Im looking to get a set of summer tires for my aftermarket wheels. These tires are pretty new in canada but has been around for a couple years at least. From the bmw forums, as well as various reviews, these tires have had nothing but good praise except for a flat spot issue which is not uncommon but doesn't happen to everyone. The flat spot issues goes away after driving a couple miles too.

I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with them? If so, i really want to know the long term condition of it. The fact that its got great reviews at half the price of the michelin pilot sport 4s, kind of seems like a great bang for the buck. I'll never go back to pirelli. If it makes any difference, its for an xfr-s.

Also looking for peoples experience with michelin pilot sport 4s, and yokohama advan sport. Unfortunately those are the only 3 tires that have the sizes i need.

Thanks in advance!

 

I had Kumho Ecsta tyres on my car (not a Jag) some 12 years ago and I really liked them - relatively cheap, good grip wet and dry, fairly quiet and smooth riding and they wore well.
I can't remember what exact model of Ecsta they were but I suspect they were a forerunner to the PS91.
If you want a good value for money summer tyre then I reckon you won't go far wrong with them.
My only worry would be if the grip level is quite good enough for the torque and weight of an XFR-S.
I fitted Michelin Pilot Sport 4S to my F-Type about a year ago and they are easily the best tyres I have ever had on any car, period.
Light years better than the crappy OEM P-Zeros the car came with.
They will undoubtedly be better than the PS91, but who knows by how much, it could be 5% better, 10% better, 20% better or more.
But as you know they are not cheap (but not excessively expensive either).
My thinking is that if you are on a budget and/or money is tight then try the PS91s, otherwise spend a bit more and get the MPS4S.

 

^thanks for the information! In Vancouver the price for the ps4s are $2000 plus taxes vs the ps91 which is $1200 plus taxes. $800 difference is quite a lot. Granted from what i have read in terms of tire life, the ps91 has been recorded to last at max 20,000 miles where as the ps4s has a warranty with a life of 30,000 miles. Granted these will strictly be my summer set-up as i have the stock wheels fitted with ps/as3+ for the spring and fall season. I think I'll take the plunge on the ps91 since i can use the remaining $800 on new tpms and installation. That is of course, IF i can fit the tire sizes i want without rubbing. Going to be lowered 30mm with wider wheels and lower offsets so speed and torque won't be an issue as i won't be doing much spirited driving, plus vancouver being one of the most congested cities in the world, there wouldn't be an opportunity to put the pedal to the metal haha.

 

Be aware that when you lower an XF by 30 mm, and especially an XFR or XFR-S, the existing negative camber on the rear goes way more negative (from around -.5 degrees to around -2 degrees) and it cannot be adjusted out, there is zero camber adjustment on the rear of the XF.
This means the inside edges of the rear tyres will wear out very quickly, probably within 5,000 miles. The fronts as well but nowhere near as much as the rears.
If the tyres are not directional you can get them turned around on the rims with no major worries but if they are asymmetric it might effect the grip.
But nearly all decent summer tyres these days are both directional and asymmetric, you can still get them "turned" but you would be taking a chance with grip and noise.
I know the MPS4S are both directional and asymmetric, I don't know if the PS91 are also but I suspect they are.
Adding all this up it would be best to go with the PS91 to start with as it would be a shame to ruin a set of MPS4S in 5,000 miles!

 

Try Firestone Firehawk Indy 500, I just put a set on my XKR replace from PSS. You will be impressed!

 

^looks like the firestone don't come in my oem size (wich is preferable) but it does come one size down. Im actually surprised at the cost to performance ratio of them in reviews, very similar to the ps91 and at a slightly lower cost. Great suggestion! One thing however is the speed rating and load index is different from oem specs, so im not sure if that will be an issue? Oem is 99y and 101y where as the firestone is 97w and 99w.

 

So actually the price difference is only $200 plus tax once you factor in milage: if you do 60k miles, that's either a minimum of 3 sets of the Kumhos ($3600 plus tax) vs 2 sets of Michelins ($4000 plus tax). IMHO it's worth forking out for tyres that work when you've got plenty of torque to transfer to the tarmac, so (notwithstanding OzXFR's comments r.e. camber change) I reckon the Michelins would be the best bet.

 

OMG the Indy 500 is simply the worst tire I have ever driven in the rain including slicks. Got a set for my TVR this spring and wish I had sent them back under their 30 day policy and of course with that car I do my best never to be out in rain. Perfectly good tire in the dry but they simply float over any water. I replaced Kumho XS with these as Kumho stopped making my size. That was the best street tire I had ever bought. Nearly as good as a victoracer.

 

I have the 500's on 3 of my cars because they are that good in the rain. And here in Houston, you get to test how good rain tires are as well as any city in the world.

So not sure what you are talking about. Great all around tire, except for snow. It can't take freezing temps.

If they were that bad in the rain, the customer and independent reviews would show it. You're off the mark with this one. It must have been something wrong with you or your car, or maybe you were driving on roads that were greasy for any tires because it was the first rain in a long time.

Checkout Tire Rack to see how wrong you are. You'll read lots of reviews like this one:

" I live in Hawaii on the island that rains a lot. We just went through Hurricane Val that dropped about 17" of rain in 24 hours. Though it downgraded to tropical storm 4, the roads did "river" up pretty quickly. The Firestone did very well during this weather and I am very impressed! I felt confident in this wet, wet weather especially with my spirited driving.

 

Nothing wrong with my Tasmin beyond a few lucas gremlins at times. Alignment, suspension and bearings are tight as can be as that was the first thing I checked after the first rainstorm. That was with 200 miles on them so I thought maybe they would get better. They did not. Simply the worst tire I have ever driven in the rain (including racing slicks) Can hydroplane for miles if going over 50 in a down pour and no it has nothing to do with greasy roads as we have had more rain this summer than any other year on record. I am not of the mark on this crappy tire as real world experience has proven it to be exactly on the mark. Then again, my car weighs 1/2 the weight of the average car today but anything over 45mph in the rain is a scare experience with these. If they wer directional things may be different but since they aren't you have one side going the opposite direction to disperse water which is exactly why it pulls hard and hydroplanes.

Back to the topic I had been a huge fan of Kumhos from my racing days which crossed to our street cars They were great tires for years but in the past 5 or so years I've noticed that their real world tread life has drastically dropped but yet their treadwear ratings have stayed the same. Last set of 4x we had on our X type lasted about 20k even with 5k rotations but yet it has a warranty of 40k. The LEs I used on the XJR went from a solid 25k life down to 15k in later sets making their value much less than buying a better tire outright.

 

Well, you just lost all credibility right there, and made a fool of yourself. Do you seriously expect anyone of any intelligence to believe that these tires that are highly rated by the world for good wet traction are worse than racing slicks in the rain?

You need to stop posting on forums, and you really should stop driving too.

 

When you put it like that then definitely the michelin would be the better bet. But like you mentioned OzXFR's comment. My car will be lowered with up to -2 camber. So the milage rating goes in hand with tred durability. Michelin, i feel, would ware out just as fast as the kumho and firestone in terms of camber ware. I think what ill do is once i have the springs installed and wheels test fitted, then i can see the tire size i need. The wheels will be 20x9 and 20x11 but with lower offset. I'm hoping 255/35/20 front and 295/30/20 will be fine but worst case, i may have to go down to 265/30/20 and 305/25/20, although that will throw off my rotation by 3.7% meaning ill actually be anywhere from 1-3mph slower then odometer reading, which isn't too bad. But if i do have to go with the lower profile tires then I'll have to get michelin due to tire availability.

 

Brilliant post by a troll time two. You are once again on my igonre list for being well nothing but an ignorant back side of a horse.