Question: Looking at new tires

[fitsgld1]

Just a short question,Can anyone help me I am going to purchase new tires for my 85 coupe and i'm looking at the goodyear G-FORCE any advice good or bad would help. Thank-You as I am kind of new to this site , I know this is the place to ask.

 

[vett boy]

Welcome .I've had some interesting reading and reviews off "Tire Rack"

Good luck

 

[air1jpg]

I bought Kumho ASX tires for my 96 early this year. If you do a search on this forum, you will find Kumho tires are recomended by many members. I have not had any problem with the tires, they are quiet and responsive. I think they are the best tire for the money I paid for them.

 

[boomdriver]

Just a short question,Can anyone help me I am going to purchase new tires for my 85 coupe and i'm looking at the goodyear G-FORCE any advice good or bad would help. Thank-You as I am kind of new to this site , I know this is the place to ask.

If you have the stock 16" wheels,. 9 or 9.5" you will find VERY FEW choices these days.
I searched tire-rack and every other web site, every tire dealer within 50 miles and found 2 choices.
I forget what the 2nd was but it was eliminated due to having to wait for 2 tires to be shipped in....

I bought the BF Goodrich G-force tires mostly because thats what was available. As it turns out they are a VERY good tire! Not the cheap POS that I was worried about. The car sticks to the road, they are pretty quiet, and have a decent appearence. I have not had opportunity to spend much time driving them in the rain, but what little I did had no issues with grip and no hydro-plane. Stopping grip is as good as ever.

In short, I would buy them again, regardless of what else was available.

10 days after that purchase...I saw a set of 17" sawblades for sale and grabbed those up. So I now have a set of G-force tire (very low miles) mounted on 16" stock vette wheels for sale. The 17" wheel has countless tire choices and tires that cost no more than the almost impossible to find 16". For $800 you can have mine...wheels & tires, balanced and ready to roll. I want to mount the saw-blades, but not until the 16" are sold.

 

[fitsgld1]

Boomdriver Thanks for the response ,but I'll have to take a pass.I'm going to look at the tires tommorrow,and since your southwest and i'm upper midwest i'm just going the easy way but your reply makes me feel better about the tires.The old ones are 11 yrs old and look great but to uncertain. Thanks Again

 

[Baldie88]

Heard a lot of good things about Kumho so I put a set of ASX tires on my 88 and couldn't be happier.

Ron
"Baldie88"

 

[Curious George]

Tiresavings.com is also a good site and they have tires that TireRack does not carry.

CG

 

[Bob88vette]

I had Kumhos on my 88 before and liked them so much I bought a set for my motorhome. Really great tires for the price.

 

[Rogue]

Kumho on a Corvette?

Just joking....I just like to have the purity of putting American brand tires on a purely American icon. It's kind of like buying an American Flag and seeing the "Made In China" label! Believe it or not, that happened in WalMart! Damn Walmart!

But yeah, a lot of people really like their Kumho's and that's good.

 

[buzcut]

G-Force

The G/force are sticking real good. Stopped by the warehouse in South Bend, picked up a set at a very reasonable price and have been real happy with them.

 

[fitsgld1]

Buzcut ; Thanks for the reply I'm finding out the same thing took the car on a weekend trip and it ran perfect,so now I'm happy with the tires and what I paid for them enjoy your car ,and thanks again. This is a great website.

 

[boomdriver]

what most people forget is that in 88 all vettes went to 17" wheels...so their choices are many..Everybody makes a wide 17" tire. Probably 9 different styles at each mfg. Not for the 16... No Goodyears(OEM for 84-87 16") no Michelins,Toyos, and I don't think there is a Kuhmo 16 either..Sumitomo, but nobody stocks it. Back in the early 90's I bought a set of Toyos....and the club members that saw those gave me all kinds of grief...made in the USA kinda stuff.

87 and under are all 16" and there are only a 1/2 doz tire mfg that still make the wide 255/50 profile. Most eliminated it because like many other things, that size was "corvette only". The camero , firebird and a few others use a 245/50/16 and those are available but they are too skinny for the 9.5" vette wheel. So local options for the 16" rim almost force you to BFG and thankfully the G-Force is a very good tire.

 

[Curious George]

what most people forget is that in 88 all vettes went to 17" wheels...so their choices are many..Everybody makes a wide 17" tire. Probably 9 different styles at each mfg. Not for the 16... No Goodyears(OEM for 84-87 16") no Michelins,Toyos, and I don't think there is a Kuhmo 16 either..Sumitomo, but nobody stocks it. Back in the early 90's I bought a set of Toyos....and the club members that saw those gave me all kinds of grief...made in the USA kinda stuff.

87 and under are all 16" and there are only a 1/2 doz tire mfg that still make the wide 255/50 profile. Most eliminated it because like many other things, that size was "corvette only". The camero , firebird and a few others use a 245/50/16 and those are available but they are too skinny for the 9.5" vette wheel. So local options for the 16" rim almost force you to BFG and thankfully the G-Force is a very good tire.

I have Toyo's on my '99 C5 with '01 Z06 wheels. The Proxes T1R's are a Goodyear GS-D3 knock-off, but they seem to be an excellent tire for the money. I am all for buying American products, but when you feel like you are getting raped, it is not worth it, especially if the product is not that great. Contrary to popular belief, not all American products are great.

CG

 

[John Robinson]

Kumho on a Corvette?

Just joking....I just like to have the purity of putting American brand tires on a purely American icon.


I see you have the original saw blades on your car. You might be surprised if you were to take one off and look inside the rim you would find that they were made in Japan. And while you have the wheel off look at the calipers they were made in Austria. and the ASR came from Germany. Also if my memory serves me right GM had Lotus in England do most of the suspension design on the C4.

As for the tires I also am running the second set of Kumho's on my C4.

 

[MBDiagMan]

Quite often I see folks focusing on tire BRAND instead of tire specs for the application.

The first information you should offer when asking for tire recommendations, is what you will be doing with the tires and what your goals are.

The best tire for street and highway cruising, looking for long tire life and an economical price will be a TOTALLY different tire than you would want for spirited driving or racing with no consideration for cost.

SO, what are you looking for in a tire? Long treadlife? Economical price? Maximum cornering ability? Best wet weather traction?........

 

[fitsgld1]

Once again I can't thank everyone enough for their replies I have purchased the BF Goodrich G-Force for my ride, and since doing so I have driven `a long highway trip which introduced the new tires to high heat,rain,cornering and quick acceleration. And so far the tires have performed very well. I am looking forward to a long safe ,fun ,summer now.Thanks Again and like I said before this web site has some great helpful people out there.I am sure to have many more questions.

 

[boomdriver]

I have Toyo's on my '99 C5 with '01 Z06 wheels. The Proxes T1R's are a Goodyear GS-D3 knock-off, but they seem to be an excellent tire for the money. I am all for buying American products, but when you feel like you are getting raped, it is not worth it, especially if the product is not that great. Contrary to popular belief, not all American products are great.

CG

CG,
I enjoyed my toyos when I had those,...My all time favorite was the Michelin...get this----> 315/45/16

The tire on the back looked like the flintstones car...otfl They were so wide that they almost met in the middle :~)

The goodyear clones I just took off were the longest lasting tire I have ever seen. J&D Corvette bought a trailer full and sold them cheap..$45 each, so I grabbed 2 sets. That lasted me from 1998 to 2010...dry rot was the enemy,. tires still had tread left.

Soon as I can find a new home for the new BFG & wheels that I have, I'll; be refinishing my new(to me) sawblades and mounting those with some nice profile tire...

New 16" BFG with wheels.....

Anybody???

 

[onedef92]

I bought a set of Sumitomo HTR Z II's this past Spring from The Tire Rack and have been happy with them, too.

 

[fitsgld1]

New tires

I bought a set of Sumitomo HTR Z II's this past Spring from The Tire Rack and have been happy with them, too.

I AM VERY HAPPY WITH THE B.F. GOODRICH G-FORCE TIRES I've had the car out under many different conditions since i bought these tires ,and they seem to perform very well. THANKS FOR YOUR UPDATE. And good luck with yours.

 

[1991-C4]

I also have gForce Super Sports on my '91 and swear by them more than at them! The hardest part to believe is that the best price I found was.... at my local Chevy dealer! Of course, it helped that I also got a $50 Goodwrench debit card to make the deal a little sweeter.