Tire Recommendation for GT - Ford Forums

AED71 · 09-09-2003, 14:26

Hi everybody,

I'm planning to buy tire for my 97 GT. In fact there was a topic about tires that I have started a few months ago, but this one is for brand selection. In fact I did an extensive investigation and want to share with you and get your feedbacks.

I don't know if you have heard about www.tirerack.com web page. It's a fanatstic web for tire comperison. I mainly used this page and tire vendor's pages.

The reason why I am so interested in selection of the best tire is about a small heartattack in a rainy day on the highway with only 35mph. I decided to buy the best tire with wet traction since my 97 GT doesn't have any traction control. I know that there is something like traction-lok axle but didn't help me in the wet surface, probably something related with start-up on slippery roads.

Anyhow, for wet,hydro and dry performance Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 has the best results in the tires available in their database. The second and the third is Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Pos and Bridgestone Potenza S-02 A respectively.

I also search for the cheapest ones (but not the worst), and I found Kumho ECSTA Supra 712. The wet and hydro values are not as good as Goodyear GS-D3 but not bad at all. The price is %50 less. Kumho is also using slica compound which many of the manifacturers (like Michelin) has just started to use. I heard that it enables more grip.

Here are the results of two tires:
Dry Wet Hydro Cornering Steering Ride Noise Tread
trac trac trac Stability Response Comfort Comfort Wear
---- ---- ----- --------- --------- -------- ------- -----
GS-D3 9.3 9.2 9.1 9.1 9.1 8.5 8.5 8.5
712 8.4 8.0 8.1 8.1 8.1 8.1 7.5 7.5

As a conclusion Kumho ECSTA Supra 712 is best for price, Goodyear GS-D3 is the best results of all. I start thinking how feasible to pay to Goodyear and do these differences between the results is worth to pay double?

I think I will go for Goodyear at least for rear. But has anyone have an idea what will kind of problems will I face when I use goodyear at rear and Kumho in front?

Has anybody tested Kumho 712 in wet and hydro?

Has anybody heard or used products like tire-grip? (http://www.tiregrip.com/) Can I have same or even better results with Kumho and tire-grip? (even in snow)

My rim is 16, (225 50 R16)

Many thanks in advance
All the best