Damn cheap but good tires!

[904nm]

I was looking for some inexpensive but decent tires for our '99 Lexus GS400 that junior mainly drives. It had a set of well worn Michelin PilotSport tires on it that would not grip worth anything. Ended up putting a set of Hankook Ventus V12 Evo K110 tires on and what a difference! Off the line the Michelin would always break free and light up no matter what surface they were on if you put your foot in it. Did a quick run today without stressing the car too much and got 5.27s 0-60 vs about 6.5 with the PilotSports. You can get the tires at TreadSource in Ventura, CA for $155 (265/40/ZR18). Now I'm motivated to see if the GS can break through 5 seconds with a little tinkering. Not too bad for a 10 year old car you can buy for under $10K that will haul 4 people around rather comfortably. Only modifications to date is a free flow air intake and ECU chip.

[Sector_15504]

My mom has a '98 GS 300 that is about to be handed to my brother since he just started driving, 198k miles and still strong! It even has factory navi!

The Yokohamas are a joke. They made her steering wheel shimmy between 50-65 until she had them replaced. Now she runs on some cheapies and its smoother than ever! Shes gonna get a 2010 E-Class here soon in the next few weeks.

So I know exactly what you are talking about

[Solidjake]

I've heard about those tires a while ago, bang for the buck

Right now I have Falken FK452's on my BMW. 225/40/18 all around

[Hunter]

They are pretty good tires for the price.My dad uses them.

[904nm]

Car & Driver or some other car magazine did a review on them and were pretty impressed. Hard to beat for the price. Now what are you guys going to do with all the cash I saved you?

[WLH]

Very popular with the sport car crowd and especially Corvette. I have seen them more than once on Lamborghini as well.

[KOMO]

Good to hear that you found some good affordable tires, that seems to be rather difficult these days. I'll be in the market for some new tires soon, seriously considering some more Pirelli tires.

[JDS]

Good to hear that you found some good affordable tires, that seems to be rather difficult these days. I'll be in the market for some new tires soon, seriously considering some more Pirelli tires.

What size tires do you run?

[Obsidian]

How are the sidewalls? I hate tires with mushy sidewalls. I tried the Michelin PS2's C&D compared the Hankooks too and the sidewalls were mushy ... though not nearly as bad as the Eagle F1 GSD3's.

You could have gotten the Sumitomo HTR ZIII's for about $9 more per tire, which are really good.

Regardless, cheap always comes with a compromise ... grip, treadwear, greasiness after a few laps ... but always something.

[904nm]

How are the sidewalls? I hate tires with mushy sidewalls. I tried the Michelin PS2's C&D compared the Hankooks too and the sidewalls were mushy ... though not nearly as bad as the Eagle F1 GSD3's.

You could have gotten the Sumitomo HTR ZIII's for about $9 more per tire, which are really good.

Regardless, cheap always comes with a compromise ... grip, treadwear, greasiness after a few laps ... but always something.

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...mparison_tests

The Hankook appears to be a well balanced tire as it does well in wet conditions too despite being a "summer" performance tire. Despite their somewhat "soft" feel, they yielded good consistent lap times per the C&D review. They were described as "deceptively quick" because they didn't feel as strong as they actually were. Overall it came in at 2nd place. The HTR ZIII unfortunately were not part of the review. The Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 came in at 1st place but they are $100 more per tire compared to the Hankooks. Seems like there is not too much compromise despite the relatively low price. Given that the tires are not going to be used on a track, a good balance in qualities is more important to me than only dry track performance.

Love how they had to round up the numbers so the Ling Long Chinese tires didn't come out with negative numbers. LOL.