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Bridgestone S03 vs. Pirelli P-zero vs Yoko. ES100 vs. Falken Azenis

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Old Mar 27, 2003 | 05:01 PM
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Bridgestone S03 vs. Pirelli P-zero vs Yoko. ES100 vs. Falken Azenis

I need some new tires.

Post your reccomendations here. An explanation would be great. I'm looking for the best grip, ie best performance tire. Something for summer-only. No need for snow traction. Wet traction is sort of important.

Basically, my priorities are:

GRIP/performance > wear > wet traction

Lets get some reccomendations between these tires!
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Old Mar 27, 2003 | 05:24 PM
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P Zero Asimmetrico for ultimate dry grip.
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Old Mar 27, 2003 | 06:11 PM
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I like my Kumho MXs. You should look into those too.
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Old Mar 27, 2003 | 08:05 PM
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price wise yoko es100 is no compare to the others.
the yoko is under $100...good for drift kind of tires.
it has grip, but not as much as those s03.

Reza
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Old Mar 27, 2003 | 08:11 PM
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Hmm.. the S03s are awfully expensive..


The ES100s look pretty good..

What about the P-zero Rossos? They are cheaper than the S03s and look like a great tire


ALSO:::: Can I put like.. 225/50/16 on my stock rims? would I notice a difference? I was just going to get stock size 205/55/16 but I'm not sure what will work and what wont

-scott
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Old Mar 27, 2003 | 08:25 PM
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Toyo T1S
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Old Mar 28, 2003 | 03:28 AM
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lol. I like the T1S. We do have good pricing on them. But still as much or more than the S03.

Rishie
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Old Mar 28, 2003 | 03:46 AM
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ES100s are decent - they are smooth and feel kinda nice, but they aren't something I'd want on a Ferrari (or an RX7 with decent suspension)... they do work great on my friends VW Beetle. :shrug:

IMO, Pirelli P-Zero is the way to go. I had the Assimetrico on my FD - they were fantastic. search for "Pirelli" posts under my name and you'll see several reviews - no need to go into it again here.

The Rossa or the Nero are probably as good, if not better, choices - though I don't know anyone who's actually used them.
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Old Mar 28, 2003 | 07:53 AM
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As far as traction goes, you won't get any better than the Falken Azenis on a street tire. Period. Since you have an FC and Falken does make your OEM size, that's probably the best choice for you. I don't know what the wear is on the Azenis, but they are so reasonably priced, you could probably get 2 sets for the price of just one set of the S03's. Prices here:

http://www.victoriatire.com/t_mfg_se...l?brand=Falken

... and then go check with Rishie to see if he can get you better pricing.

The S03's and P-zero's are great tires; just not worth the extra expense, IMO. The ES100's are supposedly a very sticky tire (sticky for a street tire, at least) but they wear fast. And if they're anything like their predecessors, the AVS Intermediates, they don't have squat for wet traction. Hope this helps.
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Old Mar 28, 2003 | 08:03 AM
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Falken Azenis--limited sizing and noisy...
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Old Mar 28, 2003 | 09:32 AM
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Yeah. But very grippy .... too bad for us FD owners (no size for you!). I'd sacrifice a little road noise for ultimate grip ... again, street tire-wise. And again, if they made them in my size! Fockers ...
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Old Mar 28, 2003 | 09:39 AM
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The es100 is totally different from the intermediate, it gives up a bit of dry tracktion but is much better in the wet. The treadlife is 280 and getting 25k+ miles out of these is not unheard of. It's more of a street tire than a track tire though, and gives a quiet, comfortable ride which is real nice if you have a stiff suspention. I'd get a set of these for the road and a set of azenis sports for the track, which will cost you about the same as a set of s-03's.
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Old Mar 28, 2003 | 12:19 PM
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AVS I's are great! Mine are wearing out though. Got them new 13 months and 11000 miles ago...dammit...I'll be needing new shoes too...probably 255/40-17 Asimmetricos for me!
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Old Mar 29, 2003 | 12:34 AM
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I've heard the S02's are better than the S03's.. but not sure.. anyone know which is better?
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Old Mar 29, 2003 | 12:54 AM
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I've got Azenis Sports on my daily driver and S-03s on my RX-7. The Azenis Sports have more grip and cost a lot less, but that comes at the expense of road noise and poor wet weather traction. The S-03s are probably nearly as sticky, but are much quieter and much better in the rain. The S-03s do cost a lot more, but I consider them to be a bit of a bargain in their class. I like them better than the Michelin Pilot Sports, for instance, and they cost much less.

If you can stand the lack of wet weather traction, the Azenis Sports in the stock size will probably stick better than more expensive tires in a slightly larger size. If that compromise is acceptable to you, I think you'll love the Azenis Sports and the price/performance ratio is simply unbeatable.

-Max
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Old Mar 30, 2003 | 05:07 AM
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Max's input on my tire questions a couple months back helped to push me towards getting the Azenis (thanks again Max). I too was debating on getting the ES100 or the Azenis, and as I mentioned earlier, I chose the latter. On dry streets, it is pretty tough to break them loose. You really have to push hard to spin them. As for wet driving, the hydroplaning is noticable, but not uncontrolable. My final verdict after about 3,500 mi through soaked freeways and twisty roads---I'll put it this way, I'm certain that I will keep purchasing the Azenis for my FD until the are discontinued.
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Old Mar 31, 2003 | 02:24 AM
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Originally posted by rx7machine
I've heard the S02's are better than the S03's.. but not sure.. anyone know which is better?
Some of the S2000 guys I compete with say they like the S02's better than the S03's. Pretty unusual ... but Honda may have chosen the S02 as the OEM tire for a reason. S02's are pretty hard to get your hands on these days though. And extremely expensive ... I think the local Honda dealership was charging ~$250/tire for them!!!! For stock 16" sizes!

Last edited by redrotorR1; Mar 31, 2003 at 02:27 AM.
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Old Apr 2, 2003 | 12:33 AM
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Originally posted by redrotorR1
Some of the S2000 guys I compete with say they like the S02's better than the S03's. Pretty unusual ... but Honda may have chosen the S02 as the OEM tire for a reason. S02's are pretty hard to get your hands on these days though. And extremely expensive ... I think the local Honda dealership was charging ~$250/tire for them!!!! For stock 16" sizes!
Why would the S02's be more expensive? And how are they any better than the S03's?
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Old Apr 2, 2003 | 11:25 AM
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The S03's are made with UNI-T AQII while the S02's are made with UNI-T. Don't ask me what the difference is ... it's probably some marketing bs. Other than that, the S2000's guys I race with say the S02's are stickier. May have something to do with the different tread pattern or something else unique about the tires ... I dunno. The expensive part is just Honda gouging their customers (as usual). The S02's are in stock at tirerack now ... hmmm.
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Old Apr 3, 2003 | 02:41 PM
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I just ordered the P-Zero Nero's 225/50ZR16

very comparable to the S 03's

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...rf_charts.html
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Old Apr 4, 2003 | 09:43 AM
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That's some good info.
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Old Apr 7, 2003 | 11:08 PM
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The ES100s are a piece of junk but what do you expect for the price. They're just a good competitor to the Kumho 712s which are complete pieces of crap. The AVS is a good bang for the buck. The S02s are supposed to be great and the S03s are almost as good in dry but better in wet if I remember right. The Azenis are about as sticky as you can get for a street tire(non auto-X of course). Don't know how they do in the rain.

Best tire I've personally tried, for the money, is the Yokohama Parada Spec 2s. I had the original(I'll call them spec 1s) on my legend, which were very good in the dry but poor in the wet. Then I replaced them with the Spec 2s, which have more silicon in them, and wow!!! They're even a little better than the Spec 1s in the dry and awesome in the wet also. Too bad they don't make a 245 or bigger in 18s.
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Old Apr 10, 2003 | 12:46 PM
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I think im pretty much deciding between the Pirelli Pzeros, Bridgeston S03s and the Falken Azenis

Any feedback is greatly appreciated

-scott
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Old May 6, 2003 | 09:15 AM
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bumpity looking like i might get some 17x8s and some 225/45/17s possibly the Falken Azenis sport
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Old May 6, 2003 | 10:47 PM
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I love my S-03's. Don't have the depth of pocket to give you back to back comparisons.

S-03 on my stock (at the time) FD would give hard tire hop in standing water in the pouring rain! The tires would not spin! Down around freezing temperatures they were slippery as hell, not unusual in this level of tire. Wear not really noticeable (maybe 3/4 left?) after 15,000 kms, though I show a lot of restraint.

S-03 have a tread wear rating of 220. I think the Azenis are something like 140. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup are considered R-compound at treadwear 80. Kumho Ecsta V700 treadwear 50.

I'm thinking my next set of tires will be R-compounds, as I don't put a lot of miles on my car anymore. Probably the Michelins ($$$) or Kumhos (good rep, good price). I wish Bridgestone sold an R-compound. They only dominate F1 and make an excellent street tire
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