Kevin Wood wrote on 21. Apr 2011 at 20:56:


Certainly no confidence issues on the way to the Hampshire meet

chrisgixer wrote on 22. Apr 2011 at 00:10:

Can't answer that as I was in the chase car following in my car

Lazydocker wrote on 22. Apr 2011 at 00:14:

Oh that sort, thought maybe you where in the car with him experiencing the other sort. .  . 

tonyyeb wrote on 22. Apr 2011 at 10:09:


Continental Sport Contact 3`s came tops in EVO and Autocar tyre test`s last year, thats what I`ll be putting on next.

Tread depth is an interesting part of it as said. How the tyre behaves as they wear over the last part of it's life is equally important as the start, and IMO is why nobody should form an opinion of a tyre until they are worn out.

My theory as to why, trailing arm suspension on the back works quite differently to mcphearson strut suspension on the front, camber seems to deflect a lot more on the front than the back because of these two designs. Add in the job of steering on the front only, and power driving the rear only, all conspire to wear the tyres in very different ways. Fronts loose the edges first and give a rounder profile, where as rears wear the middles flat as if over inflated giving the exact opposite profile.

Why is this relevant to tyre choice? Not all tyres behave the same under such wear, some handle it better than others possibly due to construction. And has been a major lesson learned in my much bemoaned Falken disaster. When new they where ok in the stability dept, not good, but merely ok! Still thought the wishbone bushes where buggered tbh but they point is they are a less stable tyre generally.
  So add in the tyre wear characteristics of the car previously mentioned, in my case Elite suspension which is soft which will allow camber angles to deflect even more exaggerating that wear difference front to back, and an enthusiastic driving style pushing the suspension movement and hence camber deflection further still, and the end result for a tyre can mean binning them with 3 or 4 mill of tread left as the car simply will not go in a straight line.

Don't get me wrong falkens are not the only tyres to reach their level of poor handling(comparatively speaking of course), ask TB after his " something's broken, as if disconnected" concerns before changing tyres and the problem vanished. The point is at what stage do they reach this unusable level and they just have to be changed because they bother drives so badly?

From my experience, I would suggest, once again,  the tyre wear and resulting handling degradation to be totally unacceptable on Falkens ESP the 912... But then I really should say similar of the suspension as well, and admit, bought the wrong tyre. 

Shimmy wrote on 22. Apr 2011 at 12:32:

Re handling seems to me it depends on the tyre, and by handling I mean straight line stability specifically. I guess ze Germanz have their autobahn related reasons...?

Mot and tread depths are the absolute base level IMO. Not uncommon to encounter related issues prior to any test failures.

So what's the best way go manage it? Rotate the fronts to the back half way through, and then replace all 4?

Or, keep the fronts as new as possible and put the old fronts on the rear, or just bin the fronts?