What tyres are people running?

[brad]

brad has he tryed anything else to compare the continys to? what type of continentals do they come stock with?

ContiPremiumContact2

Sorry but he has a 2012 6R / S if that makes any difference.It has Koni Yellows & a caster kit

He's tried lots of other tyres on other cars (inc semi-slicks) and reckons he'd be hard pressed to find anything that breaks away as progressively.

He lives on the end of a long private road and names the corners after the maximum speed you can carry through them. One is called corner 190 but I'm not sure if that's the Polo or one of the previous sports cars he had. Either way, he knows how to hustle a car along very safely & I trust his judgement in tyres.

On a 4 for 3 deal the Contis are really cheap

[kaanage]

ContiPremiumContact2

He's tried lots of other tyres on other cars (inc semi-slicks) and reckons he'd be hard pressed to find anything that breaks away as progressively.

Those are the tyres that come with the non-sports, non-poverty versions of the 9N3 and 6R/C. I'd rate them as a pretty good all round usage tyre but not a particularly sporty one. Which may be why he finds the breakaway behaviour so progressive since a tyre (for a given size) will almost always have sharper breakaway as its ultimate grip level rises (which is why slicks can be tricky for novices). I have found the most feel I have ever had with my Polo is with Michelin XM2's (which no one else on this forum is likely to contemplate) since the ultimate grip is quite low but it has a VERY gentle transition to higher slip angles which lets you confidently push the car towards its limits (leaving MkV and VI Golf GTis and a couple of Golf MkVI R's for dead on a wet cruise through the Reefton area even though my Polo had far less grip ).

I use the Conti Premium Contact 2's that came with my Polo as my wet weather track tyres after ending up in a tyre wall with semi-slicks (Yok A048R) in the rain when they suddenly let go (my fault for not having the guts to keep on the throttle). For this purpose, they do an admirable job (I can have fun while being able to detect when the car is approaching the limits). In the dry, I find them to be traction limited on the track but a pretty good road tyre when playing in the hills. I will probably replace them with something like the RE003's when they wear out since for for track use, I'd like a bit more grip and feel I can control a tyre with slightly less breakaway progression.

My daily tyres will be Yok Blue Earth's once I get my smashed rim repaired since I don't drive very hard when commuting but rather aim for maximum mileage.

BTW my Polo is a TDi, not a GTi so you may wish to discount my findings/opinion

[sambb]

I had Dunlop sport max rt's. They were very predictable and grippy wet and dry but had very soft sidewalls so wore very rapidly when I had bog stock suspension. I looked into these again recently and also the Michelin ps3's but was told they were being discontinued in our stock size which is a shame. You can still get grey imported ps3's though. Pretty much just leaves the conti's, bridges tones for street tyres. Street / semis like federal 595rsr and yoko advan ad08r's have insane dry grip but You better pay attention in the wet and they can be noisy and jarring on the street even with stock suspension.

[rgvlee]

I don't give my tyres an easy time but they did over 40000 and lasted 2 years. There's no treadwear rating on the side of the 003s so nothing to reference these ones to. I think the 002s were 280?

Gavin

40k?
Thought you were running phase 3?
Give it a bit will you

[kaanage]

Street / semis like federal 595rsr and yoko advan ad08r's have insane dry grip but You better pay attention in the wet and they can be noisy and jarring on the street even with stock suspension.

LOL. I reckon those are pretty civilised compared to full on semi slicks like the A048R, ZE221, R888, RE11S, D03G etc

[sambb]

oh yeah absolutely! But you cant go much beyond 'street' semi's like the R1R's, AD08R's, RSR's, R-S3's before your not street legal yeah?

[h100vw]

40k?
Thought you were running phase 3?
Give it a bit will you

I am 47 and a quarter Lee, not 17. got three cars 2 kids and a wife to feed and a car habit that I can't talk about online.

Gavin

[Stuwey]

LOL. I reckon those are pretty civilised compared to full on semi slicks like the A048R, ZE221, R888, RE11S, D03G etc

RE55s will give you road noise like i've never heard

[kaanage]

oh yeah absolutely! But you cant go much beyond 'street' semi's like the R1R's, AD08R's, RSR's, R-S3's before your not street legal yeah?

The tyres I listed (plus Stuwey's RE55s) are all street legal but you wouldn't want to run them anytime you weren't driving flat out. There are semi slicks that aren't street legal at all like the Kumho V710 and Hankook V214 (which I'm seriously considering) but they look like slicks with a groove or 2

RE55s will give you road noise like i've never heard

The first time I drove with the A048's, I looked around for the 4WD with mud tyres that was able to run me down

[seangti]

I've got a set of Kumho V70a's to go on for track days. The RE55s and R888 are shagged, will run em once more before swapping tyres. The track cars daily tyres are federal 595 (not the rs's), they are meh, just something to get you around. They are a hard tyre and don't handle heat well.

On my daily, I've got Bridgestone 002's. Done ~20,000kms and would be half worn, if that. Pretty much all highway and very little to put a smile on my face. But yeah a nice tyre. I ran the Kumho ku31's prior as they were cheap at the time. Bridgestones are better, though I don't use them to there capability any more.