Holy crap!!!
Been testing the tyres and have been lucky enough to have some varied conditions the last few days, I am very impressed so far, dry was very impressive, there is a corner on the way home that I regularly take at 65, can take at 70 with the tyres squealing and in the VR4 the fastest I could do it was 65. can now easily hold 75. In the wet today I was still able to take it at 65. The car also feels more neutral leaning towards taily.
The turn in is great in wet and dry, the grip and traction is excellent, the wet is better than the GSD3's altho I haven't had the GSD3's on the FTO.
With the last rear tyres, which were federal something there was an aweful noise, I actually thought I had run a bearing! Now I can actually hear the exhaust noise and the noise is gone!
So far I am very impressed.
Only 1 issue is the tyres feel a little squirmy at the limit, I am going to try to add some tyre pressure and see if that helps.
Bit of a thread revival here.
When most people think of Falkens on here, they think of FK-452s. Well, on the old Leon, we had Falken Zeix ZE-912s, and they were really good on that. They are an asymmetric tyre like the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetrics. So on to the VR-4 went ZE-912s. And I have had them on there for well over a year now.
This is our recent tyre history:
- Admiral & Achilles on the VR-4 when it was landed in the UK. These were surprisingly good tyres, although the Admirals suffered some cracking on the inside-facing tyre walls;
- Falken FK-452s on the VR-4 - the dry grip of these tyres was very good. However, I found them to be a little too squirmy under wet conditions;
- Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetrics on the VR-4 - again, the dry grip of these tyres was very good, probably slightly better than the FK-452s. And again, I found them a little squirmy under wet conditions. Whilst I appreciate that they are classed as summer tyres, the performance drop-off in the winter was still quite marked;
- Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3s (the Made In Germany ones) on the RVR - not such a direct comparison, but these were my favourite tyres, the dry grip was outstanding, and they were fairly decent in the wet, and winter cold;
- Falken Zeix ZE-912s on the VR-4 currently - The dry grip of these tyres is fantastic. However, the wet grip is also extremely good, including in the lower temperature of winter.
We know that tyre choice and opinions can be very subjective. Anyway, I thought I would share my experiences of these fairly common tyres (well, amongst VR-4 owners) as I have been able to pretty much directly compare them over the last few years.
As ever, the Falkens represent a very good deal, and I would choose them over the Goodyears. Put it this way, my next set of tyres will be the ZE-912s again.![]()
October 2023 fleet status: 100% operational
|Legnum VR-4S | Fiat Panda 100HP !! | a blue one!
| Avensis T-180
| VR-4 parts van! |
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I have some crappy tyres on mine,they are now getting old and worn,when it's wet, in 1st,2nd,and 3rd,all i get is wheel spin,and the back end fishtails. It's almost like driving a rear wheel drive car..![]()
OnBoost!![]()
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Summer: Vredestein Sportac 3, 225/40-18
Winter: Nokian Hakka R, 205/50-17
The one and only... Galant with PFL VR4 bumper complete with fogs and Super VR-4 canards in Norway
(unless you know otherwise)
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Mods done: Eyelids, PFL VR-4 foglights, clear corner indicators and side indicators, VF-4 front strut brace, Custom rear strut brace, cusom "sports" air filter, lowered, custom sound system and Super VR-4 canards
Thread revival again!
I've tried a few different tyres on my PFL Legnum. Had Avon's, Toyo and Yokohama.
So far I've found Yokohama Parada spec 2's to be the best.
Toyo Proxes' don't seem to perform too well in the wet, making the car feel 'skittish' and unstable.
Avon's, well................... won't buy them again.
I bought a set of Goodyear Eagle F1 (215/45/17) which I am very happy with. The previous 2 sets of Toyo Proxes T1R's were quite good too. I can't compare to wet conditions yet as I rarely drive the Legnum (it's the missus her daily).
I am very happy with the Bridgestone RE002 that I fitted to the car about three months ago. Nice progressive tyre that sticks well in both wet / dry conditions and is pretty quiet. Remains to be seen how many miles I'll get out of them though.
im running the same, been on for a couple months, wearing A LOT better than the tires i had on before (some cheap junk), by a lot i mean i can actually drive it hard around corners with out the smell of burning rubber and without going through the belt on the inside of the tire in about 1500km, so far worth the $230 each, been on for about 3500km, will see how much tread were when it goes for a wof
Has somebody ever tried Barum Bravuris 2 XL
saw this thread pop up again and may as well put in my two cents
just got a set of nitto invo's 225/45/17
cant rate them high enough. stick better then my old potenza 245/45/17's did in both dry and wet condiotions and wasnt to badly priced 220NZD per tyre inc fitting and balancing.
Barum is a*joint venture*with Continental AG, apparently good tyres.
Has anyone else uesd the Falken ZE912 tyres on here VR4's?
I'm looking replaceing them with worn out Dunlop Sport Maxx what is on the car at the moment.
So its the Falken ZE912 or GT Radial UHP1 what i will choose from.... Being abit cheap at the moment or I would replace them with Falken ZE452
i fitter toyo t1r's months ago, still have zero miles done, so this post is pointless really!
currently got hancocks on the 16s find them good in the wet and dry only time didn't like them was on very wet leafy tight corner that was so sharp you had no choice in any car we saw but to go on other side of the road, other than this have all been good,
normaly run top end bridgestone, mitchelin or Pirelli.
if you could still get thim I would use toyo t1s best tyres ive ever had.
would never use falkens again found them very un grippy.
When my JDM arrived in 2016 it had Yokohama DBs that were end of life - so I got like for like.
Even using them like a hot cat I got 25K miles out them over 5 years.
They were still legal for mot - barring perishing on the inside tread.
So this week Michelin Pilot Sport 4s fitted , more knbobbly than the Yokohams, looking almost rally wear.
5 mm wider diameter side wall and a stronger shoulder rim side
Before this week I was tempted to look around for another car to replace the VR4 - but after a spin around on the Michelin Pilot 4's
(with stock wheels, stock suspension, barring replaced lower control arms) ...
IT IS A DIFFERENT CAR. Smile back on my face.
Credit to Tom at Toms Tyres - knows his onions on best tyre for best car.
Last edited by irnerd; 25-09-2021 at 11:14 AM.
1997 Legnum VR-4 S
1997 - Year of the first cloned sheep Dolly - huh?
Nice!
To be fair, Pilot Sport 4s are one of the best tyres out there, so not a difficult one to recommend.
I've started to appreciate more and more how much age can degrade tyre performance. So I do think that putting new tyres on will generally make the drive feel much better anyway, especially so if they are a highly-rated tyre.