New tyres? I thought I had a new car when i drove home yesterday.

 

I have previously posted that i was looking to improve the refinement on my MK2 VRS as although I love it dearly since taking it home i have been a little dissapointed at the amount of noise that leaks into the interior during driving and the crasy ride.

 

To anyone that can find something of the above in their own VRS, I can wholeheartedly suggest taking a look at the tyres you are running on.

 

I have until yesterday been running Hankook Ventus V12 Evo's 205/40/17's a tyre that on paper has decent ratings for fuel economy, wet grip and rated to 70db.  Most tyre companies class them somewhere between mid and premium range.  I have run the car 5-6k on these and they did leave the car in less than optimum condition with legal depth through the centre of the tread but heavily worn inner and outer edge, inner particularly bad.  The grip wet and dry I found was adequate, soft tyre walls made the steering feel a little sloppy and seemingly no added ride comfort which I had chalked up mostly to suspension. 

 

Yesterday Event Tyres came out and shod the Furby with a new set of fronts 205/40/17 Vredestein Ultrac Cento chosen on the strength of good wet grip rating, decent reviews and most importantly they come in at 67db noise rating -3db against the Hankook's 70db, in theory I understood this to mean a 50% noise reduction.

 

I am no tyre aficionado, I am no engineer, I have no degree in acoustics, I have only been frequenting Brisky for a few month so all my comments can be considered to be my own opinion and that's pretty much it as I'm not qualified to call it much else.....but boy what a difference.  The tyres are brand spanking new and not even run in but i am completely sold, for the following reasons:

 

-Road noise has been reduced dramatically with just a change of the fronts

-These tyres clearly have stiffer tyre walls as at the same pressure they seem to "stand up" better than the Hankooks, improving appearance as they don't look flat and lifting the alloys from their previously perilous proximtiy to the road.  Plus the rim protection on them is more pronounced looking after the alloys better Hopefully.

- Grip is good but haven't tried to take to the limit as not run in (not sure if this is correct, but safety first : ) , I feel confident they will stand up to spirited driving.

- Ride is markedly improved, the Hankooks used to make modest potholes feel like the tyre was bottoming out and the alloy was smashing the tarmac, the Vred's are firm but give more of a feel of slightly uprated springs rather than catastrophic crashing.

- The coming together of all of this makes the car feel more refined in the good way, Engine noise in the cabin is more audible in a nice way, suddenly air con on mid-ful sounds intrusive.

 

The only negative I can think of in the first 24 hours is that the tread pattern isn't as attractive as it's big brother the Sessanta being an old school radial.

 

Now I'm not a complete mug, moving from heavily worn tyres to new will give improvements no doubt but given that I still have newly rebalanced Hankooks on the rear with 6 mil tread and completely even wear I can noticeably hear that the majority of tyre roar is now to the back of the car and on the motorway the rear tyres make more noise riding over cats eyes than the front I am left with a couple of conclusions:

 

Either my Hankooks were/are pretty dire

 

The Vredesteins are a mighty impressive tyre

 

bit of both and some of the above.......but I'm well chuffed so don't care : )

 

I will update after a few more miles but currently if anyone was considering a new set of tyres at a shade over £90.00 a corner fitted I would certainly give the Ultrac Cento's a consideration.

Nice review,

I believe they have a higher load and speed rating than what is normally fitted , when you fit tyres like that they do often offer advantages,

not always all pluses but its good to hear ones that behave well & do not cost much.

 

Did you measure side by side with the old tyres to check even if they have the same numbers, 205/40R 17, 

just to see if the ones now on have a bit more sidewall and total diameter than the old ones,

or  compared to what is on the rear and not worn ?

 

george

I am running these on my Rapid.

OK, it doesn't have VRS performance but it now has a lot more grip in the corners over whatever Skoda fitted.

You are fitting uprated springs etc, in the near future,I think?

The excessive edge wear on your old tyres suggests hard cornering with excess body roll which lower/ harder springs and or roll bars should sort.

If there is more wear on the inside edge of the tyre than the outside this also suggests a tracking issue.

You are fitting uprated springs etc, in the near future,I think?

The excessive edge wear on your old tyres suggests hard cornering with excess body roll which lower/ harder springs and or roll bars should sort.

If there is more wear on the inside edge of the tyre than the outside this also suggests a tracking issue.

Indeedy I have a few plans. You've probably seen the H&R group buy, at the very least I'm taking the RARB, maybe springs as well. I say maybe because I'm torn between just springs or the full B12 kit with dampers. As and when I get my hands on these improvements, which will hopefully be soon I will have them fitted and at the same time have a full laser alignment done. Knowing this was coming up was why I was happy enough to get Event to do the tyres, otherwise I would have gone somewhere that offered alignment.

The Hankook's looked very sorry for themselves when they came off the car.

What pressure have you set them at?

 

& have your re-set the TPMS?

 

george

What pressure have you set them at?

 

& have your re-set the TPMS?

 

george

Haha great minds, just been to lunch to check these and have now set them as per the fuel filler flap recommends, not the different pressure each corner that my tyre fitter elected, mostly low. Shame on me for assuming they would have been set right.

Now if anything even quieter still, but perhaps a little stiffer ride.

Any chance of pics with them on the car.

Will try and get a snap of them at some point when the car is clean

I bought those exact Hankooks for £90 a corner because they looked good on paper and have done about 3000 miles in them so far. I love them! With my old Pirelli's that first came on the car, they were noticeably louder on the motorway and I always had to turn the music up a couple notches, and I straight away saw an improvement in MPG.

But great review, and I'll see how the Hankooks do then maybe give the Vredesteins a go next time!

I am certain that simply having fresh rubber on the fronts, coming from some fairly well worn Hankook's has made a good bit of the difference and replacing like for like would have improved on how the car felt. I also don't have an exact like for like comparison to offer as I haven't run a set of the Hankook's from fresh.

With around 100 miles done now on the tyres I am still very impressed at the low levels of roar and great dry grip, what I would say is that on correct pressure they are noticeably stiffer than the Hankook's so the car feels a touch firmer in all respects, not necessarily a negative as I still think the car overall rides better but something to consider.

Now that I have had the chance to trial these tyre in some really grotty wet conditions, I can confirm that they have absolutely stonking wet grip. :love:

 

That is all.