Well, after washing my car about a week ago I noticed a few things. Not only was I granted more door dings by the parking lot gods, I had a problem. Within the previous 2 months, somewhere along the line I picked up a nice gash on my LF tire. Not to mention that for the most part, the tread was gone (lets estimate around 1/32 on the fronts and 2/32 on the back), and one of them seemed to have a slow leak. I decided to take the wonderful plunge into spending more money on the car. This go round, I decided, screw all season, that's what my GFs car is for, so I picked up some Kumho 225/50/16s. I didn't know that the tires would be a lil slick when I first got em, leaving the store like I normally do resulted in a nice powerslide exit of the tire store. Way back to the GFs house (i'm there more than my own house), I just warmed the tires up, carving side to side on the road. A few hours passed, and this is what I noticed about the tires.

Traction is great in dry, dunno about wet just yet. The roads were damp this morning, but I didn't have any problems. Road noise was minimal just the same as any other tire (i'm not too picky, but I barely listen to music). As far as extreme handling goes, I took a turn posted 35 normally around 45-50. Doing so with my old tires left me with a lil more to be desired, and a lil screaming coming from underneath. With the newer tires, I took the same turn around 55. Barely any noise except a lil squeak. Nothing loud. Haven't broken traction going around turns yet, I don't think i'm invincible Closest thing i've had so far close to the limit of traction, the tires let me know well in advance, and didn't break loose at all. Over all, I think these were a good purchase, i'd recommend them.

Nitty gritty:
Stock 91 TII rims (16")
Kumho ECSTA Supra 712 225/50/16
Beauty is, if you look at revolutions per mile, the size I got matches exactly the stock tire size. Sweeeet. It's good having traction too!

 

i have those in 205/55 on my TII. they are pretty good. especially for the price. i even drove on them @ MADS

 

eh? You and Manny were bitching about those tires the whole time!

 

Yeah, they're great. I've got a set of Ecsta Supra 225/50/15z's on my GTU, and they are really good!

Okay, more like excellent

Shoot, for around $50-$70 a tire, you can't get any better! Awesome! Keep in mind, I used to have a set of Dunlop SP9000 225/50/15z's on my car.... Yeah for what I paid for those, I could've gotten 4 sets of these.

The Kumho's get about %90 of the traction that the 'Lops got on dry pavment, handle about the same (on Tokico Illumina's), and are about %80 as good in the rain.

Just my 2cents worth

 

for the money an excellent tire. not saying they are the best tires ever. i have beaten the crap out of them drag racing, road racing etc and there is still pleny of meat left on them. for cheap tires they work extremely well

oh yeah my problems at the track were my suspension being setup completely wrong the first day. which was my fault completely

 

I had the same exact problem, but the old tires were worn to 0.4/32 and 1/32 on the "best" one.

I found some Falken ZE-502s for cheap. They are great, much better than what I expected for the price.

I was a bit skeptical about buying a new brand tire that isn't as well know as BFG, Dunlop, Pirelli, etc...
The Falkens are made in Japan.
Where are the Kumhos made ?

 

Korea! I'm still in a state of disbelief moreso, I like em. Balanced the tires too. Before I had this little shake around 90+, now I can hit 130+ and it's smooth.

 

I'v had mine for almost a year now, no complaints what so ever. Good buy for the money, recommended.

I even list them in my sig!

 

In the future for better tire life you will want to break the tires in perhaps a little more slowly.

Tires should be driven very easy and on several short trips for the first 100 miles. Driving hard or consistent (like long trips) driving for those first 100 miles often creates voids and loose seams internally in the tire. These problems won't show up for a year of two (typically around 20k miles to 30k miles), but there is nothing worse than a tire blowing out or comming apart because of not being broken in correctly.

 

I knew I shouldn't have done donuts to test the newfound grip

 

i broke mine in the rain!!!

 

Eh, the V rated Kumho's only last around 20k miles anyway, the Z rated even less, so no problem.

They are great tires for the money though, I'm on my second set now. Got 22k miles on the last V rated set.

Traction is great wet or dry, but be careful when you get down to the last 25% of the tread. The last set I had unexpectedly hydroplaned one time in minimal standing water (at around 15k miles on the tires). Of course being careful on wet roads probably goes without saying on any tire with only 25% of the tread left.

 

are you using the stock 15X6 rim or?