Tyre suppliers??

Right then then folks, it's time for me to get some new boots for the Rex due to an MOT failure and advisory. It was expected to be honest, and I've had the same ones for five years so can't really complain!! I've more or less decided on which tyres I'm gonna get, Goodyear Eagle F1 get good reviews on various forums and review websites. Also Autoexpress and Which give them glowing reports too! I considered Toyos but as I don't really track the car I'd rather get a road biased tyre rather than one that performs well on track.

What I'm asking is has anyone used online tyre suppliers and how do they compare with local tyre places in regard with price and service?? The prices for supply only look pretty good but when you factor in the charge for fitment, it's not that much cheaper!!

What do you lot think? Any experiences good or bad??

Also, does anyone with a RWD run different tyres front to back? Does it make that much difference??

The tyre companies I've always used are:

www.mytyres.co.uk/
These arn't the cheapest but not far from it. The service has always been good and delivery is fast as.

www.camskill.co.uk/
Used these for the first time about 2 months ago for my new semi-slick road legal (trackday tyres). Price was unbeatable but the service was diabolical, it took them three weeks after my order to tell me they couldn't get the tyres in the compound i wanted and then a further week to deliver them after changing compound.

Regarding which tyres, Goodyear F1's are ok, quite a hard compound and the technology in the tyre is a bit dated compared to their competitors.
Toyo T1R's in my opinion.......Best Bang for the Buck, I would say in my experience better then F1's and cheaper too. Don't last as long as F1's though.
My personal favorite at the moment are Yoko Advan Neova AD08 - these are exceptional on the road and is not a bad little performer even on the track the only thing is.....they are soft and would prob only last half that of a Toyo T1R.

Would I run different tyre on the rear to the front (are you referring to size or tyre band)
Tyre brand - not personally as it effects grip balance, for street i like all my tyres to respond the same. I contridict myself a little as I currently run different brands but wait theres a reason....I have sacrificed my conering speed for straight line traction. I run street tyres Yoko Advan A043's on the rear and semi-slick Kumho V70's on the front. 310whp through the front wheels and my driving style required this.
Tyre Size - Common thing changed by RWD drivers (reduce the tyre height and increase the width i.e. going from 7" width wheel to an 8" wheel and changing the tyres from say a 205/45/17 to a 235/40/17. This will give more rear end traction due to a larger tyre traction patch and greater response because the tyre wall is natually stiffer the samller it becomes. Most people do this without understanding the implication and my advise to anyone would be: unless you know what your doing, stick to stock.

Hope this wasn't to much of a bore to read.

Cheers for that.

I have used blackcircles .com,i found them to be be very good......my tyre choice for the GTR which i recentlly re-booted were "Hankook Ventus V12 Evo's" which i have found to be better than my previous Toyo's........i really rate Hankooks,as i have had a set of "Dyna-Pro MT's" on my Moon Buggy which have proven to be awesome tyres even on the road......read some reviews on them.....a lot of M3 and M5 drivers are using them,and they are RWD too...........

Well I've made a boo boo! I've been looking at reviews and comparisons for the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2, which is a new tyre, and I'd virtually decided that is what I was having due to the glowing reviews across the board. However, when I've been looking for them online, I've been searching using my tyre size, which is 235/40/R17, only to find that they only do the older version in my size!! Not the new one!! The older version, as Micky said, is a bit dated and gets worse reviews than some competitors!! So I'm back to the internet to do a bit more research!!

Just noticed that they do them in 235/45/R17. Will this make a huge difference as the profile is slightly larger??

Right then, narrowed down my choice to three.

Falken FK-452

Toyo Proxes T1-R

Hankook Ventus V12 Evo K110

All these are available in the correct size of 235/403R17.

Any opinions on these?? All the reviews are pretty similar and the majority of them are by Jo Bloggs and can be fairly subjective at times!

Or there are the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2 in the slightly different size of 235/45/R17.

Yes, more then you would think:

Stock Tyre (235/40R17)
Sidewall: 3.7"
Radius: 12.2"
Diameter: 24.4"
Circumference: 76.7"
Revolutions per Mile: 827

New Tyre (235/45R17)
Side Wall: 4.2"
Radius: 12.7"
Diameter: 25.3"
Circumference: 79.6"
Revolutions per Mile: 796

All of this relates to a +3.8% speedo error compared to staock size, Rule of Thumb is to keep the error percentage to +/- 1%.
So as you can see the "new tyre is too big", I mean 3 inches over diameter is quite alot. It just doesnt seem that much when they express as 235/40 and 235/45.

A good place for reviews/surveys that i use: (you dont particually want to go anything less then what the yanks call a Ultra High Performance Tyre)
As its american some tyres won't be avaliable in this country but most are.
These are in order of best first.

Extreme Performance Road Tyres
www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=EP
Max Performance Road Tyres
www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=MP
Ultra High Perfomance
www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=UHP

Hope this helps

Based on those tyres your pretty much in the "Max Performance Tyre" range and those Hankook's are rated number 7. I would say go for them or Bridgestone RE050A but if there is a large margin in cost between the two just go for whatever is cheapest.

The Potenza RE050A aren't available in the right size. Out of the tyres available in my size, the three I listed above are about the best!

The hankooks it is then, theres no data for the Toyo's on TireRack and I'm not sure if Toyo supply to the USA. So if in doubt go with what there is data for.
If you get them let us know your opinion on what they are like on your car.

I have had three sets of tyres on the GTR......Potenza's,Toyo's and Hankooks........the Potenzas were the worst in my opinion.
With being 4WD i have less issues with the back stepping out as much as an RX7.....But the Hankooks have a good rep,especially for the price.....i am sure there are better tyres,but they will be way more expensive......Try the Rex forums to see whos got what....

what about non-directional tryres

couldn't comment, I don't think I have ever used non-directional.
Maybe when I had the Mk.1 Golf but don't really recall what tyres it had (was a long time ago).

Like Big G says, see what the other Rotor Boys use, the Hankooks look the better choice or Best Bang for the Buck in this instance. But there maybe be people on the Rotor forums who may say otherwise based on personel experience.
I think Bridgestones score so high on TireRack is prob because of the Honda Crowd, they are standard fit to most Honda's and were pretty much custom design to suit the Honda handerling characteristics.