Given
100%
while driving a
BMW E38 7 Series
(225/45 R17) on
a combination of roads
for 5,700
spirited miles
I am a professional driver, with over 1,7 Million Miles of driving experience primarily in heavy, powerful rear wheel drive vehicles, such as the Mercedes S430, BMW 740i Euro, BMW 540i, and most notably the BMW M5.
During my driving experience, I have learned several things about tires, which I could share with you.
a)I am a very, very demanding driver - I am able to discern a difference in ‘cut in’ during a high powered turn instantly
b)I can usually tell, knock on wood, exactly where the breaking point is when a tire is just about to lose grip from the asphalt during high powered activities
c)I can very well tell the difference between tires, and I don’t “forget†what tires feel like, I still to this day remember the characteristics of one of my favorite tires ever, the Potenza S03 which is now unfortunately out of production.
Recently I was faced, once again, with the “tire purchase dilemma†- last year I went through the same thing, and purchased the highly recommended “Dunlop Sport SP9000â€, in 235/50/18 + 255/45/18 for my BMW 740i. I was extremely disappointed, as I had just removed a set of worn out Continental ContiSport Contacts (original), and the difference was absolutely shocking. On the same exact route I took to the tire shop, and back, I noticed that in order to turn the vehicle at speed, 2-3 degrees more of turn on the steering wheel were required to accomplish the same turn I did hours earlier. I initially chalked it up to break in period, but, it never got better. I ended up wearing the tires out, and most definitely it was an uninspiring, slow, and rather unpleasant driving “year†for me.
After this, having lost all memory of the car’s performance and handling capabilities, I reverted back to the 16†235/60/16 16x8†wheels, and put a new set of Continental Premium Contact 2 tires on them. Review on this, 5/5, for a 235/60/16 tire, you can’t get any better than this. This is a better tire by far than the previous top contender, the Michelin Pilot 235/60/16 100W, and it’s also much better than the Pirelli P6000 100W, which I might add is a horrible tire in the dry, way too much screeching and not enough grip. Shameful.
A few months later, summer comes around, and I was looking at my 18†wheels which are idle in the garage, and decided to get some tires on them to enjoy the 18†wheels over the summer. I was faced with the following choices:
*Michelin Pilot Sport - discontinued
*Michelin Pilot Sport A/S- horrible reviews
*Goodyear Eagle F1 - done that in the past, WAY too much noise, and MUCH too poor grip
*Bridgestone Potenza S03 - probably the best tire I’ve ever owned, unfortunately discontinued now, so this is out of the question
*Continental ContiSport Contact 2, sure a good choice, and probably would have been excellent due to it’s straight-line tread rather than these silly angled designs, but I skipped over this due to cost
*Dunlop - forget it - see above (if you want to have any semblance of straight tracking, forget about the SP9000)
*Nokian Z G2 - as soon as I saw this tire, I liked it - the straight tread pattern, the solid sidewall, and the high load capacity rating, not to mention the dozens of reviews of people using these tires on M5’s and other powerful cars - made me put this on the top list
A week later, after literally flipping a coin between the ContiSport Contact 2, and the Nokian - I chose the Nokian Z G2.
These are solid tires, with a very firm sidewall, and most definitely give a “solid†feel from the first glance.
Fast Forward:
*Tires mounted on car
*Car driven so far 5700KM
*I immediately realized what I had been missing all these years, with the horrible Dunlop and Goodyear “NAME BRAND†tires I’ve been running
Pros:
*Cut in during turns - EXCELLENT, BEST EVER, maybe even BETTER than the legendary S03 Potenza
*Stopping response while straight and/or turning - EXCELLENT 10/10
*Road Noise - 8/10 - you can definitely hear them - but it’s nothing like the roar of the Goodyear Eagle F1’s I had (asymmetric)
*Starting traction - my car is heavily modified with 340 RWHP - it’s very easy to break the tires loose especially on a 1st gear start, and during 1-2 shifts (3.15 LSD rear)
Guess what - these tires are the STICKIEST, tires I have __EVER__ used, even with 340 RWHP I can’t get more than a chirp out of the right rear tire, and the 1-2 shift / 2-3 shift rear-end-sliding-around is gone. (that was fun, but it’s unsafe esp. if it happens and you’re not expecting it)
THEREFORE:
If you’re one of those guys, like me, that likes to drive hard, solid, and you’re not one of these guys that “has to show off†that he got the EAGLE F1 or the PIRELLI ... give these tires a shot.
You absolutely can’t go wrong. After all, I love these tires so much that I spent the money to buy this domain, and the hosting, just to tell you and save you money and SUFFERING from buying some horrible Dunlop SP9000 like I did last year.
NOKIAN Z G2
My rating: 10/10
Cost: 70% of Dunlop cost
Performance: 300% better than everything else (except again, Potenza S03, but that’s discontinued ;)
235/50/18
255/45/18
BMW 2001 740i Sport 6 speed Euro spec