Jim,

I've got Firestone Firehawks on my '01 S2K. It has 225/z50/R16 on the rear and 205/Z55/R16 on the front. I bought the car with about 15K miles on it and the tires didn't look too bad. Now it's got 20K miles on it and they are definately ready to be replaced.

The car seems to handle pretty well (although I haven't pushed it really hard) and rides well, but I'd like to try a different tire. I've seen many posts about tire wear and I'd like to get at least the same performance and feel of the Firestones. Can you recommend a good replacement tire?

 

You may want to look at the Bridgestone S03 or the Yoko ES100. Both of these tires would be replacements with the S03 being the most similar. The ES100 would give maybe a little longer tread life but not quite as good handling.
If I can help let me know.
Thank you

Jim 877-522-8473

 

Well I bought Goodyear F1s. The tires seem OK but I find it really hard to judge the performance of these new tires independly of other factors. My son took the car in to have the tires put on and had an alignment done. Dang, what mistake. The car seems much looser now. I couldn't put my finger on what made it so loose feeling and the other day when I was driving on the freeway I noticed that when I hit the accelerator in 6th gear the car would wobble - it did it every time. Also at high speed when I let off the accelerator the car would wobble.

The owner of the shop said he thinks the mechanic set the toe to 1/8". I assume that he only set the front since he didn't say anything about the rear. The shop is good but they are probably more likely to do standard family cars at that shop.

I heard recommended a setup of +4mm rear toe and zero toe in front for better tire wear. How about a setup for stability and little more tire wear. I'm looking for a happy medium. Whatever my previous setup was it got a respectable 20K - not bad for and S2k and it was a more stable ride.