Given
50%
while driving a
BMW E39 5 series
(235/45 R17) on
a combination of roads
for 2,000
spirited miles
The tires were already fitted on the front wheels when I bought the car and were only a couple of thousand miles old. My initial impression was reasonable for a budget tire and found the grip level to be pretty good. And then it rained. At which point the car became almost un-drivable with zero feedback and no warning that they were going to lose traction.
I had a trackday booked and didn't have chance to get new tires beforehand, but luckily the trackday was bone dry, so I set out to destroy the tires. Apart from considerable understeer, they performed admirably well. In the dry they gave good feedback and were progressive in their understeer, not bad for a fairly big, heavy car. They even wore well on track, so I couldn't kill them and took them off today to replace them with another brand that would let me drive safely on road over winter. As the tires still have 5mm of tread left I've put them at the back of the garage and may even re-fit them next summer to do motorway miles on......we'll see.