no i mean i cant see how that tread pattern can be good cornering on a water covered road, not i don't think its pretty

Isn't tread design a load of rubbish anyway? My spare's a Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta. For a start it was designed by Giugiaro (what the heck do they know about tyres?), which kind of proves my suspicion that it's more about looks than engineering. This is the tyre...

http://www.vredestein.co.uk/car-tyres/summer/ultrac-sessanta/info/

The waffle about the design sums it up really.

It's not directional. Looking at it, whichever direction it rolls, it looks like the water gets pushed into a dead end, which makes no sense. But it works, very well.

Personally, I think all that's needed are grooves every so often to allow the water to squeeze out of the way of the rubber lumps. I don't think it matters what shape or direction the grooves are. If you had a square grid it would work as well as chevrons or circles or anything.

i like tread like this
^
^
^
so water get pushed from in side to out side, toyo t1r are vey good corning in the wet and they have that sort of tread, uniroyal rainsport 2 have some thing like it too. the Achilles ATR Sport are sort of like it but with gaps.

looks like i'm going to have to sell more stuff before getting tyres now as heating oil is running out and i have to buy more of that,

SYRON RACE 1

some may be intrested in the test results http://www.tyretraders.com/Syron.aspx

I've found mixed results on the net for these, but it would be interesting to see how they perform on our Croma's. Unfortunately they aren't very competitively priced in my 19" size.
I didn't think the tread pattern was up your street Dave....

its not, i posted for others

Some V-tread tyres you might like Dave...



Sorry, couldn't resist

4x Accelera PHIs (225/45/18 95Y) fitted this evening - cheers for the link Doofer.

£55 each plus delivery and Queens Park Tyres (Billericay) fitted the 4 for £30

Will post how they behave longer term, but already noticably miles quieter than the rubbish that was on there before - mind you, a 91W and 3x 95Ws couldn't have helped

dave said:

ive only got space saver,

what do people think of Avon ZZ3 225/45 R18 95Y?

Click to expand...

I had 17's on my Marea and when it was time to replace the tyres I fitted a nice new pair of Avon ZZ3's (fitted at ATS through Tyreshopper) and the difference was amazing! It was like I had replaced the suspension too. Superb grip in all conditions. The only downside was I think they wore quite quickly.

I had Phi's already fitted to my Croma and I was very happy with them. I tried another cheap brand when two needed replacing (sorry can't remember the make) and the hum was awful! It sounded like a wheel bearing had gone. The Phi's seem to have the best reputation of the budget brands. My local tyre place recommended them to me recently, for my 19's, even though they don't even stock them!

To add another dimension to the mix - when I changed from 18" 45 series budget tyres to 19" 35 series Dunlop Sport maxx, the ride didn't seem any more harsh, in fact I think it actually rides better! I am assuming that this is down to the quality of the rubber, but that's just my opinion.

well thanks to euro pit not knowing how to use their alignment machine my Achilles ATR Sport are now all dead from inner wear, was fine before i get 4 wheel alignment at europit after refitting standard springs.

so mrs dave has bought me a set of uniroyal rainsport3 for my birthday, been running them on her punto for a year and was pleased with them so lets see how they are on a big car.
will be going back to elite for alignment from now on