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Cheap treads
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Posted by: OldFart

Cheap rubber is sometimes pretty darn good.

Since I always new I was going to be doing some pretty extensive modifcations to the engine and suspension to get the car prepared for some local club racing, I decided it would be smarter to just install some cheap rubber that I could burn-up during the mod phase of the project, rather than burning up expensive rubber. You know, just buy cheap stuff in the same sizes as the expensive stuff, wear them down during the R&D and then put the good stuff on to race with.

So after I got the 18x9.5 wheels I wanted, I searched around and found the cheapest rubber I could find. This turned out to be a set of Nexen N3000 low profile tires - and I'm very surprised. These are pretty darn good tires - and cheap! (Like less than $100.00 per tire).

First, the initial handling wasn't so good, but as soon as the top layer of rubber was worn off - they got a lot better. The grip is damn good and nearly as good as very expensive tires (like nearly as good as the $325.00 per tire rubber).

I also thought they would wear out pretty fast (being cheap after all) but I've put over 10,000 miles on them and there is still plenty of tread life left. It looks like I'll get 25,000 miles out of these while driving pretty aggressively nearly all the time. Which is more than I can say for some pretty expensive rubber I've had in the past.

About the only bad thing I can say about them is that they get a little bit of a flat spot overnight, but that goes away within the first couple of miles after they heat up.

These are so good that I'm thinking I'll just keep using them for daily driving and get a set of track-only tires for race days.

Check em out http://www.blackcircles.com/tyres/nexen

You could do a lot worse at twice (or more) the price in my experience.

(and no I'm not getting any kind of kickback from Nexen - just passing on a tip to brother and sister stang owners.)

OldFart

Posted by: Donna

Interesting..I have been trying to decide which tires to put on new 18 x 9 rims. I thought my mind was made up to go with the Michelin Pilot Sports even though they are pricey.
I like the tread pattern on those too. Thanks for the review.

Posted by: BIGJ

I went the Sumitumo route with my 18x9's, prolly hands down ,the worst tire ever made for driving.......good for the wallet and looks though!

Posted by: badass98svt

yes sumitomos are bad, but i think my Kumho's may be even worse

Posted by: OldFart

Quote:

Originally Posted by badass98svt

yes sumitomos are bad, but i think my Kumho's may be even worse

You're making me feel even better. I considered both of those tires before I found the Nexem's (that were even cheaper than Kumho's and Sumitomo's).

As I've said, these are suprisingly good tires and I still can't believe I only paid about $84.00 per tire (+ $60.00 to ship all four) for them. Once they warm up they drive just great.

Not particularly good in the wet though - I forgot to mention that in the first post. They will break loose pretty easy on wet pavement, so if that is a consideration for you, choose accordingly.

OldFart

Posted by: Mustang5L5

You get what you pay for is what i've found with the tires i have run on my cars

Posted by: OldFart

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mustang5L5

You get what you pay for is what i've found with the tires i have run on my cars

In all my past experience, I would agree with you. I've never before had cheap rubber that I later wished I hadn't bought.

But in the case of this particular set of cheap tires, which I bought thinking that I was getting what I was paying for, I was surprised to find were much better than expected. I've had tires that cost twice as much that were not near as good.

The only thing I can figure is that the Korean manfacturer is dumping them at a low price to try and make a name for themselves. I've never even heard of this brand prior to buying the first set.

I keep checking the treadwear expecting to find it worn off by my somewhat aggressive driving habits, only to be surprised to find still a lot of tread left. And the grip, while not as good as a top of the line tire, is nearly as good - at a fraction of the cost.

So for a set of beaters that I bought just to wear down while I fool with the suspension, I'm pretty pleased.

OldFart

Posted by: nomad_dave

Quote:

Originally Posted by OldFart

OF, where can I buy these tires in the U.S.? I've called the TireRack and Discount Tire and they don't carry them. A Google search didn't yield much either.

Thanks,
DV

Posted by: OldFart

Quote:

Originally Posted by nomad_dave

OF, where can I buy these tires in the U.S.? I've called the TireRack and Discount Tire and they don't carry them. A Google search didn't yield much either.

Thanks,
DV

I got mine on Ebay from a company in California. They arived via UPS 5 days after I paid for them. I initially bought a set of 4, (and discovered I really needed a wider tire on the front). So, I ordered another 2 in a wider size and swapped the existing rears to the front and put the wider new tires on the rear. All of the tires have been good.

When I decided to get another 2 tires, I checked with the local Discount Tires. They said they could get them in a few days but the price was around 40% more than the Ebay price (and that was before any adder for "road hazard"). I decided that I would rather take my chances of getting a bad tire than to pay the additional 40% and just ordered them from the same Ebay seller. Again they were on my doorstep in 5 days.

Initially, I was somewhat concerned about this purchase, since what do you do if you have a defective new tire? But with six tires I've had no problems at all. They balanced up fine and the set I'm running has now got nearly 13,000 miles on them.

P.S. - I made a quick Ebay search before I finished this post and found that the tires have gone up in price about $25.00 per tire since I bought a few months ago. The word must be getting out faster than I thought. I would still buy these tires at that price.

Good Luck,
OldFart