bae@fisher.UUCP (Shiva the Destroyer) (01/29/86)
I am the owner of the '67 MGB mentioned in the previous review of
these tires and I have but one thing to add: these tires have no
margin of safety on a light car! I like to drive my car to the
limit, and I find that the Yokos demand a great deal more attention
on my 1860lb. vehicle, because the transition between good grip and
skid is catastrophic. One minute you are cornering hard, the next
you are going backwards very quickly. There are no warning signs
before the transition. No squeeling noises, no slight loss of
traction, nothing. Unfortunately, this means that the limit of
adhesion of your car has to be learned by experience :-)
I should imagine that this problem is not so severe on a heavier
vehicle, but these tires just weren't designed for such a light load.
Still, I am very happy with the tires otherwise. I commute daily
over California 84, 20 miles of twisting nasty road, with landslides
and large puddles a daily occurence in the winter, and have had no
difficulty with the tires in the wet, after reducing my speed slightly
to account for the unsafe road conditions. I have not ever hydroplaned,
which amazes me somewhat, considering these tires look like they should
skate just fine :-)
--
Brian A. Ehrmantraut
Ad Maioram Gloriam Hasturi!
UUCP: {allegra, astrovax, princeton, twg} !fisher!bae
BELL: (609) 452-8991 / (609) 734-7761
USnail: 184 Little Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544seifert@hammer.UUCP (Snoopy) (01/31/86)
In article <1370@fisher.UUCP> bae@fisher.UUCP (Shiva the Destroyer) writes: > I am the owner of the '67 MGB mentioned in the previous review of >these tires and I have but one thing to add: these tires have no >margin of safety on a light car! I like to drive my car to the >limit, and I find that the Yokos demand a great deal more attention >on my 1860lb. vehicle, because the transition between good grip and >skid is catastrophic. One minute you are cornering hard, the next >you are going backwards very quickly. There are no warning signs >before the transition. No squeeling noises, no slight loss of >traction, nothing. Unfortunately, this means that the limit of >adhesion of your car has to be learned by experience :-) I doubt that this is due to the weight of your car so much as it is a characteristic of the tires. The A008 is a high performance tire, and has different characteristics than "rim-protectors". Plot cornering force verses slip angle: | /\ | | / | | | / \ | /\ | / | | -- -- | / \ | / \ | / \ | -- -- |/ \ |/ \ --------------------- --------------------- Race tire Rim protector The racing tire achieves more cornering power, but at a cost: once you exceed the maximum, you lose traction FAST! The rim-protector doesn't achieve the wonderously high cornering force that the racing tire does, but it is much more forgiving when you exceed the max. Snoopy tektronix!tekecs!doghouse.TEK!snoopy
kvc@scgvaxd.UUCP (Kevin Carosso) (02/06/86)
I've had a set of 205/50-15 A-008's on my '79 RX-7 for about a year now. Wear was definitely noticeable, and I'd guess I had over half the life of the tire used up after about 15,000 miles. I like to drive 'em hard! Fortunately, (sort of) my car got stripped and the insurance just put a brand new set of 'em on for me! Anyway, I've never been suprised by the tires on the RX-7. It's true that there is a distinct lack of drama (ie. no squealing) as the tires load up and (eventually) come loose, but when they do, nothing terribly exciting happens. Perhaps this is due to differences in the -7's suspension. (Mine is stock, except for wheels (15" BBS's) and tires). Performance in the wet I find to be better than the cheapo tires the car came with, but nowhere near the performance improvement I get on dry pavement. It rarely rains in So. Cal. anyway, so that's fine with me. What impressed me most was the way the tires brought out the handling I always suspected the car had. I'd whole-heartedly recommend these tires for any RX-7! I suspect other tires in this performance class will do equally well. I picked the A-008 over the COMP-T/A due to a review in an RX-7 club magazine and because it was slightly cheaper. The only question in my mind at this point is whether other high-performance tires have significantly better tread-life. I'd rather not get the car stolen every year or so to get my tires replaced... :-) /Kevin Carosso scgvaxd!engvax!kvc Hughes Aircraft Co.