Falken Azenis
 

Has anyone tried these tires? They got a great writeup in Grassroots Motorsports. If you have tried them how noisy are they? How to they compare to the pricier rubber?, S03, P-Zero, etc. :rolleyes:

I have the Azenis ST-115. I've been very happy with them, very quite and bang-for-the-buck.

The Falkens dominate the STS class in SCCA Solo II (not that you guys would know, since no Porsches are allowed in STS). For the price, they're simply the best tire you can get in terms of traction short of an R compound. They're also surprisingly cheap (cheapest online source currently is <a href="http://www.vulcantire.com" target="_blank">http://www.vulcantire.com</a> or <a href="http://www.discounttiredirect.com" target="_blank">http://www.discounttiredirect.com</a> depending on your location...DTD ships free ).

The downsides:

- heavy (about as heavy as the S03s)
- LOUD (the tread design puts a lot of rubber to the ground, but it's gonna be REAL noisy)
- hydroplanes in standing water (usually not a real problem until you're down to the last 2/32's, but as a general rule of thumb, avoid standing water instead of charging through it; they grip wet roads fine)
- a bitch to mount (the extrodinarily stiff carbon-kevlar sidewalls are great for cornering, but they're known to be very difficult to mount - many say they're harder to mount than some R compounds)
- very limited size availability (six sizes, 195/60R14, 205/50R15, 205/55R16, 215/45ZR16, 225/45ZR17, and 245/45ZR17)
- low life (don't expect anything more than 10-15k with moderate to aggressive driving, but the low price makes up for this <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> )

<img src="http://www.discounttiredirect.com/product/tires/falhz5.ang.jpg" alt=" - " />

I currently use it as my autocross tires, and they're stellar. Not R compound by any means, but as close as you can get. :)

Thank you for the information. I have heard a lot about the tire, but I have not met many who have personal experience using it. I was thinking of upgrading to the Azenis Sports from my Dunlop SP8000's, but I don't plan to autocross or track the car any longer. It seems that this tire is too much of a track performance tire than a street performance tire. I especially wanted to get information regarding how loud it could be. Thanks again.

Chris

1988 924S 175,000 miles and counting

Thank you for the information. I have heard a lot about the tire, but I have not met many who have personal experience using it. I was thinking of upgrading to the Azenis Sports from my Dunlop SP8000's, but I don't plan to autocross or track the car any longer. It seems that this tire is too much of a track performance tire than a street performance tire. I especially wanted to get information regarding how loud it could be. Thanks again.

Chris :D

1988 924S 175,000 miles and counting

I have just puchased my second set (225/45 & 255/40 * 17) for my 90 C4. They lasted 14,000kms of mixed road and frequent hard track use. Overall I was very happy with the first set (and I did not consider them particularly noisy)-not that grippy but very progressive. The second set have already given me problems after only 500kms with one of the rears wearing excessively on the outer edge. Falken (Australai) claim that the compound has been changed recently (softened) and that they should not be run below 36 psi cold (a pressure I found to be about the maximum desirable for most circuits I run on. In terms of value for money they are a good choice but I will not be purchasing more Falkens due to their poor after sales service in Australia (their initial response to my complaint was "there's no warranty on race tyres!).