JonnyMX5

[Please note that the following is my general experience and opinion and in no way reflects the views of those more qualified than I]


So I just recently did several comparisons of what tires I might find suitable for my needs on the road as well as track days. I looked at all the major brands as to be expected. BFGoodrich, Yoko's, Bridgestone and Hankook where among my biggest considerations.

My experience with the Yokohama's left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. During my RX7 stint, with my 85', 91 Turbo and 94 following I was always running the Yokohama Parada Spec 2's when they still made the tire. I had come to somewhat fear this tire for the simple fact that the compound is so hard that it takes entirely to long to heat up to a suitable track temperature. The subsequent ride quality on the road is fair in my opinion due to the intense road noise generated in the cabin from the tires during daily driving.

My experience with the Hankook tires is severely limited personally, however I do have two friends who ran them for a time in AutoX and said that they have a serious degredation problem when going from Daily Driver[DD] to AutoX and back to DD over the course of several outings.
Now I don't know as I said my experience is limited, how sever their driving habits are but that was enough to put me off the tires a bit. I did not ask either of these two people about the road noise while they were running the tire, so i've no response on this tire.

Bridgestone as a matter of face has always been a tire that I have loved. Their wear has always been relatively even when using as a DD and AutoX/Trackday Tire for me and 1 of my friends. We have run the Potenza on several occasions in AutoX during our testing periods. We found the tire very suitable to DD to trackday conditions. The tire responded well under stress and the road noise was at a very acceptable decibel during the transition to DD.

The BFGoodrich G-force tire was one of the more recent tires I found, and had done a lot of research and searching on this tire in forums and the like. I was very intersted in getting a set or two of this tire and putting them through the ropes. Everything I had heard as far as using the tire for the purposes of Daily Driving/Trackday use was all very positive. The road noise was said to be acceptable, the tire was extremely sticky on the street being one of the softer compound of the bunch and the track performance was apparently very on par with tires that were more suited for track use only.
I was unfortunately unable to get any of these tires due to a 6 month or longer back order at the time, so i have no personal experience with them. Only able to relate what those whom have had the opportunity to drive with these tires have to say.

This brings me to the Federal tires. As I said before, I did some extensive research into tires used for racing Trackday/AutoX/Drifting and Daily Driving and this was a name that came up. The company had just gotten a new owner at the time and so i was a bit reserved at checking out these tires. I bought one set of the 595 RSR performance radials and when I received them, to say the least, so far I have never been more impressed with a company when it comes to a dual function tire. These tires are considered a hard compound, but it does not translate to the daily driving aspect of the tires. They are not noisy in my opinion. Even with my top off the car I do not notice the road noise as much as some of the other candidates. Two weeks after I received the tires I had a track day outing scheduled NJ Motorsports Park. I had put a significant amount of miles on the tire on the road and was getting more and more impressed every time I drove with them. If anyone lives in the northeast, particularly in PA(Philly area) you know how horrible the roads around here are. With my suspension upgrades and the tires having nearly 1000 miles on them at this point I was very impressed with them.
Driving to the track on the weekend I had scheduled off, I was very excited to really put these tires to the test on the track. I was anxious to get them heated up and really experience whether or not everything I had read about other peoples experiences was true or not. Needless to say, these tires, from a personal stand point suit my driving style amazingly. Once they get warmed up they perform on par with some of the best tires available at the current time. They stick when they need to, they allow for oversteer in an underpowered NA car, and when I need to stop they preformed genuinely up to my standards. All in all I was very very impressed with these tires come the end of my limited trackday time and my time spent driving on them daily.
I would like to put these tires up for consideration when you are looking to buy your next set of dual purpose tires, or if you are just looking for a tire that is suited to daily driving or trackdays, i think this tire is of a superior quality over some of its competitors.

I now have 5000 miles on these tires and they have shown no signs of increased road chatter or wear problems and am really enjoying them on a daily basis.

Oscar

iTrader: (2)

Did yours crack yet on the running surface? Don't worry, they will.

JonnyMX5

I have been running the, very hard and have yet to have cracking of any kind, whether it be on the running surface or sidewalls. But I willnkeep an eye out. Possible you got a bad set.

joeldc13

iTrader: (2)

Well, my first set also cracked at the first trackday (in 205/50/15à, and friends with the same tyre but in different dimension also cracked

I have made something like 8 or 9 trackday with them and the crack did not have get bigger



Maybe it was a default on a fabrication batch sold to Europe (as Oscar is in EU also), their have been thousand of pictures and comments about this problem in French forums, but I don't remember of someone with a tire explosion or a major problem.

I have bought a new set, i will tell you at my next trackday if they also crack...

JonnyMX5

Thank you very much for the picture and the explanation Joel. I have not had anything like that on mine as of yet, again I have one trackday so far on them and little over 5000 miles and they still run great. I will be on the lookout the next trackday for cracks and unusual wear pattern

I run 215/45/16 so I wonder if that has anything to do with it, but I am going to pull mine off tomorrow and spot check them see if i find anything odd

Thanks again for the photo

silvermazda

iTrader: (1)

psh! I'm still getting some 195/50's when I get my suspension sorted.

timk

Mine did that too (Australian delivered batch), I thought I'd run over something weird but I guess not!

I was running the 205/50R15 on some 15x8s.

Apexed17

I have a set of 195/50s. All of them cracked within 2 track days, but like everyone else said, they're pretty good besides that. I don't know if it's a problem with the batches, but I'm in the US and mine still cracked.

concealer404

iTrader: (3)

That "cracking" isn't necessarily an issue except in special circumstances. In the picture above, there's nothing there that would keep me from running the tire.

This isn't just a Federal thing. Happens on BFGs, Toyos, etc...

Fireindc

iTrader: (13)

Mine have not cracked yet, only a few k on em though. Hard street driving, no track.

LOVE these tires for the price.

midpack

iTrader: (3)

That is the trad splice, made visible by high shearing forces encountered on track with a sticky tire. Rival's, and others, do it too. Nothing to worry about.