Looking for drag radial/summer tires....

[Mradio]

Like the title says, iam looking for some drag radials. I need traction off the line on the track, as well as on the street. So Iam looking for something that can be daily driven and will last a little.<p>I have couple of brands that iam leaning towards:<p>BFGoodrich g-Force T/A Drag Radial<p>Kumho VictoRacer V700<p>Falken Azenis ST-115

[Mradio]

ProtegeSTS, if you are reading this, what Falkens where you talking about in some of your posts? You said you really liked their performance

[JasonH]

There is no "do it all" tire.<p>The only true drag tire you mentioned, the BFG, will wear like crazy driven on a daily basis. If you are serious about drag racing, you will get a pair of those and mount them on steel wheels (or specialized drag wheels if you want to spend more) and put them on when you get to the strip.<p>The tires ProtegeSTS have mentioned are autocross tires. In the STS (or "Street Touring") class you can't run DOT race tires (like the Kumhos you linked to,) only true street tires like the Falken Azenis (not the ones you linked to, those are something different that I've never heard of before.) Virtually nobody would use Kumho autocross tires as their only tire. Autocrossers who drive to their events take their race tires with them and change them before and after.<p>The Falken Azenis are legal for STS as their treadwear rating is 200 (four times that of the Kumhos) which is ok for street use, but they will still wear much faster than most summer radials.<p>So, if you want to get better traction at the strip, investing in a pair of drag slicks is definitely the best way to go. Tire pressures play an important role and you'll have to figure out what's optimal depending on conditions by trial and error. Stiffer rear springs and shocks will keep more weight on the front tires when you launch, as will reducing any weight towards the back of the car.

[ProtegeSTS]

Jason summed it up nicely, but if you must have a single set of tires for everything, the Falken Azenis Sports, which Jason linked to are your tire. Testing showed that they annialate the rest of the competition on the drag strip, coming CLOSE to true drag radials, like the BFG you linked.

[Krist B.]

yeah, i'd say go for Falken Azenis as summer time. i saw ProtegeSTS posted about Azenis before, so i tried them. so awesome for dry road and so good on cornering. btw, i wanted all season tires, so i'm using Falken ziex for now due to low budget.

[Mradio]

So you saying Azenis should last longer than the BFGoodrich? All of my tires are gone, so I was looking for something to drive on daily basis. Those are summer tires only I believe, right? <p>How about them Kumhos 712? Do they get good off the line traction? <p>thanks guys

[Mradio]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Kit996:
yeah, i'd say go for Falken Azenis as summer time. i saw ProtegeSTS posted about Azenis before, so i tried them. so awesome for dry road and so good on cornering. btw, i wanted all season tires, so i'm using Falken ziex for now due to low budget. <hr></blockquote><p>What tires exactly do you have, and what size?
Those Azenis Sport Jason linked to only come in 205/50/15 ...

[JasonH]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Vlad:
So you saying Azenis should last longer than the BFGoodrich? All of my tires are gone, so I was looking for something to drive on daily basis. Those are summer tires only I believe, right? <p>How about them Kumhos 712? Do they get good off the line traction? <p>thanks guys<hr></blockquote><p>Uh, yeah, those BFGs have a treadwear rating of zero. I doubt you would get more than 1000 miles on them on the street.

[ProtegeSTS]

You'd get more than that, but they are just awful street tires.<p>You don't seem to have a firm grasp of what you're looking at. You post links to full out R compound drag radials, then when told about summer tires, you look for all seasons...<p>You apparently aren't THAT serious, so just get whatever high performance tire you like the price of...

[cjthor]

The Kumho 712 isnt too bad of a tire. That is what I am using currently but am moving up to the BGF drag radials soon. They do slip a lil especially when shifting from 1 to 2.

[Mradio]

It's a hard decision, there are so many brands out there. After driving on a highway today, and almost not being able to stop in time I decided to get some new tires asap.
I narrowed it down to Azenis and Kumho Ecstas. I really want Azenis, but the problem is they don't come in correct size. I can only get 205/50, so Iam not too sure about that. Will that make my ride bumpier?

[Mradio]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by ProtegeSTS:
You'd get more than that, but they are just awful street tires.<p>You don't seem to have a firm grasp of what you're looking at. You post links to full out R compound drag radials, then when told about summer tires, you look for all seasons...<p>You apparently aren't THAT serious, so just get whatever high performance tire you like the price of...<hr></blockquote><p>I didn't say I was looking for all seasons, I said I was looking for something to drive on a daily basis, that doesn't mean Iam going to drive it in the snow.
I will probably end up buying Kumhos, you can't beat their price.

[Mradio]

Another question, I was looking at some bigger sizes, and came across 225/50R15. It looks like it will fit instead of 205/55R15.
My question is, will that give me any potential problems, since the stock rim size is so small?

[ProtegeSTS]

Azenis WILL make the ride suffer. That's part of having tires with stiff sidewalls and a tread pattern that doesn't squirm. It will be stiffer than youre used to, and it will be louder.<p>The size difference of the Azenis is NOT a big deal unless you're anal about mileage on your car. The smaller sidewall will INCREASE accleration, give it better handling, etc.<p>225s will easily fit on the 6" wide stock wheels. They won't be as square as the proper size, but it IS more tread.<p>205 Azenis will PERFORM better than 225 Ecsta 712s. Just FYI.

[Mradio]

thanks for your help, that really cleared some things up