nile13

Craig, I have not read Car and Drivel for at least 15 years now, but will read this article if you recommend it.

TrackDays247.com

They typically try to be too cute and irreverent with their freaky articles, but the test is really well done.

cgfen

Thans for the excellent post.
You can probably see my bias concerning your four options.


Craig

Stealth 993

I have been running AD08's for 2 seasons now, last season I dominated my class, this year, I'm in 1st place, but going to be beat by a girl in a Boxter.

AD08's great rubber!

nile13

Craig, are you implying that you like Direzzas?

Be like Mike, just come out and say it

Dr. No

Note that TR rates these in order: Bridgestone RE-11 (also most $$$), then the Dunlops, Advans, Hankooks and Toyos in that order. With 3 million reported miles on the Dunlops that probably biases the results in favor of that tire. So with the exception of the Bridgestones TR pretty much agrees with you.

nile13

I've driven the same car on RE-11s, R-S3s and R1Rs. So did my co-driver and owner of the car. Let me just say that he actually sold RE-11s and bought R-S3s and now R1Rs.

But I'm curious if you mean TR's customer's ratings. I pay absolutely no attention to those, sorry. Interesting, too, as TR just started selling Toyos.

Dr. No

I meant this:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...ay.jsp?type=EP

Not sure what besides the "Would buy again?" number comes from customer reviews. (I ignore those too unless sorted by type of car too).

nile13

Dr. No, I believe that _all _ of these categories come from customers' responses. Which is funny as many of them have 100-200 miles when they make their comments.

Stealth 993

This is the data to look at, real on track testing, with data logging.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=118

nile13

Mike, since the testing and analyses are near and dear to my heart (previous long-term GF was a PhD in statistics), let's look at these charts.

First and foremost, the issue I have is with them not showing how data was gathered (at least I don't see it). How many runs, how repeatable, etc). I see they used separate cars, which is a huge no-no in my book.

Second, I'm looking at the results. RE-11 has the slowest slalom time and the slowest lap time of the bunch. Specifically, it's slower than AD-08 by a whooping 2 tenth on a tiny 29 second course. The rest of the stuff is completely subjective and that's where my issue is. Based on what I'm seeing RE-11 is )maybe) a wet tire. Not much more. Granted, that we are splitting hairs here and they are very decent tires, but if I did not have first-hand experience with them (as well as with the other 3 in this particular test), what am I supposed to think of the results? Unadulterated bunk?

I do read Grassroots Motorsports tire tests. 2 drivers, 3 runs each, average things out, print river's opinion as a side bar. easy and real. But what I really read is SCCA forums and SCCA Tour and National results

nile13

For those who are really interested in street tires I recommend an excellent FAQ by Andy Hollis: http://www.facebook.com/notes/hollis...45008598916447

Dr. No

TireRack is showing the Star Spec Direzza Z1s as "closeout". Does this mean we will be getting the Z2 soon??? or not?

nile13

Z2s are coming next spring, supposedly. From what I've read the improvement over Z1s is marginal. I'm running Z1s on my car for the last few month.

TireRack has lost _any and all_ respect in my book, BTW. I bought my 225/40-18th for $192 a pop on July 27th. Now they are on "Closeout" for $215 each. Borderline illegal business practice. Unethical - sure, like it's the first time TR does that. Coupled with the fact that they are "an exclusive Z1 distributor in US" and you can't buy Z1s from anywhere else... F them and the horse they rode in on. Did I make myself abundantly clear, TireRack?

Dr. No

That's annoying. I noticed the prices have gone up too. But I can't imagine that Dunlop will go six months without availability in the US.