is the correct pressure for the 19's it feela as if they are soft though.

Could be worth looking into if it is the bushes maybe a group buy on poly bushes?????????

OK, all differerent opinions, but more importantly, on differernt cars!

Some boots which work better on certain types of car, may be less effective on different cars.

Being as the OP has a B7 A4 quattro, it would be helpful to the OP if you could state your own car(s) when giving your opinion/experiences.

I'll nail my flag to the mast now, and give my opinions.

On my previous B6 S4, the OEM boots were ContiSportContact2s. These were an "OK" competent tyre, and would be a good boot to recommend as a "base point". What is good with them: rock-solid excellent high speed stability (particularly when heavily loaded at v-max on the A-bahns), consistent dry peformance from new to fully worn, very good cornering grip (high and low speed) with good on-the-limit feel and progressive break-away. What is OK (neither excellent, nor crap): wet weather performance (all round [cornering, traction, braking]), road noise. What is poor: on-the-limit traction and braking - particularly under heavy braking, they let go before you expect them, and the ABS activates when it really shouldn't be, and slow-speed around town comfort can be a little harsh. Didn't respond too well to personal tweaks to tyre pressures.

When worn, these were changed to Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s. IMHO, a much better tyre than the Contis. Extremely highly recommended. What's good: wet weather grip - absolutely superb. Considerably higher levels of wet corner grip in both low and high speed corners, with good, progressive feedback, and a predictable and controllable break away. Same impressive level of grip under extreme traction and braking. Consistent dry performance from new to worn out. Low speed comfort much better. High speed stability very good (on standard pressures, not as good as the Contis, but increase the pressure by about 8psi, and then on a par with the Conti). They respond well to personal tyre pressure tweaks, but maintain good overall stability at lower pressures. Quieter road noise than the Contis. Superb Customer Service from Michelin. What's OK: progressive drop-off in wet weather performance in line with tread wear. What's bad: nothing - absolutley nothing. A perfect ultra-high-performance tyre.

My current B7 RS4 came standard with Pirelli P-Zero Rossos. What an awful, shocking, $h!t tyre. Should never have been fitted to the RS4. IMHO, a lethal tyre. OK, the facts. What's good: nothing - there is absolutly no area where they perform better than any other comparable tyre! What's OK: low speed dry cornering pretty good, but little "on-the-limit" feel, and they break away with little or no prior feedback, and also without any progression. High speed dry cornering similar to low speed cornering, but when reaching the limits become very unstable and twitchy, and no confidence in consistency of break point. Extreme dry traction and braking OK (maybe slightly better than the Conti, but not as good as the Mich). Extreme wet traction and braking again OK, again better than Conti, worse than Mich. Low and high speed ride comfort OK. What's bad: where do I start. Stability, when I got the car (brand new with new boots!), any kind of directional stability was non-existant. Cold tyre pressures were found to be about 4psi down on recommended, but correcting them mad no improvements. Talking to others on rs246, and they all experience the same instability. Pumped the tyres up to full load pressures, and a slight improvement in stability, but still noticeably shyte. Pumped pressures upto 50psi all round, again an improvement but still noticeable instability. Low and high speed cornering, let's just say scary - no confidence, no feedback, no consistency. The worst thing about them though is general wet weather traction and braking. Traction, 4-wheel wheelspin in the wet, in fourth gear (yup, from a quattro). Braking in the wet, no braking performace, ABS working overtime - absolutely fcuking lethal. Aquaplaning, complete aquaplaning at 40mph, again, fcuking lethal. Stability as the tyre wears is also a big problem - the more the tyre wears, the worse the stability is, to the extent that when they reach about 3½mm, you are constantly fighting the steering wheel with white knuckles to maintain any kind of stability. They become ultra sensitive to road camber changes, white lines and HGV ridges - this simply proves that they have an extremely weak carcass, and rely on the tread rubber for strength. Tyre wear. I don't usually comment on tyre wear, because this is extremely dependent on driving style, and I'm known to be quite hard on my tyres. However, from brand new, to the tread wear indicators in 4,500 miles - even I consider that utter shyte.

Conclusion on the Pirelli P-Zero: utter shyte, no lethal. Do NOT buy. NOT recommended. It's few redeeming factors are considerably outweighed buy it's attrocious performance in other areas.

Conclusion on the ContiSportContact2: recommended, particularly for heavy loads or high speed European touring.

Conclusion on the Michelin PilotSport PS2: extremely highly recommended, particularly for extreme wet weather performance, and comfort.


I can offer further comments for boots for slightly lighter front wheel drives, and can also explain the the ideal uses for directionals vs assymetrics, if you havn't all fallen asleep!

Interestig what would you recommend for FWD cars then??

I'm running avon ZZ3's at the moment

I have the same issue.....
My A4 TDi 130bhp Sport has those aftermarket RS4 alloys (18's) which came with cr4p tyres on (Fortuna I think) I replaced the fronts a while ago now with Toyo Proxies T1-R and I have to say, I am not that impressed with the wet handling, but the one on the rear is diabolical, I have los the rear end in wet conditions going round roundabouts and the such and thats not even pushing it, after reading all your comments, I have decided that I am gonna try x4 new Michelin Pilot Sport PS2's, they are a little on the expensive side but I'm gonna have to go for the best cos i'm driving like i've got Miss Daisy in the back on a wet day paranoid that the rear end it gonna step out any minute.
Has anybody else had any experiences of loosing the rear end in wet conditions, particularly in wet conditions ? (or could it be something else in addition to cr4p tyres like some suspension setup not quite right ?)
Also, anybody know where I can get these tyres from cheaply (less than £140 a corner ?)

Cheers,

Scott

Originally Posted by Biglockie

Interestig what would you recommend for FWD cars then??

On the A4, my recommendation would be the same, irrespective of weather it was FWD or quattro.

Because the A4 range is a relatively heavy car, you need a tyre with a good strong carcass. Tyres with weak carcasses, like John Lennons' wife, and Pirelli, really do mess the handling when the tread starts to wear.

On lighter, smaller, hot-hatch cars, the strenght of the carcass isn't quite so critical (though still my personal preference).

Originally Posted by Biglockie

I'm running avon ZZ3's at the moment

I can't offer any personal experience. However, looking at previous posts in this thread, they seem to be unsuitable, and it looks as these too have a relatively weak carcass. I actually thought the ZZ3s were meant for super-light road-legal track-day cars, such as Caterhams, Aerial Atoms, etc.

Try pumping your rears up by another 3-4psi, and see if that alters the jelly like handling! Another thought, what is the load index on your tyres? All B6 and B7 A4/S4/RS4 should only be run on "extra load" tyres!

Originally Posted by sc00byd00byd00

I have the same issue.....
My A4 TDi 130bhp Sport has those aftermarket RS4 alloys (18's) which came with cr4p tyres on (Fortuna I think) I replaced the fronts a while ago now with Toyo Proxies T1-R and I have to say, I am not that impressed with the wet handling, but the one on the rear is diabolical, I have los the rear end in wet conditions going round roundabouts and the such and thats not even pushing it,

I dispair when I hear peeps who have truly shyte tyres! Toyos are also a soft carcass/hard tread compound - and not suited at all to heavy cars. They are more suited to the lightweight pocket rocket, rice burning hot hatches! I've never heard of Fortuna - I bet they are either Eastern European or Korean!

Originally Posted by sc00byd00byd00

after reading all your comments, I have decided that I am gonna try x4 new Michelin Pilot Sport PS2's, they are a little on the expensive side but I'm gonna have to go for the best cos i'm driving like i've got Miss Daisy in the back on a wet day paranoid that the rear end it gonna step out any minute.

Thanks. At the end of the day, you usually get what you pay for, particularly with tyres.

Originally Posted by sc00byd00byd00

Has anybody else had any experiences of loosing the rear end in wet conditions, particularly in wet conditions ? (or could it be something else in addition to cr4p tyres like some suspension setup not quite right ?)

I suggest tweaking the tyre pressures - what pressure are you running at the mo?

The easiest way to eliminate any suspension concerns, would be to swap your rear wheels/tyres to the front, and vice versa. If, after doing that, you find your rear end sticking to the road just like **** sticking to a blanket, and the front aiming straight for the hedges - then you can safely blame the shyte boots!

Originally Posted by sc00byd00byd00

Also, anybody know where I can get these tyres from cheaply (less than £140 a corner ?)

Log onto mytyres.co.uk and blackcircles.com, make a note of the prices, and then spend a Saturday morning on the fone, with that infamous pale orange directory, trying to get all the local tyre places to match the price.

Originally Posted by Teutonic_Tamer

Try pumping your rears up by another 3-4psi, and see if that alters the jelly like handling! Another thought, what is the load index on your tyres? All B6 and B7 A4/S4/RS4 should only be run on "extra load" tyres!

I'm running 19's with 225/35/19 tyres and was advised to add another 5PSI to the original pressure required for the original tyre size.

Load index?? (excuse my ignorance)

there is no difference between the full load and no load pressures which I thought to be wierd.