good day ladies and gentleman,

Now I’m sure this will get a multitude of different answers but here goes!!

Two weeks into the ownership of a VRs challenge estate and I need some new tyres ( Pirelli’s on the front with Good tread Falkens on the rear with so so tread !!) I’m of the thought of sticking the Pirelli’s on the back and stick some new tyres on the front your thoughts would be appreciated and I know I will get a multitude of different answers !!!!

Cheers

That's what I've always done with FWD cars, the best tread and grip always to the front... Much better to go off backwards than forwards - less damage 😄

Following on from my earlier post …I omitted to say what make of tyres would people fit !!!! 19 inch fitment!!

Cheers Again !

I've put Avon's on both my current Octavia and previous Superb and they both perform pretty well. I do get some wheel spin from the fronts on hard acceleration on the Vrs(but no worse than the Pirelli's previously fitted ).

The only correct answer, if you’re concerned about handling and performance, is the Michelin Pilot Sport 5.

Pilot Sport 4 don’t wear very well, and Pilot Sport 4S/S5 are totally overkill. Conti Premium Contact/Sport Contact are very good too - on par with the Pilot Sport series. I haven’t had good experiences with Pirelli - rather poor IMO. Bridgestone have been equally poor. Goodyear Eagle F1/Asy 6 have had good reviews, along with the budget Uniroyal Rainsport 5.

They aren’t the cheapest in 225/35R19. Maybe consider going up to 235/35R19 - they’re more common, so are cheaper.

Similarly, there is only one correct answer for where to fit new tyres. Regardless of the drive type, new tyres should always go on the rear. Why? Understeer is correctable - oversteer, often, is not.

Just get some Michelin, I put e-primacy as the dealer had them on promotion lasted about 50000 miles, tried Goodyear Eagle F1's as there was a set on when I got the car and had been on for ages, they only lasted about 20000 miles, currently have primacy 4's on and they're lasting similar to the e-primacy. All tyres felt great and I can see why they're highly rated.

Michelin ps4 or goodyear eagles

6

I have eagles as summer tyres and Michelin Alpins as winter.

Even though the goodyears are excellent and have good lifespans (put 60k on my 3 before installing the 6) I find the Alpins to have better handeling. Sonif the winter tyres are that good, imagin the ps4 should be excellent

@presidentpackage saw you reacted with a groan - want to elaborate?

On 30/01/2026 at 19:07, OccyVRS said:

Similarly, there is only one correct answer for where to fit new tyres. Regardless of the drive type, new tyres should always go on the rear. Why? Understeer is correctable - oversteer, often, is not.

I strongly disagree. From my 40 years involvement in rallying, both stage and road events, it's almost impossible to correct understeer - once you have lost traction at the front you just go off forwards. Oversteer is easy to correct - you just steer into the skid. New tyres always on the front.

Back to the topic of tyre choice, I had a nasty experience last night on one of the awful B roads in Kent. Coming back from Ashford after collecting a newly rebuilt wire wheel for my 1937 Morris 8, we hit a hidden trench in the road caused by the incessant rain. We hit it hard enough for the car to jump in the air so I stopped to check the front to make sure the wheel was still intact. Not only was the wheel still intact, the tyre also looks to be undamaged even in daylight this morning. They are KUMHO Ecsta PS71 R18 Y (92) and have a decent rim protecting "flange". They have only been on the car for 4 weeks after having the front wheels refurbished so I can't give much info about performance but in the heavy rain with standing water yesterday they seemed to perform well. People may reject tyres from the far east but both KUMHO and Hankook make excellent competition tyres for motorsport and have been "control" tyres in many formats.

On 27/01/2026 at 12:11, Redjeff said:

Two weeks into the ownership of a VRs challenge estate and I need some new tyres

Rule 1 with Octavia's - get a wheel alignment done - especially with any new tyres. Try and find a reputable person who knows how to drive a Hunter 4 wheel alignment and get the tracking sorted first - especially if you are on new tyres. Octavia's/Golfs - easy throw their steering out.

On 06/02/2026 at 10:13, SwallownAmazon said:

I strongly disagree. From my 40 years involvement in rallying, both stage and road events, it's almost impossible to correct understeer - once you have lost traction at the front you just go off forwards. Oversteer is easy to correct - you just steer into the skid. New tyres always on the front.

Back to the topic of tyre choice, I had a nasty experience last night on one of the awful B roads in Kent. Coming back from Ashford after collecting a newly rebuilt wire wheel for my 1937 Morris 8, we hit a hidden trench in the road caused by the incessant rain. We hit it hard enough for the car to jump in the air so I stopped to check the front to make sure the wheel was still intact. Not only was the wheel still intact, the tyre also looks to be undamaged even in daylight this morning. They are KUMHO Ecsta PS71 R18 Y (92) and have a decent rim protecting "flange". They have only been on the car for 4 weeks after having the front wheels refurbished so I can't give much info about performance but in the heavy rain with standing water yesterday they seemed to perform well. People may reject tyres from the far east but both KUMHO and Hankook make excellent competition tyres for motorsport and have been "control" tyres in many formats.

I still think that’s incorrect. In a rallying or racing scenario, with an experienced driver, what you’re saying may be true - but for the average Joe, I think understeer is an easier correction. After all, there’s a reason insurance on the M140i is so high.

If you’re on a roundabout and begin to understeer, you can ease off the accelerator, tap the brake to bring the weight forward, or ease off the steering. If it’s oversteering, you have far less time to react. The vRS in particular, with its front diff, has a tendency to snap oversteer - or, at least mine does. It requires a pretty quick and sharp reaction. Equally, having lost the rear end on a Porsche GT4, I really don’t think oversteer is easy to correct - that little mistake sent me into the gravel.

On 06/02/2026 at 16:10, varaderoguy said:

Rule 1 with Octavia's - get a wheel alignment done - especially with any new tyres. Try and find a reputable person who knows how to drive a Hunter 4 wheel alignment and get the tracking sorted first - especially if you are on new tyres. Octavia's/Golfs - easy throw their steering out.

+1 for this. I get my car done every six months at a minimum, especially on these roads. My Octavia has an issue with the NSF caster - we’ve taken the car apart and can’t find an issue with any component… clearly just one of those things.

My Pilot Sport 5s have got around 12,000 miles on them and still have a little life in the fronts - quite impressive for a UHP summer tyre paired with my right foot.

FWIW, it doesn’t have to be a Hunter machine - the guy I used to use in Southampton used some machine I’d never heard of, but did a damn good job. As above though, the operator matters far more than the machine itself.

I guess we'll just have to differ then - I know which I prefer. 🤝

A GT4 is a bit like a pendulum with all that weight at the back - once that's lost traction it must be a bit of a bu**er to try and hold it. 😨 A the late Frank Gardner once said "Smell it? I was sitting in it" 😁

6 minutes ago, SwallownAmazon said:

I guess we'll just have to differ then - I know which I prefer. 🤝

I spent several years working for a well known sports car manufacturer who used to hold customer and press days on their private test track.

It was very revealing watching how "Joe & Joanne Public" coped with both oversteer and understeer - in most cases oversteer led to a spin (in a few extreme cases a visit to the greenery), but understeer was in the vast majority of cases dealt without any drama after a lift of the throttle and staying on track.

This, I believe, clearly shows once again that for a road car driven by a "normal" driver understeer is far safer than oversteer as "normal" drivers can deal with it far more easily and intuitively - hence the normal advice when having 2 new tyres is to fit them on the rear.

Thanks for all of your replies, it made interesting reading ! And after hitting a pothole on the A40 a week ago two new tyres have been acquired ( one, hopefully paid for by Oxfordshire county council !!!!) after some research I went for the hankook S1 evo 3s !!!

On 11/02/2026 at 10:32, SwallownAmazon said:

I guess we'll just have to differ then - I know which I prefer. 🤝

A GT4 is a bit like a pendulum with all that weight at the back - once that's lost traction it must be a bit of a bu**er to try and hold it. 😨 A the late Frank Gardner once said "Smell it? I was sitting in it" 😁

The weight distribution on a GT4 is something like 40/60 - pretty damn perfect for a RWD car. To be honest, I didn't have the skill to hold it then, and I doubt I do now.

I remember being amazed at how well it was sticking to the track, right up until the moment it spat me off. There wasn't any warning either - no change in steering feel, nothing! Mind you, this car was/is track prepped - it's actually a GT4 MR, made by Manthey Racing. You can read about it here. It may not be the headline grabbing GT3 RS, but it is a bit of kit!

On 11/02/2026 at 10:46, PetrolDave said:

I spent several years working for a well known sports car manufacturer who used to hold customer and press days on their private test track.

It was very revealing watching how "Joe & Joanne Public" coped with both oversteer and understeer - in most cases oversteer led to a spin (in a few extreme cases a visit to the greenery), but understeer was in the vast majority of cases dealt without any drama after a lift of the throttle and staying on track.

This, I believe, clearly shows once again that for a road car driven by a "normal" driver understeer is far safer than oversteer as "normal" drivers can deal with it far more easily and intuitively - hence the normal advice when having 2 new tyres is to fit them on the rear.

I completely agree - this is the point I was trying to make. While it may be different for professional drivers on a track, for the average person, or indeed on anyone on an average UK road, I believe understeer poses a much lower risk than oversteer.

The most common reaction to oversteer is to brake - something that doesn't quite work, especially in a RWD car. I believe you're meant to counter-steer and gently lift off/apply power. Even if it does work though, I've seen many people recover one slide, only to lose it when the car kicks back the other way (tank-slapper sort of thing, you know what I mean). For me, I instincitvely counter-steered (I was very impressed), lifted off the throttle (again, very impressed) before very rapidly discovering I'd over-corrected and gone straight off.

I was particularly suprised (read sha* up) when I encountered the oversteer in my vRS. I hadn't been driving for more than a few years, and I was quite suprised to find I'd lost the rear on my FWD car. It's not a difficult thing to recover from, mind - almost all the times it's happended have been on rough surfaces/unsettled roads.