anyone have the falken azenis sports on their FD? how do you like them for the street? and any wet driving experiences?

i am looking into getting them, or the dunlop SP 9000s.

thanks for the time

 

I just put them on a couple of weeks ago. They do stick like everyone said they would. They're even a lot better than I expected. My first encounter w/ rain was today, but it was very light rain (more like a heavy sprinkle) so I can't really comment on that. By the looks of the pattern, it seems like it wouldn't do very well in the rain.

The Falken catalog even states: "The Azenis Sport asymmetrical tread pattern was designed for maximum dry weather performance. While the tread pattern does provide for water drainage, Falken Tire advises reducing speeds when wet driving conditions are encountered."

Regardless of how it does in the rain, I think I'm going to stick w/ these tires because of their low cost and great performance. Besides, I don't intend to do any 'spirited' driving in the wet anyway. If you can fit the limited sizes, I say give them a try.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong, but they don't make these in the stock size do they?

 

I ran these on my autox prepped CRX... first time I took my room mate around an off ramp (he road races an FB), his words were: "A street tire should NOT have that much grip...." I think that meant they're pretty damn good.... I wish they made them in a 13" size...

Dan

 

I have a friend who uses them on his '00 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS for AutoX, and he loves 'em. Wins consistently, too.

 

The only problem with the Azenis is Falken. They, for whatever reason, are not bringing over all the sizes from Japan. This model has been on the market for about six years and it finally made it here not too long ago. Why they are not selling all the sizes then can is beyond me. If they had the 225/50/16 over here I'd buy them. Bahhhh!

 

I've got them (225/45ZR17) on my FC -- they stick like glue. Only downside is that they're a bit on the heavy side, but they're inexpensive and very grippy. Overall a good choice.

-Manolis

 

I finally got to experience the Falkens in the rain today. It wasn't so bad, but I did hydro a few times on the freeway. Had there been no traffic on my way home (it was raining pretty hard then), I know that driving would have been a handfull. I doesn't rain that often here in Diego, that's why I decided to suck up the hydro-ing for the few days that it rains and have fun on the plentiful dry days.
Give 'em a shot, I don't think you can get better performance for the price.

 

i drove them all today in the rain, they stuck amazingly well and never did i feel like the car was hydroing unless i went thru very deep puddles

 

How many miles do you guys expect out of them on the street? I'm just curious. Or if anyone has run a set out and knows their mileage.

 

Like the other SoCal folks, I got a chance to try them in the rain today, too (have them on the daily driver). 75 miles on the 405 in the rain. I found them to be a little slippery and prone to hydroplaning as I expected, but I wasn't scared shitless like when I was driving the FD with bald Yokohama A008RSIIs on it. I was okay cruising the highway at 75 MPH most of the time, but they did hydroplane a bit on some not-that-deep puddles. They are marginal but still usable in the rain, as you would expect from looking at them.

They stick great in the dry.

In contrast, I was blown away with how good the S-03s I have on the FD are in the rain. They were better than any other tire I have driven in the rain with, including skinny touring tires on Hondas. The Azenis Sport probably has more grip for a given size in the dry, however.

-Max

 

Max,
How are those S03s in the dry? How do you think they'd do on the track (for us track-tireless ****'s)?

Are they comparable to G-Force KDs, or T1-S's? Are they by any chance as light as the T1-S's? Thanks!

 

A little too short for 16's ... a little too tall for 17's. I wish they would bring/market some other sizes. The STS/STX guys love these things. And they run pretty fast times with 'em too .... almost as fast as my worn-out Kumhos.

As far as street tires go, the Azenis would be tops on the list, if not for the lack of fitment. I wonder if Falken understands how much potential money they could make if they offered a 245/45 16 .... or a 225/50 16 for that matter.

 

From my experience here's my rating for grippy to the grippiest: S-03 - Azenis - A032R

I've ran S-03s with stock size and then moved on over to 255s in the rear with A032Rs, HUGE difference in response and grip. But of course that's obvious with the better material and wider tires....... I have been in my friends 01 Prelude SH with Azenis and they are incredible in the mountain runs..........

-Dan

 

what about the michelin pilot sport that is on the new M3s? i have been hearing good stuff about it. i have been looking at all the tires that have been mentioned here, and the S0-3 is looking good. i have the Yoko ES 100 on my 97 miata, and they are pretty good in the wet and dry. almost as good as the Sp 9000s i had on them. but the 9000s are and old design, and i want something better for the FD. especially with double the power compared to my miata.

so far the choices for me are the T1-S and the S0-3. the azenis are tempting because of the grip and the low price, but wet performance is something i look for even if it does not rain too much in So. California. piece of mind goes a long way.

santino

 

I think the S-03s are great street tires. Mine grip well and seem to be wearing evenly and not outrageously quickly. I have used them for a few sessions on the track and they worked fine, but the grip is nowhere near the R-compound tires. The center rib chunked just a tiny bit on the front tires, but there was no major chunking even at full tread depth.

My understanding is that the S-03 offers better grip than the Pilot Sports. The older MXX3 from Michelin seemed like a higher performance tire than the new Michelins, but I think the Pilot Sports are more comfortable and longer wearing. The S-03 has been both comfortable and seem to be wearing well, so I would choose them over the Pilot Sports. The S-03 is also relatively inexpensive for its class, too, which is nice.

The Toyo T1-S are also excellent, and are probably lighter than the S-03s, but they are also less wide for a given size. The T1-S is a pretty round profile tire, so the tread width is small for the size. I did see a bunch of similar cars parked at WSIR one weekend, and the story that was floating around was that it was a tire test where the Toyos resulted in lap times second only to the Bridgestones. I assume they were using T1-S and S-03s on the cars. And it was only a rumor, so don't take that as gospel.

SP9000s did well (matched the other tires in the class) in a Mustang test that I read once, but tests on lighter cars with more advanced suspensions seem to do better on other tires in the Max Performance class based on the tests at Tire Rack. That makes me think SP9000s are not the best match for the RX-7.

-Max