Picked up the car from the tire shop this afternoon and promply put the new rubber to the test. On my 15 minute ride to a job I took the scenic route through some sparsely traveled back roads lined with woodland and eventually opening up to farmland. There are plenty of quick, tight turns along the wooland section and the Firestones handled it all without any protetst. Dry traction is suberb! Much improved over the OE Michelin Pilot HX all seasons. Very nice!
A few hours later. on my way home from the job, it was raining. THe rain was coming down hard and steady so I took the more well lit way back aling a county road to the interstate. Mostly a straight run to the interstate but when I approached the nearly 90 degree turn for the on ramp I couldn't resist and went way wide in hard (sounds sort of x-rated, don't it). The car stayed on track without the slightest loss of traction. In fact, that may just be the fastest I've ever taken that on ramp! Suffice is to say, I'm impressed!
They is a bit of road noise transmitted into the cabin but I expected that (the Micheline were almost silent). Ride firmness seems about the same. They also have a very stout sidewall with a ring that extends outward from the tire which I'm guessing is for rim protection?
Now the sad part.....something I also noticed within a couple hundred feet of pulling out from the tire shop was that the car is pulling to the right and fairly hard. The more I drove it, the more I noticed t to the point where I quickly called the shop. When I dropped it off last night it tracked straight and true! As luck would have it, it was 5:50 pm and they close at 6:00 but he offered to switch things around to see if it was possibly a bad tire. Aside from switching tires around he couldn't do anything until the morning so he offered to let me in 30 minutes before they open at 8:00 am to check it out completely. Since I have to be at Pocono Raceway at 7:30 am it will have to wait. Mostly I just wanted to tell him about it before I went to the track so he couldn't say that something was damaged while I was out there.
So my enthusiasm over the new tires and my first track day event is tempered knowing that the car will not be at its best and I'll be feeling and fighting that pull to the right all darn day.
A few hours later. on my way home from the job, it was raining. THe rain was coming down hard and steady so I took the more well lit way back aling a county road to the interstate. Mostly a straight run to the interstate but when I approached the nearly 90 degree turn for the on ramp I couldn't resist and went way wide in hard (sounds sort of x-rated, don't it). The car stayed on track without the slightest loss of traction. In fact, that may just be the fastest I've ever taken that on ramp! Suffice is to say, I'm impressed!
They is a bit of road noise transmitted into the cabin but I expected that (the Micheline were almost silent). Ride firmness seems about the same. They also have a very stout sidewall with a ring that extends outward from the tire which I'm guessing is for rim protection?
Now the sad part.....something I also noticed within a couple hundred feet of pulling out from the tire shop was that the car is pulling to the right and fairly hard. The more I drove it, the more I noticed t to the point where I quickly called the shop. When I dropped it off last night it tracked straight and true! As luck would have it, it was 5:50 pm and they close at 6:00 but he offered to switch things around to see if it was possibly a bad tire. Aside from switching tires around he couldn't do anything until the morning so he offered to let me in 30 minutes before they open at 8:00 am to check it out completely. Since I have to be at Pocono Raceway at 7:30 am it will have to wait. Mostly I just wanted to tell him about it before I went to the track so he couldn't say that something was damaged while I was out there.
So my enthusiasm over the new tires and my first track day event is tempered knowing that the car will not be at its best and I'll be feeling and fighting that pull to the right all darn day.
