meilers

Since they axed the "Reviews" section of i-club in the redesign, I thought I would post this here, just for fun...

I just passed my first 3000 miles on 225/45-17 Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3s; tires this expensive (I paid $160 a tire) should give anyone pause before a purchase, and I did lots of research. Ultimately I am very happy with my investment, but we'll see how I feel after I measure the tread wear at 10,000 miles.

A few disclaimers: I also changed my wheels to Kosei K1-TS 17" (50mm offset), so I can't give you a good estimation of what the tires would be like on the stock rims. Also, since this is Arizona and we have had no rain of any kind for 59 days in a row, I have yet to try the tires on wet pavement.

Right away I noticed that the Eagles are plush and smooth, giving my 02 WRX a Lexus-like feel. Even with 34 psi in the front and 33 in the rear, they have very little rolling resistance and are extremely quiet. The only exception is on the highway -- we have "grooved concrete" highways here (NOT asphalt) which have horizontal grooves, and the tires tend to "sing" on this surface. On actual asphalt highway surfaces they are about half as loud as the RE-92s so far. Once the mold release coating had burned off, they seemed to soften up and now display a terrifying amount of grip. There is definitely a lot more "steering input" (as you would expect from a max performance tire) and you do have to watch out for the wheel being jerked from your hand on a really poor-condition surface.

I am a safe, moderate driver; I only get "spirited" with the car in totally safe and predictable conditions. However with the Eagles I find myself taking highway exits and entrances at 20-30 MPH over the listed speed with no trouble whatsoever. On the highway itself they are smooth as butter, even at 110 MPH (I had to try it, just once!) and do not seem to "tramline" or get stuck in rain grooves.

When you take a curve at speed, the entire car seems to "squat" and traction level seems to go UP the more you lean on the tires. Your impusle is to actually accelerate, not slow down! I find that in contrast to the RE-92s, which required a lot of "managment" to keep on-line in a turn, I can just pick my line and the Eagles carry me right to the apex.

One particular highway exit that I take every day is a good indication of the improvement of the Eagles over normal, mortal tires. There is an INSANE exit from the eastbound US-60 onto the 101 Highway north which goes from 65 mph to 25 mph (as posted) and then back to 65 MPH in about 200 yards, and it drops about 60 vertica feet and then climbs about 100 while it is doing this. With the Eagles I can take this turn and never drop below 45 MPH! Typically I enter the turn with another car tight up against my rear bumper and then exit the turn with that same car 10 to 15 car-lengths behind me. I've been able to do this little "disappearing act" to Miyatas, G35s, Mustangs and countless SUVs and jeeps, though this is not a criticism of the cars but instead of their drivers.

In-town corners are more interesting. If I practice good AWD cornering (brake EARLY, get on gas at apex, "squirt" out of corner) I can get a squeal out of the outside rear wheel, but just a chirp. Overall cornering seems much tighter and more confident, as you might expect; however the nicest part for me is that my turns are so much more predictable, with a very solid feel from entrance to exit. If I give the wheel a little jerk at the apex to tighten the turn, there's no protest or hesitation.

I was warned that wider, stickier tires would slow my initial turn-in, but overall the steering actually feels "lighter" and easier, not more difficult. This may have much to do with the 17" wheels, which are 13.7 lbs apiece. The improvement in actual acceleration is difficult to gauge for this reason; the car does seem quite a bit quicker from 0-to-60, so the stickier tires might be compensating for the torque loss from bigger-diameter wheels.

BTW, the wheels themselves are awesome. They have an extremely high-quality paint job (no runs or sags, which is more than I can say for my factory WRX wheels!) and the dual valvestems are a tasteful piece of bling. The wheels seem solid and stable, though they did take a fair amount of weights to balance up (4-6 sticky weights per wheel). The extreme lightness of the wheels stems purely from good engineering, because there is plenty of metal where it counts (at the rim and hub) and they feel extremely stable in hard cornering, where you would expect a flexy light wheel to bend.

Anyway, I feel this $1600 investment was extremely worthwhile, and my car seems safer, more stable and more predictable as a result. If you'd like to see how the tires and wheels look on the vehicle, here's a small gallery:

http://homepage.mac.com/meilers/PhotoAlbum18.html

meilers

One thing that I've noticed is that they are extremely sensitive to the amount of air pressure in the tires... I can tell by feel alone when they are down 1/2 psi, and they feel completely different with 34 psi in the front rather than 32 psi. Just makes me check the pressure more often, which is a good habit to get into.

Clint Torres

Consumer Reports rated them Numero Uno in their test of High Performance Summer Tires

Luke@tirerack

very well written !

and Consumer Reports is a joke ... I bought my toaster following their testing and it burns my toast every morning no matter what setting it's on

SsTiNgEr77

iTrader: (4)

lol, now i just want to see the same comparison with the PS2!

Kevin M

iTrader: (12)

Consumer reports is written for the exact oppsite of the kind of people who look for advice from these forums.

Kevin M

iTrader: (12)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, I have a set of these on my stock wheels (16x7 RS wheels). I didn't much like them, but that was probably due to circumstances, like:

• my previous tires were 205/50ZR16 Potenza S-03s
• I only had 350ish miles on the tires when I took them to Buttonwillow
• they were 215/45ZR16s, which turn out to be XL rated, which may explain what I didn't like about them.

I think the S-03s have better ultimate grip. I felt like I was going faster on the 2 different size S03s I've run at Thunder Hill compared to the Goodyears at Buttonwillow. However, the Goodyears ARE pretty good. Excellent sidewall stiffness and steering feel. I am sure they are absolutely excellent in the rain, but then so are S03s. The only thing that makes me say stick with S03s is the fact that I felt like I go faster with S03s than I do with the GSD3s. On the other hand, for roughly the same price, the Goodyears should last longer with a rating of 280 compared to 220 for the Bridgestones. If the Goodyears were to drop 15-20% in price, I would say hands down they are the best bargain out there. As it is, I would say go with S03s if you have to drive in the rain, or Kumho MX/Falken Azenis Sports if you don't. When the GSD3s split those two groups evenly in price, then they will be teh winner...YMMV/IMHO.

meilers

Thanks for your input, BAN. If you don't mind, what tire pressure were you running front/rear? I'm still playing with pressure levels to eliminate a little bit of sketchiness on exiting a 90-degree corner.

Wrx17

I have the PS2's on my car. I have these tires on everyday...plus I use them for the track. There is no comparison between the RE-92's and the PS2. First of all, I have 225/45-17 mounted on Rota SDR wheels. I also have a Cobb rear swaybar set on medium.

The PS2 is a pretty lightweight tire in my opinion. One of the best ways to keep rotational mass down...other than buying Volks...is to get a somewhat lighter tire with a stiff sidewall. These tires are lightweight, and the sidewall is stiff. The ride is very slightly harsher than stock and there is some more noise. This may be due to the 3 grooves that run the length of the tire. Turn in feels very smooth with no understeer whatsoever. Just stay on the throttle and the tires will not break. On a freeway entrance at UC Davis, there is a 270 degree turn. Stock tires could maintain about 30-35 mph throughout the turn...and that is pushing it. With my current setup, I can do it at 45 mph easily thoroughout the entire turn. However the biggest attribute of this tire is its wet weather performance. I have never been in a car that could drive over water like my car can now. Even through standing water at 75 mph, there was no loss of traction or any hint that the tires were not gripping. This is where those 3 grooves come into play.

On the track, these tires are very sensitive to tire pressure changes. Max psi is 51...and I believe I was running the fastest when it was set to 46 front and 44 rear....I have to double check that to make sure though. I also have a feeling the sidewalls...which are stiff...could use a little more reinforcement. Obviously some sacrifice has to be made for ride comfort...but Falken Azenis tires seem a lot stiffer. But the car will hold its line if you brake early and keep on the throttle through the turn. I take my car to Thunderhill and the highspeed turns (Turn 1 and 7) and the the last turns before the straights where you have to be fastest...you brake early and take the turn, and just when you think the tires are going to come loose, give it some gas, and the PS2's just grab some more. These are my first performance tires, but I have been in cars with other performance tires. These tires have a high level of grip and just when you think you're going to lose it, just feed some gas and the tires just stick even more. The highspeed Turn 1 is a classic example. It wasn't until I really feathered it some gas through the apex did I acheive my fast times.

On the whole, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the top max-performance summer tires. It was between the PS2's and the SO-3's, and I wanted to try something that most people didn't have. And I think the PS-2's are stock on the Carrera GT and the McLAren SLR. I thought I'd give them a try and I sure love them. They are expensive, and through 3 track days, the wear is looking very good, and I don't baby them at the track either. I don't know if this helped at all but if people ask specific questions, maybe I can answer them.

Kevin M

iTrader: (12)

Ah, good catch. I ran ~36-38, and I probably should have gone higher than that at the track.