MQuinn

Okay so here's the deal. I have just over 25,000 miles on the stock Perelli P-Zero Nero tires on my '08 GT. I've been looking at tires for a little over two months now and the back right tire just went flat today. Now I have to make a decision. I've talked to tire guys but I always get the feeling they are just trying to sell the tire that makes them the most money. Right now it's a toss up between the Falken Ziex ZE 912 and the Sumitomo HTR Z III. I'm aware of the Falken's "all-season" rating and the Sumi's "summer" rating but have heard debates going both ways. Here is a little background. I don't care about tread life, I don't care about road noise. I drive Mulholland Highway every weekend so I am looking for the most grip I can get between those two tires. Any and all input is greatly appreciated as I need to buy the tires VERy soon. The spare isn't going to take the canyons very well.

peetiewonder

if you're open to other tires, nitto nt555s are excellent tires, especially for the price, i had a set on my car before my current hankooks and they grip like crazy.

MQuinn

I'll see if "my guy" can get the Nittos quick enough.

03gt04mach1

I changed out my BFG G-sports for Hankook V12 evo. A lot quieter. Handles about the same. I never thought I'd own a set of Korean tires! They got GREAT reviews too.

legendlime05

i like my 912's waaaay better than the stock pzeros. theyre a great all season. but if your more on the traction and grip side id would go with a summer or more of a performance oriented tire. the only time ive tried nittos are on my z and i like them ok nothing great imo.

jahudso2

I have the HTRZIIIs on my car. Being that they are a summer tire, they don't grip as good as the stock pirellis when the air temperature is below ~40*F. However, they grip like crazy especially in temperatures above 60. They are really cheap and break away really smoothly compared to the pirellis which makes them very easy to drive hard in the corners (and do controlled powerslides).

Norm Peterson

As I understand it, the ZE-912 is an evolution of the ZE-512 tire. I had a set of the 512's on the Maxima (see sig), and soon came to the conclusion that Falken had their original billing of the ZE-512 as "performance all-season" backwards (it should have been more like "all season with moderate performance"). It's not that the grip wasn't there, though. More like the inital response to steering input was rather mushy making it less enjoyable to work with. I'd like to think that was one of the things addressed for the 912, but since Tire Rack doesn't deal with Falken I haven't heard anything either way.

You might see if the 5th Gen forum over on www.maxima.org has any ZE-912 discussion (that car's rear axle is a twist beam, making it as close to a strut/stick axle Mustang as a FWD car gets). At one time, the ZE-512 was the tire of choice among those on that forum not throwing big $ at their rolling stock, so maybe a few folks tried the new tire.


Norm

Tylus

the Falkens are...alright. I have their 452's in 275/40/18 out back. Compared to my stocker BFG KDWs tires in 235/50/18...they are only slightly more sticky.

I will not be running Falkens ever again. They are overpriced for what you get in terms of performance. Hell, I'd rather have my old Kumho's. $100 a tire for my 03 Gt and they had tons more traction. These Falkens love to let the rear end wiggle when I'm being frisky in 1st and the 2nd gear scratch is almost 6 feet at times.


And the 452's are Summer only tires that specifically say not to drive in cold weather. I'd be scared to see what their other tires are like...especially the All Season ones like you are looking at.


I'm about to switch to the Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 or the Potenza 760. Well, if the damn tires ever get off back-order.

Norm Peterson

If long tread life isn't a concern, Falken RT-615's are some pretty grippy rubber, and aren't bad in the wet. At this point, those are probably the only Falkens that I'd consider without spending more time researching. A lot more.

RT-615's are actually intended as street tire class autocross tires, but work well enough in daily driving to consider for a car that doesn't pile up the miles too quickly. A Miata might get 10,000 miles or a bit more from a set (including some autocross activity); I'd figure closer to half that for something with some power driven with the same level of "enthusiasm". With heavy autocross use included, which is considerably harder than any street driving should ever intentionally get, you *might* get 2000 miles/set.


Norm