Anyone here who has run them for awhile, what did you think of them and what kind of milage did you see with them?

 

i had 711 and 712 before

711 is more like summer touring tires, you'll get alot miles out of those, but the bad side is that they overheat like mofo if you track your car.

712 is a better tires, somewhat more grippy than 711, but i don't feel alot more tires for the money tho'

the tirewall on 712 is pretty weak, you might run into a curb while parking and cupped your tires


I don't have experience with SPT yet

 

I have only put 1000 miles on mine thus far. I got the SPT's. I've run Kumho MX's the last 3 years. For about $100 bucks apiece I think they're a decent choice. I don't notice much difference between these and the MX's but then again I don't drive very aggressively. Treadlife should be close to double that of MX's or the OEM Potenza's.

 

What Ecsta are you refering to?

I have experience with 712 and SPT street tires and V700 R-compounds, though on different cars.

First I have to say that all these tires have relatively soft sidewalls compare to their competitors of the same class. That means the tire is sensitive to wheel width. If you squeeze as much tire on a narrow wheel as possible, performance will suffer. That's not the problem of the tire. When you run wide-enough wheel, soft sidewall is a good thing.

Second, when reviewing a tire, it's easy to bias on the new tires freshly put on because any new tire will perform better than the bald tires swapped out and the deep tread will always provide better ride and be more forgiving and less likely to hydroplane.

I run 215/45 and 245/40 SPT on 17x7.5/8.5 wheels on my bone-stock car except AEM CAI. Since my wheels are wide enough for the tires (not minimal according to Kumho), camber wear is quite even on the track and no chunking. The car turns lap times that are respectable even if I were on R-compounds. That shows how capable are the SPT on wide-enough wheels. Notice the word "capable". It may not be easily doable by anyone. I'm known to be easy on tires on any performance driving even when yielding respectable lap times and quick cornering speed. While people talk smack about the Kumho 712s and Yoko A520 (used on my ex-miata), I illustrated how those tires can perform on the track. I've had some group driving on the twisties where afterwards people were scratching their heads why I could be so fast with some crappy tires. So don't blame me if you don't find my tire review to be accurate.

I also run 235/40/17 712 on 8.5" on my BMW E36 325i with full suspension for street/autoX/track. It also turned relatively respectable lap times and camber wear was very even (thanks to highly-tuned suspension). However, there was a bit of chunking due to the weight of the car for that size and the tread design on the 712 which is more likely to chunk than SPT. SPT is definitely a step up from 712 but I don't know if its performance is closer to 712 or MX (no direct experience with MX). I've ridden in some MX-equipped cars and I would say the SPT is closer to 712 performance than MX performance. Even with close to 3 degrees of camber all around on the BMW, the 712 are still holding up OK after 3 years of street driving plus some autoX and track.

I also ran 235/45/13 V700 R-compounds on 9" wheels for my highly modified '90 miata. As you can imagine for that size that tire compound for that car, performance was in a totally different leaque than my other cars. People complained soft sidewall on that tire but for my 9" I had absolutely no problem with the soft sidewall. In fact, it actually helped the over-the-limit characteristics compare to my 9 other sets of R-compounds with stiffer sidewall on that car.

I also ran 215/50/13 V700 R-compounds on 6" wheels for the same miata when the 235 were sold out all over the continent. Performance took a big hit not from the 20mm narrower tire but from the 3" narrower wheel. With the soft sidewall tire on that narrow wheel, handling got non-linear and sometimes unpredictable.

Whatever tire you have, don't discount the importance of wheel width. It can make a big difference.

 

Agreed. I have the 225/265 V710 combo on my OEM AP1 wheels and that sure creates some issues I'm not crazy about. It may be the fastest setup for Solo II, but the feedback is terrible so it's harder to get the most out of the tires.

 

MX.

 

they came on my S when i got it (used). the fronts lasted around 25k more miles, and the rears went about half that. i went to s03's and the mileage went down, but the difference in traction was HUGE. i swear the s03's have more traction in the wet than the khumo's did in the dry. i will never go back. the S was dangerous with the khumo's, the back end was very loose.

the good part is the khumo's are half the cost, but to me it isn't worth it. it's like it's a different car now.

 

which Kumhos? 712s, SPTs MXs???

 

exactly. People need to be specific. I haven't heard many good things about the S03s. I chose the Pilot Sport PS2s over them for that reason...

 

[QUOTE=liquid_iq,Apr 12 2006, 04:18 AM]they came on my S when i got it (used).