Lancer-AM
05-15-2010, 11:21 PM
This will be a thread for an ongoing review of the Sumitomo HTR Z III's. I was getting close to bald on my Bridgestone RE-01R's and needed a good replacement. I have been doing research over the last few days before I pulled the trigger today.
So a bit of a background, I autocross about once every two months, and I drag race at the track 1-2 times a year. I am pretty demanding on my tires and went through the 01R's in about a year. My car is also a Daily Driver, on the public streets I am a pretty domesticated driver. So I had a few requirements going into my new tire purchase.
1st. They had to grip.
2nd. They needed to last
After searching around I was pretty set on a set of Hankook Ventus V12 Evo's. Car and Driver had comparison between them and multiple other tires and they were quick. The price was good as well, Tire Rack had them for $138 a tire. The treadware rating was 280 which isn't bad and was double that of my 01R's. I started reading about the Sumitomo's though. I usually discount Sumitomo because I had heard that the HTR Z II's were pretty crappy, but the more I read about the HTR Z II's the more I found that people had nothing but praise for them. Even the Autocross group thought that they were a great tire. Tire Rack had a comparison and put them up against the Bridgestone RE050A's and had the Sumitomo's out on top as the winner in the Dry Track times, quietness, and smoothness. The best part was these were only $116 from tire rack and had a treadwear rating of 300. I was pretty much set at this point that they would be my tires of choice.
Total shipped from Tire Rack was $520, an awesome price, I called up NTB since I knew they carried the Sumitomos as well and they would be who would be installing them once I received them (only place in town that gets to touch my rims) and i asked if they could match the price. They were running the tires for $180 a piece and couldn't match the price but if I wanted a set they would do a buy 3 get one free deal. Before tax this worked out to $540. About $20 more than tire rack and I would have to pay sales tax. This was an acceptable difference for me to get them today and installed. So the total installed came to $630, I was expecting to be under at least $800 on new tires so I am $170 up from my budget and really happy with that.
So on to the review. I will be updating this over time to give my thoughts on how they are holding up. Today is my first day with the tires so I can't speak to them much, just give first impressions really.
The Tread Pattern.
It isn't exactly what you would call sexy. My 01R's looked meaty and mean, they forced you to notice the car had some serious tire on it. The Sumitomo's just kinda look normal. Not a major problem but if you are concerned more about how your tires look than perfom, it might make a difference.
The Ride Quality
Holy Crap. These things are amazing. Far more quiet than the 01R's and no where near as rough. We have a lot of pot holes here in Leander and some times they can send a shot ringing through your spine, the Sumi's are really smoothing those out. I was surprised.
Handling.
I haven't had much experience in the section yet, the tires haven't been broken in, and like I said I drive pretty normal on the streets. I did give it a first gear punch while turning on to a pretty wide open street and immediately the back end broke loose as expected while turning but was just as quickly brought back into line. I won't really chalk that one up to the tires yet until I break them in. There is an Autocross this coming weekend and I am very tempted to go to test them out. We'll see.
Stay tuned for more details as I wear through them.
So a bit of a background, I autocross about once every two months, and I drag race at the track 1-2 times a year. I am pretty demanding on my tires and went through the 01R's in about a year. My car is also a Daily Driver, on the public streets I am a pretty domesticated driver. So I had a few requirements going into my new tire purchase.
1st. They had to grip.
2nd. They needed to last
After searching around I was pretty set on a set of Hankook Ventus V12 Evo's. Car and Driver had comparison between them and multiple other tires and they were quick. The price was good as well, Tire Rack had them for $138 a tire. The treadware rating was 280 which isn't bad and was double that of my 01R's. I started reading about the Sumitomo's though. I usually discount Sumitomo because I had heard that the HTR Z II's were pretty crappy, but the more I read about the HTR Z II's the more I found that people had nothing but praise for them. Even the Autocross group thought that they were a great tire. Tire Rack had a comparison and put them up against the Bridgestone RE050A's and had the Sumitomo's out on top as the winner in the Dry Track times, quietness, and smoothness. The best part was these were only $116 from tire rack and had a treadwear rating of 300. I was pretty much set at this point that they would be my tires of choice.
Total shipped from Tire Rack was $520, an awesome price, I called up NTB since I knew they carried the Sumitomos as well and they would be who would be installing them once I received them (only place in town that gets to touch my rims) and i asked if they could match the price. They were running the tires for $180 a piece and couldn't match the price but if I wanted a set they would do a buy 3 get one free deal. Before tax this worked out to $540. About $20 more than tire rack and I would have to pay sales tax. This was an acceptable difference for me to get them today and installed. So the total installed came to $630, I was expecting to be under at least $800 on new tires so I am $170 up from my budget and really happy with that.
So on to the review. I will be updating this over time to give my thoughts on how they are holding up. Today is my first day with the tires so I can't speak to them much, just give first impressions really.
The Tread Pattern.
It isn't exactly what you would call sexy. My 01R's looked meaty and mean, they forced you to notice the car had some serious tire on it. The Sumitomo's just kinda look normal. Not a major problem but if you are concerned more about how your tires look than perfom, it might make a difference.
The Ride Quality
Holy Crap. These things are amazing. Far more quiet than the 01R's and no where near as rough. We have a lot of pot holes here in Leander and some times they can send a shot ringing through your spine, the Sumi's are really smoothing those out. I was surprised.
Handling.
I haven't had much experience in the section yet, the tires haven't been broken in, and like I said I drive pretty normal on the streets. I did give it a first gear punch while turning on to a pretty wide open street and immediately the back end broke loose as expected while turning but was just as quickly brought back into line. I won't really chalk that one up to the tires yet until I break them in. There is an Autocross this coming weekend and I am very tempted to go to test them out. We'll see.
Stay tuned for more details as I wear through them.