Hi. Im thinking of getting the Advan neova ad08 for my daily drive as I love the feel of a responsive tyre. Basically a great driving experience on the street is what Im after.
I have a heavy car which is a HSV clubsport R8 down here in Australia.
It weighs 1700KG and has had numerous modifications done to the suspension such as shocks, springs, sway bars, and all bushes at the front and rear.
I currently have Michelin Pilot super sport tyres which I am not overly happy with.
They have good grip in the wet and dry, ride well and have low noise but since fitting this tyre and coming off the Advan sport, this tyre lost a lot of steering response and road feedback. Lane changes can't be made as quick as this tyre is too soft and flexes too much. Overall my vehicle feels less confident on corners as the steering does not respond instantly or have quick reaction times. It's too linear in it's response and not confident inspiring.
My only choice is to go back to the Advan sport which I do not want to because it does not have enough ultimate grip so the Neova AD08 is my only choice. It will have more dry grip, less wet grip, better steering response and much better handling and cornering ability but also increased NVH.
I actually contacted tire rack and they said to me that between the neova ad08 and the super sport, the advan makes about 10% more noise and rides about 10% firmer also.
They also said the neova ad08 has special cushioning inside it to maximise ride quality.
Unfortunately you can't have it all....
Let me know your thoughts.
Best regards
Quote:
Originally Posted by The HACK
One thing you all should keep in mind of when shopping for tires, when it comes to these TireRack reviews and tests.
Okay, 2 things. First, when TireRack tests these tires they're done under extreme conditions. Meaning that they're pushed to the limit of available grip by professionals that knows how to analyze, assess, AND extract the last drop of grip available from a set of tires. You're not that professional. Heck, I write automotive product reviews that sometimes include tires (I know, I know, it sure doesn't read like I write professionally. That's what the editors are for) and I'm not that professional. So stressing over the last bit of dry traction or wet handling between a handful of tires?
POINTLESS.
Second thing, if you're going by the customer "reviews" of these tires, one huge caveat. Most of the people writing reviews on TireRack are like your average posters on these intarwebs. Which is to say, none of them are even remotely qualified as product reviewers. Take those scores with a giant grain of salt.
So why am I telling you all this (this is now fast becoming my catch-phrase)?
When shopping for tires, heck for any product, first determine what your needs are for these products. On tires, consider your actual use. Are you a spirited driver? Are you planning on taking the car to the track? Are you using it mostly to get from point A to point B? What is wrong with your current tire that makes you want to try a different brand?
This will give you a good chance to figure out what exactly you will want/need from a set of tires, in addition it will give you an opportunity to use TireRack's wealth of reviews and tests to your advantage.
For example. If you drive spiritedly, plan on attending quite a few track events locally, but do not wish to move onto a 2nd set of rims and tires or R-comps? Concentrate your search on the über extreme summer tires, and use the test scores as a basic guide as to which tires have a higher grip level, and then figure out how important the noise/vibration/harshness levels are to your use outside of the track, then figure out how much COST is an issue. To further extrapolate from that, let's say you've got your choices narrowed down to the Advan AD08, Kumho XS, and Michelin PS2, you can probably safely infer that the Advan is marginally better in dry grip than the XS and a nice notch better than the PS2, but is also significantly more expensive than the Kumho and produces more NVH than the PS2. Who knows, if you don't drive more than 7,000 miles a year, with quite a few track events sprinkled in, the Kumho XS may be a better choice since it's only marginally slower than the AD08 but chunks cheaper and have about the same or better tire life. But if you really value your comfort more and don't mind giving up a small notch of speed, and don't mind paying a premium for it, the PS2 probably is the BEST all around tire in the bunch.
See? It's not that complicated a task. Let's take another example. Let's say you like to drive aggressively, but don't plan on taking the car to the track, or maybe only do it once a year?
Some of the über extreme summer tires may not be the right choices, since the majority of your miles will be driven on the street and tires like Advan AD08 and Kumho XS and Bridgestone RE-11 all come with super stiff sidewalls that rival run-flats (I once drove on a set of Falken RT-615K for about 15 miles while flat and the ABS based tire pressure monitor never came on because the tire sidewalls didn't deflect enough) that causes NVH issues during daily driving. If you've never used any of these tires, the aggressively wide tread block with minimal siping will result in a low level "hum" that changes pitch and level as speed changes...And if you've driven on R-comps on the street you'll know what I'm talking about, sometimes they get so loud you can barely think. On a super stiff chassis like the MZ4, ever bit of that NVH is going to be transmitted into the cabin. So for this sort of use, you may want to broaden your search and include tires like Continental ContiExtremeContact DW (note: Not DWS), Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3, and the perennial all-around star Michelin PS2. Do keep in mind, that the same constraints are present in price vs. performance vs. NVH, and while the PS2 is probably still the best all around tire in this group, it is also the most expensive by a wide margin. I have heard the ContiExtremeContact has dry and wet grip nearly comparable to the PS2 but is much cheaper (and last longer), and the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 is just an excellent all around tire that is cheaper as well.
If you mainly drive the car from point A to point B? Use it almost exclusively for daily driving and don't drive all that aggressively? Your set of criteria will change again and the list of tires to consider should also widen again. I'm not going to bother going into this, because there's simply too many tires to chose at this point. But you get my drift.
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