Hi everybody,
Has anybody got any reviews on the Kumho tyres? I know that I am probably going to be seen as a bit tight, but as I can get them for about £150 a corner instead of up to £350 for Michelin sports, added to the fact that the car is only used in the dry and occasionally, it does seem a better deal.
Thanks
J
JustHB: There is an enormous amount of ignorance and snobbery attached to tyre choice. Most drivers haven't a clue what tyre performance does or doesn't do for them, they just want to be seen with the "right tyres" on their car.
If you 'track race" your car, or drive it ******* A roads through the Alps for instance, you will notice the difference - most definitely. But if, like 90% of joe average, you drive (normally) around British main roads then as long as you stick to the OEM standards (for insurance reasons mainly), you won't go far wrong.
Some turn this product into a science and some retailers have attuned to this - thus making a big fuss of the more profitable ones. [They drone on about hardness/road noise/assymetry, etc].
Go to the cheapest tyre web site, type in the OEM requirements and then stick with the household names: Michelin/Vreds/Dunlop/Kuhmo; etc etc....Nobody is going to stop and stare at your tyre walls and snigger!!! The only half decent (bolt on) might be a protective raised rim to look after those occasional close parking manouevres by the kerb
. Spend your savings on a decent alignment and balance.
Start altering the rolling radius and this is where you could come unstuck. If you drift too far from the correct rolling radius, thus imposing a 'delta' between what your indicated speed is and what you are actually doing, then you will have to constantly remind yourself by comparing your GPS speed with your speedo to stay within the law! Tyre wall specifications are also noticeable when you change them. If your suspension settings are already 'hard' or sport mode, a lower ratio tyre wall aspect (say a drop from 35% to 30%) is very noticeable and the journey will remind you how hard too! You might even notice that you can't even get your jack under the **** car!
Nitrogen: As a medium, is another market 'con'. A lot of retailer garages 'sell' it for £1 per wheel!!! The ONLY benefit that joe average will "see" is that if the day is very hot or very cold, or the car is driven hard and the tyres get 'warm'; then tyre pressure will more or less stay constant with nitrogen in it. Plain old air in the tyres allow the tyre pressure to fluctuate with the changing environment.
I've done a significant amount of track day driving over the years. We still do 'workshops' with various experts from various areas in the motoring fraternity - one of the better presentations recently was from a tyre manufacturer (won't mention their name) - who enlightened us!
I used to trackday my M3 with Kuhmo 39's on it and they stood up very well to harsh treatment compared to the 'best' the market could buy...on other cars tracking with me. As I said, it's mainly snobbery or ignorance.