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Hard to say, feel is very subjective. Let me start here; with the Yokos, highway driving was scary, they were so soft that the car would be yanked around a lot, I had a lot of white knuckling at 80-100mph. Plus they were 45's, i swear it had a lot to do with top speed issues; now that I have 50's, i think i run at 75mph at about 200 rpms lower, with much more confidence.
As far as handling in normal circumstances, some of it has also to do with the new bigger sidewall that I have. I have yet to hear any noise coming out of the Kumhos on a turn, but if the A520 were 100% on the performance scale, i give the Kuhmo 75%. That is just on cornering. Bigger sidewalls screws with gravity a bit, so does rubber that is a little harder. If I add in highway driving, I will bump that up to about 85%. Then we add in the total factor, street performace + highway performance + total driveability, I put them at equal length so far. It really feels like I have a new car.
I haven't attempted high speed turns yet with the Kumhos, but I have no fear of doing so. They have been very solid so far. The rubber doesn't feel very hard, either to the touch or in the steering wheel, I am expecting to get about 25k miles out of them. The first day I got them it was pouring, I drove 60 miles of highway at night at 80mph, they were incredible.
Those Yokos were sticky, you cut the wheel they go asap, right where you point. The tire had a square look to it, which had a lot to do with the stiff sidewall and intense cornering. The only problem is the noise, if you don't care about noise then no problem. They belong on the track though, I think. Those tires give more than necessary performance. But I still highly reccomend them over Pirelli 7000 or anything other strictly performance based tire under $130. They were only $90. Actually, I like them more than the Dunlop sp9000 too.
Conclusion: Yoko A520 45's give too much performance, its like having a 42 ft triple prop Cigarette boat on a 3 sq mile lake. When are you going to use all that? Kumho 712 50's are worth $20 a piece more than what they sell for. Yes, lost performance from the Yoko, but not really enough to notice unless you really push them. This weekend i'm going to test their limits on Long Island, so drivers beware of the swerving black C900T. I'll post a followup after the rides.
If anyone wants pics of the tires, Kumho or Yoko, let me know and i'll post.
posted by 147.4.215...
, Sat, 20 Apr 2002 11:58:12
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