Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

All of those tires are available from Tirerack. Just to a search for tires using the 235 size and you'll see them.

money

iTrader: (2)

ok. thank you. very grad that that you helped me out. thanks alot

JConn2299

Sorry, you're wrong about that. Please go look it up. The Exalto PE2 is a summer, performance tire. There is another Exalto model called the Exalto A/S which is an all season tire. Two distinctly different tires. Don't believe me? Go look up Exalto PE2 on the Tire Rack website or elsewhere.

JConn2299

Here, I saved you the trouble. Read the Tire Rack summary on the PE2 below.

I also recommend looking at the comparative test results for this tire, or any tire for that matter, on the same website.

And "Money" you're correct to take a tire's weight into consideration. Mazda engineers were very meticulous in designing the FD's suspension and they had a specified target for the FD's tire/wheel weight combo. There are distinct advantages in terms of unsprung weight and rotational inertia to keeping the tire/wheel weight as light as possible.



"The Pilot Exalto PE2 is Michelin's entry level Ultra High Performance Summer tire designed to raise both the status and performance of small sporty cars that use low profile-sized tires. The Pilot Exalto PE2 was inspired by Michelin's World Rally Championship (WRC) tire design and architecture, and was developed to provide crisp and responsive handling in both wet and dry conditions, however it is not intended to be driven in near-freezing temperatures, through snow or on ice.

On the outside, the Pilot Exalto PE2 molds Michelin's WRC competition-inspired LMA (Life Maximized Adherence) tread compound optimized for street use to provide predictable handling and sustained levels of grip throughout the tire's life. The LMA tread compound is molded into Michelin's Variable Contact Patch (VCP) asymmetrical tread design with large independent outer shoulder tread blocks and a 70% rubber-to-road contact on the outer half of the tire's footprint to put more rubber on the road during extreme cornering to enhance responsiveness and sporty handling. The asymmetrical tread design also features 62% rubber-to-road contact on the inner half of the tire to enhance hydroplaning resistance and wet traction. Continuous center ribs help reduce noise while providing constant road contact to increase straight-line stability.

Internally, the Pilot Exalto PE2 features twin, high tensile steel belts that are fortified with Michelin's Banded At Zero (BAZ) technology (spiral-wrapped reinforcement) to stabilize the tread area to enhance handling and high-speed capability. A rayon cord body and dual sidewall reinforcements help resist lateral deflection to generate cornering force and stability."

hafbrdge

If your looking for a good tire. Run with the falken RT615. I have them on my car they are not the lightes tires but i have no complaints even in the rain. try going to a discount tire company they can get them. also try going to the falken web site for tire sizes

rynberg

My mistake, however it would still be considered pretty light on performance for an FD and I wouldn't recommend it...a quick check at Tire Rack shows that the tire is really only available in the stock FD size (no larger sizes) and is pretty darn expensive to boot.

I wouldn't recommend it.

JConn2299

WTF are you talking about? I've run across a few of your posts recently. You're full of lots of opinions, but few facts in those cases in which I've corrected you.

Anyone can go to the Tire Rack website, or elsewhere, and check on this fact.
The Michelin Pilot Exalto PE 2 tire is available in a number of sizes, and larger than what is stock for the 3rd Gen RX-7. Among them:

245/40/17 and 245/45/17

I'd have to go back and check, but I believe these are the sizes the poster who started this thread was looking for.

I'm not saying this is the only tire available that meets the requirements of the orginal poster, but this tire does offer good grip, light weight, outstanding performance in the wet, and the ride and noise are said to be better than some other peformance tires.

For ha-ha's I looked at stats for the Exalto PE 2 against the Potenza SO-3 as tested by The Tire Rack. The PE2 had a lap time of 30.15 seconds in the dry against the S-03's 31.12 seconds.

While it's true there can be variations in the testing (both were tested on BMW 3 series....the PE 2's were on an earlier model BMW) you would certainly have to say the Michelin is competitve. The unfortunate thing about buying tires is that you can't test drive them. So evaluations by objective testers is about the best you can do.

rynberg

Ok, so it is available in ONE larger size....245/40 17. Not what the OP is looking for.

Looking at Tire Rack's tests, it is a good wet performer but is compared to the 750 and the ES-100. While slightly better than those tires, those are not top-flight tires. Unless you really care about wet traction more than dry traction, the RT-615 or Kumho MX will spank the Exalto and for less money. And they are available in the sizes the OP is looking for (or at least closer).

JConn2299

Chalk up another bit of misinformation for you.

rynberg

It is not available in either 235/45 or 255/40, the sizes the OP is looking for, so I just didn't care so much....if you look, the 245 is the widest size, a sure sign of a tire that is not at the top of the performance heap.

I'm not saying that it's a bad tire, just that you can do better for less or similar money (as is typical with Michelin tires).

sleeepyhead

hankook rs-2, 99% of the rt615's dry grip, WAY better wet grip and much more comfortable. The only downfall is the response is more sluggish but this goes hand in hand with comfort.

JConn2299

These threads often attract a general readership that is beyond the specifics mentioned by one poster. It's how people pick up knowledge, and why they may read a thread that doesn't necessarily pertain to them.

When you shoot from the hip and state something as fact, such as the Exalto PE2 is not a summer tire, or that it is only available in the FD's stock size....two statements that are blatantly incorrect......you're liable to be corrected. And you were.

JConn2299

"Spank"? Hardly.

According to the test results on The Tire Rack website they're quite evenly matched. Both pull exactly the same .95g on a dry skid pad, and they have exactly the same dry slalom time of 4.18 seconds.

The lap time for the PE2 is 30.15 sec. For the MX it's 29.98 sec. A wind on one of the two separate test days or the natural variability in any test could produce a
17 / 100ths second of a difference.

Where the difference really shows up is in the wet. There the MX pulls only .78g on the wet skidpad, whereas the Exalto PE2 produces an outstanding .90g.

The wet slalom time for the PE2 is 4.40 secs. For the Kumho MX it's 4.83 seconds.

After reading a number of postings on this Forum from drivers who lost control of their FD in the wet, I'd say wet weather performance should be a consideration for anyone who's buying tires for their 3rd Gen. And it was one of the criteria laid down by the original poster.

I didn't see any test results on the Tire Rack for the RT-615, but maybe I missed them.

rynberg

You are right and I appreciate the correction, sorry if it appeared otherwise.

Well, the tests were not run on the same car on the same day, so I take them with a grain of salt. More important to me than one single test is the fact that a large percentage of auto-xers running street tires run the Kumho MX. The same cannot be said of the Michelin.

Many of those cases involved youth/inexperience or stupidity and/or bald tires. I have honestly never worried about wet performance in my FD in any of the tires I've had on there, some of which I doubt handle as good as the MX in the rain. I certainly agree with you that the Michelin's wet performance looks extremely good.

Tire Rack doesn't carry Toyo, Falken, or Nitto tires so you won't see them in comparisons. However, the RT-615 is widely regarded as the best handling street tire in the land, as also shown in Grassroots Motorsports testing (which I put more stock in than the Tire Rack).

JConn2299

Yes, it's true, there's always going to be some test variability. But I think you can say the two tires are fairly evenly matched with the Michelin showing notably better wet weather performance. It is said to out-perform even the Michelin PS2 in the wet.

As for auto-crossers, knowing how they go through tires, my guess is they're buying the Kumho's on price. Michelins are pricey. Only part of that is justified by superior technology and quality. A large chunk of that price premium is extracted via brand loyalty and reputation. I wouldn't run PE2's on an auto-X course either.

As a long term road tire however, the PE2 offers another advantage....a high tech tread compound that keeps it from hardening and losing performance over the tire's life. The only other brand that has a strategy for coping with this (that I'm aware of) is Bridgestone. On some Bridgestone models they have a two layer tread compound. As the tire wears down a softer rubber is exposed keeping the tire soft and grippy.

I remember my original S-01 tires. When I first got the car I could hear the least bit of sand or gravel on the road clanging around my wheelwells. After a few years I started thinking, "They're keeping the roads cleaner than they used to."
Well, DUH, that wasn't it at all. The tire compound had hardened after repeated heat cycling.

Maybe some day most tires will offer an anti-hardening countermeasure. But for now, a lot of tire owners are seeing their performance degrade sooner than they think. There's more to evaluating a tire's life than how much tread depth is left.

money

iTrader: (2)

it is hard to look for the tires that the size that i want. ( 235/45 and 255/40 ) l looked up on the tiretrack, could'nt find some of the brand that list here. damn. it hard to find tire that give performance, light weight, and comforable.

Eggie

Start here and select the performance categories you want. IMO, the Kumho MX looks like the bang-for-the-buck winner.

SPICcnmGT

^Agreed Probably my next street tire and if you don't like them you aren't out a ton of money.

And my take on Michelin's. Michelin makes great tires, but the extra cost of pretty much all of their stuff doesn't justify the performance IMO.

JConn2299

I'd agree with that in many cases. A key factor for this particular model of Michelins is this special tread compound that resists hardening as the tires age.
If you're only driving 3k - 5k miles per year in your FD you're going to be keeping your tires a long time, and in that case your tires can "wear out" long before they wear down. Some performance tires are especially notorious for this. They're great when they're new, but after a while they get hard and noisy and don't have the same level of grip.

ArmenMAxx

iTrader: (21)

i just bought Hankook Rs2 in 245/45/16 for my stock rims. I have heard very good things about them and i got them for 103$ each. They compete with the falkens. When i install them ill let you know comparing them to my kumo V700 in 225/50.16 i currently have.

rynberg

I don't understand your problem with this. Go to www.tirerack.com. Go to shop tires by size. Type in 235/45 17, then select different rear tire size and enter 255/40 17. Select Extreme and Max Performance categories and hit search. This isn't that complicated.

As has been said several times in this thread already, Tire Rack does not carry Falken or Toyo tires, you have to look elsewhere for those. www.vulcantires.com carries the Falkens.

money

iTrader: (2)

Fellas, which tires below that you think i should get? suggestion? i'm thinking about the contisport contact 3.. but don't know if it the one that i want or not. suggestion please.



contisport contact 2

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.j...re%3D54ZR7SPC2

and

Contisportcontact 3 ( the front lighter then rear by 3lbs. )

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.j...re%3D54YR7SPC3

and

Bridgeston potenza re050A

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.j...D54YR7RE050APP

and

Kumo ecsta mx

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.j...ire%3D54YR7EMX

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

Kumho MX.

I'm loving mine.

money

iTrader: (2)

how do u feel about the tires? performance, and comforable?

gracer7-rx7

iTrader: (16)

I wrote a review a while back. Why don't you search for Kumho MX. You'll get a lot of great hits including a review from DamonB. There have been lots of reviews on tires here. You can read many of them if you search.