seem pretty decent to me. I don't have a lot of experience of different tyres,
but I feel like rambling a bit anyway...
When I got the car it was shod with Dunlop Monza 200's - they were shoddy.
Not very good dry, scary wet. Shortly after sliding through an amber light I
couldn't stop for in the wet, I sold them to someone who was prepared to
compromise their safety with cheap tyres.
Bought second hand Falken Ziex ZE-502's, handily premounted on standard
MX5 rims, leftover from when Fletcher bought new rims/tyres. Definite
improvement. The Falkens eventually wore out, as tyres do, strangely
enough. Bought the Yokohama A539:
- the man who was selling them reckoned they were great (not unusual for a
salesman, but he had earned some respect by refusing to fix a puncture in a
previous tyre which was worn [arguably] to the wear limit)
- they're an assymetric design, which I had no way of quantitatively
evaluating, but appealed to my aesthetic sense
- they were cheap ($150 each)
What I've found is this:
- grip in the dry is good - no complaints at all.
- grip in the wet is good, but not fantastic. I have become too cocky on
occasion (some would say 'frequently') & found myself in places I did not
want to be. Both examples that come to mind involve ending up facing the
wrong way. These things were my fault, and I learnt a few good lessons. It's
certainly good to remember that the tyres are not miraculous.
- on hard cornering, the tyres are very vocal. They start squealing quite a
long way before they let go. This is good & bad - it is an aid to knowing how
hard I am pushing things, but makes me sound like a boy racer even when
I'm not pushing all that hard. I've driven on Fletcher's Bridgestone RE711's a
couple of times - they seem to be dead quiet in comparison - under hard
acceleration out of a corner I only knew the back end was slipping by the
feel. For the past year I've been intending to swap wheels with Fletcher
sometime & give them a good test (I'm sure Fletcher would also give my
tyres a workout) - must get around to doing that. From what I gather, no-one
dislikes Bridgestones, from Grid-II to RE-711, everyone seems very happy
with them.
- as for quietness in straight-line driving? Well, the roof is down & there's
plenty of noise other than tyres. I've not been in any MX5 and noticed tyre
noise as an issue.
- the assymetric design is weird. I'm happy with the idea that conditions can
be different between the inside & outside of a tyre, most obviously when
cornering. These tyres are assymetric left to right as well as having a
directional quality to the tread, but they don't make left & right versions. So,
the tyres on the left side of the car present their tread to the road in the
reverse of what the right side presents. How can this be balanced? It's
faintly disturbing.
= overall, I'm happy with them.
Just to round things out, here are some random links about the A539 - the
first link has a reasonable straight-on picture of the tread pattern.
http://www.polleymotorsport.co.uk/tyres/road/A539.htm
http://www.fastlane.com.au/Products/Yok ... elease.htm
http://206gti.net/a539_review.shtml
Karl.
[...]
