I was pulling the tire trailer home from an event last weekend when I apparently ran over some metal in the road and cut the left rear tire pretty badly. I was traveling on the highway doing 70 or 75 at the time when I heard something get thrown up inside the left rear fender and then felt the tire immediately go down. I began slowing and pulled to the right across two lanes of traffic before getting stopped on the shoulder. The tire deflated nearly instantly but showed no signs whatsoever of trying to come apart; the carcass and tread face was perfectly fine.

Inspection of the tire once I got home showed something (had to have been metal?) actually put a neat 1" slice in the tire where the tread and sidewall meet, so I got to buy a new tire. You'd swear a knife cut it.

People passing me on the shoulder must have been scratching their heads. I had four full size "spares" on the trailer and didn't use them I removed the blown left rear tire, replaced it with the tire from the left front and then put the doughnut spare on the left front to get home.

 

I love my Kuhmo MX's....

 

FWIW, the top Street tire Pro Solo drivers are running primarily the MX over ALL others as of last couple of weeks, faster than the old Azenis, and quite a bit faster than the new azenis. Plus they are Cheap. Carl

 

Drat! My new Azenis tires are arriving today. (smiley because I am not really sad about it, I love my old Azenis on my DD and I expect to like my new ones on the RX-7, too)

-Max

 

Max, I'll most likely run the 615 as soon as they release the 315-30-18 for my DD. It is the best priced high performance 315 around for sure. I'll be running 315-30-18/275-35-18 on my Supra. I think the ST guys are splitting hairs, with time, and familiarity, they will probably get them to be as fast as the 215, or the MX. Are you going to run an ST class, or is this for the street? Carl

 

Mine are for the street. I might do some auto-X for fun, but I didn't get the tires specifically for auto-x. I just thought they would be stickier than the MX and T1-S (the other tires I was considering). Plus, I am happy with how the 215s have worked on my DD (cheap, sticky as hell, okay wear, stayed round and didn't do any other cheap-tire-deformation tricks). They arrived today and I will have them installed tomorrow. I need an alignment, too, so it will be at least two days before I have a report.

I ordered them because my S-03s had worn out and one recently went flat. Tonight I got the car ready to go to the tire shop and took a look at my flat S-03. There was one nail in the tread, but it didn't appear to be leaking. I then found an inch-long crack in the tire on the sidewall and just around the corner into the tread. There was a small chunk missing in the tread, so it was probably caused by running over something. Those tires sat on my car in the shop for 18 months and during that time I had a brake fluid leak out of one of my calipers (I hadn't tightened the fitting down hard enough -- I have since fixed it and it isn't leaking now). The brake fluid had leaked onto the tire, but there wasn't any visible damage. I figured that I would just wear them down and replace them soon enough, but I now suspect that the brake fluid and/or rot from sitting may have weakened the tire, making is susceptible to such damage.

Since my S-03 was dead and wouldn't hold air, I tried the stock spare. It almost fits over my big rear brakes, but the spoke just hits the caliper. I suspect that the stock spare might work with the Mazda RZ rear brakes, since the caliper probably doesn't stick out as far. I ended up putting one of my race wheels on it as a spare. Now hopefully that tire won't crack from rot on the way to the tire store.

-Max

 

Max, I just installed a set of the new 615's and there way better than the MX's in my opinion... Never ran them in the rain yet, but dry traction is a step below a DOT Hoosier/V-700...


Brad

 

Brad that is great news, as I said, I will be running them on my Supra as soon as they release the 315. Carl

 

Hey Carl,

I will say these are quit possibly the best street tyre I've had yet. I always favored the S02's myself, but these are better (dry). I'm sure the S02's are better wet tyres , as the S03's which I've never owned.. The amount of time I drive my car is 99% dry so its not really an issue.

Warning: I think these 615's are a bit on the "blocky" side and the 275's I have on my FC fit closer than of my S02's, MX's, P-Zero's, AVS-ports, etc... so just watch out if your think'n of going for those extra 10mm .. . 315's huh? wow. Wyum has those on his FD... totally bad @ss........

Personally, I think those new line of Yok's look good too, but the sizes are limited.. Probably made for the Porsche cluber's




Brad

 

I just picked up my car. It feels great, but I haven't really pushed it in the corners yet. I was expecting the new tires to be louder than they were, which is good since I prefer them to be quiet. They aren't super-quiet, but they aren't very loud, either. They don't hum like the ST-215s do.

I also got an alignment and the car feels sooo much better. I've been replacing bushings here and there recently and the alignment had gotten way off (no surprise; but it was pretty wacky by the time I replaced all the bushings). The car feels great, but the alignment is still pretty off. They said that they had to run -2.2 degrees camber on both sides in the rear to get the toe right, but I looked at the toe links and they never put a wrench on them -- they were apparently adjusting the toe using the cam bolt on the lower arm. Ugh! I need to find a real alignment shop. At least it is fairly symmetrical now and they did get the steering wheel centered again (the last alignment I got had it way off, which it turns out is really annoying). I better get the rear camber reduced (uh, closer to zero) before I wear out the inside of the tires, though.

-Max

 

A pet peeve of mine too. If the alignment is sound and it's just the steering wheel ust go to the front tie rod ends and adjust them. As long as you use the same number of turns on both sides the alignment won't change. Shorten one side and lengthen the other to center the steering wheel.

 

Hi Max,

Ya the 215's are Hummy'r aren't they? I still like them and my front 215's survived and I have them on another set of wheels still... If I go on long trips I'll swap them out rather then wrench on the 615's.... Its to bad the 615's are so much more cash now... There not cheap anymore, but still half the price of Bridges or Pilots..... I can't spend that kind of cash on tyres anymore.. Brad

 

I'm wondering if RA1s might last as long as the 615s???

 

Probably not. The 615s are true street tires and not just streetable R-compounds.

-Max

 

Agree... So far the 615's are wearing well. Still haven't driven in the wet

 

Re: the 615's, you guys piqued my interest so I started to look around. Seems that this link lists all the sizes:

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/di...%2FPerformance

and they don't offer 245/40/17 for the fronts. I am kinda leary about running 255/40s in the front. Advice?

 

255's on the FD right? should fit fine depending on your wheel offset

 

Rich,

The 255/40-17 fit on my 8.5"x17" +40mm front wheels just fine. They look fine and no rubbing (yet). They are 25.1" OD, which isn't too large.

I bought mine from http://vulcantire.com/.

-Max