New tire for our cars! 245/55/18's !

[FormulaMarauder]

Updated pics, page 5
If this is old news, I sure haven't heard about it yet.

The 2010 Camaro sports this size, they are a new tire, new compound, and LOW price. Just ordered a set, I'll give you the rundown in a week or so.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=BFGoodrich&tireModel=Radial+T%2FA&partnum=455TR8RADTA2&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes

[offroadkarter]

did you notice the speed rating is lower than our factory tires?

OEM = Z = 149+MPH

Those = T= 124mph

[Georges93LX]

did you notice the speed rating is lower than our factory tires?

OEM = Z = 149+MPH

Those = T= 124mph

Show me anywhere in the US where someone drives at either of those speeds on a regular basis.

[Blk Mamba]

The weight rating is also lower.

[Aren Jay]

Or for the Marauder having a speed limiter that prevents going over 124mph anyway.
Although T rating is 118 MPH not 124.
The W rating for 168 MPH is for show on our tires.

The weight rating makes little difference as our Marauders will never weigh enough to exceed the 103 rating, that is the same rating they use on the W12 Phaeton which weighs in at 5600lbs, empty.

Then again Snow tires are all rated > or = to T ratings.

A 91 or 92 rating may cause a problem for a Marauder but only under extreme load levels.

[FormulaMarauder]

Speed ratings are rated for extended periods of time, i.e. 30 miles at that speed.

[burt ragio]

Sounds lik a nice tire. Let us know what you think of them should you make the purchase.

[Master]

Not for me. Way too small for a Marauder with mods. Thanks for the tip, though.

[Krytin]

The W rating for 168 MPH is for show on our tires.



Hey speak for yourself - I've pushed the needle past the "140" more than once!
:D
But you're right - most people never will (never have a safe place to try).
:shake:

[joemama]

I've done 124 in third...:D

[FormulaMarauder]

Not for me. Way too small for a Marauder with mods. Thanks for the tip, though.

For street use I'm sure they are more than fine. I'm putting together a race set which is comprised of widened stockers and MT's.

[marauderray]

praise the lord... i was looking for tires with no luck. i'm glad i check this post out. thanks

[SideshowBob]

And if the new Camaro is successful, other tire manufacturers will start offering this size tire and then we'll actually have a choice in what tire we run!

[Kennyrauder]

I bought a set of Nitto 420's for my Marauder & they hook up very nicely. We get hosed in Canada on price though. Good Luck on the camaro tires. Kenny

[logix7]

the speed rating also isnt just "Speed". Have you ever physically felt the differnce in a T or a V rated tire. The sidewalls/construction are much stiffer with the higher speed ratings.

Going to a lower speed rating will change your handling

[FormulaMarauder]

You won't be able to feel the difference between a T and a V rating.

[rayjay]

This has been around for a while now. These are the tires for the V6 Camaro. Let us know how you like em. Probably be able to do good burn outs.

[babbage]

did you notice the speed rating is lower than our factory tires?

OEM = Z = 149+MPH

Those = T= 124mph


T= 118 Mph
OEM = W = 168 Mph

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Edit. Tire rack's picture of the tread is incorrect for the 18" tires. At first I was like, no way, they are using the 40 year old W tread block pattern on an 18" tire? I have run a bunch of 15" radial TA's and they are fine for sloppy handling old cars but they are a very noisy tire. But I looked at a pic on ebay of the 245/55/18 radial TA and it is a completely different tread pattern

http://i12.ebayimg.com/02/i/001/46/20/d18a_1.JPG

I will check these out b/c I really really need tires on my car (rain driving is getting really scary, I have a lot of tread left but the tires are 02 date coded and I have spun the rear around too many times now)

[SILVERSURFER03]

I here there there radial t/a's

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Has anyone run the rear size 245/55/18 on all 4 corners? I am looking to put 4 equal sized tires on my Marauder so I can finally rotate the tires. I think the car would look fine w/ 245/55s all around, I actually think the front tire looks a little short. But I don't know how this would affect handling. A picture of a Marauder w/ 245/55s all around would be appreciated too, to make sure it doesn't look too much like an SUV

[SC Cheesehead]

Has anyone run the rear size 245/55/18 on all 4 corners? I am looking to put 4 equal sized tires on my Marauder so I can finally rotate the tires. I think the car would look fine w/ 245/55s all around, I actually think the front tire looks a little short. But I don't know how this would affect handling. A picture of a Marauder w/ 245/55s all around would be appreciated too, to make sure it doesn't look too much like an SUV


Yup, ran the Bluesmobile with OEM 245/55/18s on all four corners for about a year and a half, got about 30% - 4-% better mileage out of the tires, but still ended up wearing out the centers when they were on the rear.

If you've got a 300B or an '04, you'll need to manually turn off your T/C whenever you start up the car, but other than that, I didn't have any problems.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

I am a 300A. Since these are not the KDWs they should wear evenly on the rear too. That issue seems to be isolated to the KDWs model tire in that size. SC do you have any pics of the Bluesmobile with the 245s on the front? If not, can you assure me that it won't look goofy? I am at stock ride height.

I will go ahead and order a set of 4 of these today and install them this week if I can get a verification that the size will be okay in the front.

[FormulaMarauder]

I'll take some pictures for you guys when I get em.

[freakstatus]

Someone should install them with the raised white letter side out....:D

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Do these even come RWL? These are a camaro OEM specific radial TA, not at all like the Radial TA of days of yore. I would think they are blackwall both sides

[CoreyM75]

Very interested in the pictures and review of these tires. I would love to only pay 107.00 a tire and to have the option of rotating the tires front to back.

[FormulaMarauder]

Do these even come RWL? These are a camaro OEM specific radial TA, not at all like the Radial TA of days of yore. I would think they are blackwall both sides

They do in fact have one side with the RWL. :D

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

I just looked at a spec sheet and it says black wall only for the 245/55/18 spec radial TA.

Anyhow, I spent the evening swapping wheels around on my Marauder. I took some nice pics that I am going to post in about 5 minutes. I put two 235/50/18s on the driver's side of the car and the two 245/55/18s on the passenger's side. Then I took some nice quality side shots from both sides, so anyone who is interested, can get a very clear comparison of what the car looks like running either of the front or rear tires, on all 4 corners of the car.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Ok here we go. As stated above, I spent a little time tonight taking the passenger's front 235/50/18 and putting it on the driver's rear, and then putting the driver's rear 245/55/18 on the pass. front. So the drivers side has two of the stock sized front tires on it and the pass side has two of the stock sized rears on it. Side shot shots you what running 4 of either the front or rear size would look like. I was most interested to see what the car looked like with 4 of the 245/55/18s on it since I am very interested in the $107/each camaro tires.


Here is the 245/55/18 on both the front and rear:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Tire%20size%20comparo/245_1.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Tire%20size%20comparo/245_2.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Tire%20size%20comparo/245_3.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Tire%20size%20comparo/245_4.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Tire%20size%20comparo/245_5.jpg


Okay and here is what the 235/50/18 would look like on both front and rear:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Tire%20size%20comparo/235_1.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Tire%20size%20comparo/235_2.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Tire%20size%20comparo/235_3.jpg


Summary: 235s on all 4 = Tard Cart

245s on all 4 looks muscular and the only thing I would be worried about is whether the taller sidewall will hurt cornering response.

[CoreyM75]

The 245's look a lot better. Get a set and try them out. I need tires and don't want to be the lab rat unless i have too.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Ok I just ordered 2 of the camaro OE radial TA's today from Discount Tire (had to call but they do stock them), $238 to my door for the pair, about the same as Tire Racks price shipped, and when I get them I am going to mount them on the front of the car and see if I am satisfied w/ the cornering behavior. If not, I will use them just on the rear and only have wasted $200 odd dollars and anything is better than the very worn, hard 2002-dated KDWs on the rear. If I like the cornering performance, I will order 2 more for the rear to complete my set. I figure I can't go wrong this way.

Will report back when they come in.

[FormulaMarauder]

Mine should come in today, and may very well be mounted too. I'll report back. I have no problem being the giunea pig here. After all, it benefits all of us to get the right info.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Did you get 2 or 4? I didn't want to get 4 if I end up hating them. The tread pattern looks modern and normal but the T speed rating makes me a lil nervous as to how well reinforced the sidewalls are. I am going to run my car through a controlled test course of sharp country road turns before and after swapping out the KDWs fronts for the new tires and see if I find any difference in lap times or subjective observations

(Ok I'm kidding just a little bit about lap times but not by much)

[FormulaMarauder]

Here are the pics, getting them mounted in the morning, then I'll post new ones.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires002.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires003.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires004.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires001.jpg

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Ha ha dammit you beat me! Looks good, they are going to look awesome on the car.

[FormulaMarauder]

Ordered them Monday, got em Tuesday. Amazing!

[MrBluGruv]

Summary: 235s on all 4 = Tard Cart

lol, that's a little harsh. :P
The dealership that I bought mine from cheaped out and put that size on all of them, set of Falkens (crappy tires BTW).

Definately helpful to know that the 245/55 setup works all the way around though, I would prefer to not have to have 2 spares on me if anything should have to go wrong and I NOT have the right one.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

The 235s look soooooo bad on all 4 though, they are an inch too short and it looks so crappy. I showed my wife, who really could not care less about my car hobby, the Marauder when I put the 235s on one side and the 245s on the other side, and she started laughing when she saw the 235 side and told me how bad it looked. And she didn't even realize we had staggered tires but she knew bad when she saw that.

[MrBluGruv]

yeh believe me I don't like it one bit, but it's difficult to jusitfy me paying nearly a grand for a set of tires I really want when the ones I have, while not the best for serious time, are reliable daily-driver material. hitting a low-100-something price tag for each tire is definately tempting, but I want to be sure I can get a speed rating that'll let me run consistently at at least 90, no more realistically than about 120.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

The "wimpy" V6 camaro these tires were spec'd for does 0-60 in 5.9 seconds and a 1/4 mile in 14.5. They can't be that bad hopefully. But yeah an H rating would have been nice, very strange for these to be a T having been spec'd for such a relatively powerful factory application.

[MrBluGruv]

so I feel kinda dumb, just did my homework on reading tire speed code, and the 4 I've got on my vehicle now are actually H-rated...

Still, if I can at least get an affordable set of H-rated 245/55/18s, I'm pretty sure I'm going for it, the little tires always bug the **** out of me.

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Yeah I put good quality tires on my Taurus a couple weeks ago, Yokohama YK520s, a little under $100 each which is a decently priced tire in a skinny 215/65/16 size, and even they are AA - A H rated tires.

Oh well!

[CRUZTAKER]

Show me anywhere in the US where someone drives at either of those speeds on a regular basis.

:hide:

More frequent than not....but maybe that's just me. :P

[FormulaMarauder]

I just got off the phone with a rep from BFGoodrich. The tire rating as they sit is not a "failure" rating. These specific tires, as well as every other they manufacture, have to carry 1.5x load the speed factor it indicates. Basically these tires were tested at 5,200lb load for 17 minutes at 118mph. There was no failure, Chevy has a 121mph limiter on the 2010 Camaro.
From what he said, this size was ordered directly from Chevrolet as a replacement OEM tire. The KDW's were offered, but deemed to expensive for such a mass production vehicle.
Surprisingly this lad was pretty helpful!

[Glenn]

I hope no SC MM will use these tires. They are TOO small for the SC power. IMHO all SC cars should have 9 1/2" wide rims with 295x45x18 for safety reasons especially in the rain. I do not recall one SC MM spinning out with 9 1/2" rims or for that fact even a NA. What say you --------:argue:


Glenn Ford :burnout:

[mercman1951]

Ok here we go.

Okay and here is what the 235/50/18 would look like on both front and rear:

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Tire%20size%20comparo/235_2.jpg

http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q116/shylin01/2003%20Mercury%20Marauder/Tire%20size%20comparo/235_3.jpg


Summary: 235s on all 4 = Tard Cart :confused:

245s on all 4 looks muscular and the only thing I would be worried about is whether the taller sidewall will hurt cornering response.

Personally, I would run those, get lowering springs for the front, and raise the height sensor in back. That would look better to me than the 245's all around, but you know what they say about opinions...:beer:

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Who said anything about SC? Also a wider tire will hydroplane at a lower speed.

[FormulaMarauder]

I hope no SC MM will use these tires. They are TOO small for the SC power. IMHO all SC cars should have 9 1/2" wide rims with 295x45x18 for safety reasons especially in the rain. I do not recall one SC MM spinning out with 9 1/2" rims or for that fact even a NA. What say you --------:argue:


Glenn Ford :burnout:

Glenn, my 608RWHP 88 Firebird Formula P1SC ATI had 245/45/16s for three years, never a problem. That's a pretty big patch. I hope you don't think that the extra 2" patch on widened rims will prevent you from kicking the car sideways. :rolleyes:

[FormulaMarauder]

OK, here is the review.

Very strange thing about these tires. Super quiet, straight road manners/bump/vibration control, all excellent!

I only put 5 or so miles on them cause I gotta go to work, but they seem like a good everyday driving tire. I did put it in boost turning a 90* corner and she did bark the tires like some rabid dog. Then a quick jump on the highway kicked the tires shifting in second, no different that the KDWS.
When I got home I did notice that there was still oil and probably coolant on the treads from the shop floor.:shake:
I didn't exactly go slaloming with it, but I think for practical use they are OK. Shouldn't see a problem in the rain either, but I'll report back.
I wouldn't exactly expect great times with these at the track, but like I said, for $107 each, they seem to make a good putzin around tire.

Here are some pics.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires005.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires006.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires007.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires008.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires009.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires010.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires011.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires012.jpg

[Stranger in the Black Sedan]

Also it is going to take some miles for the mold release agents to wear off so the tires arent going to be as grippy new as they will be when they wear in.

Thanks for the report and the pics! Should have mine soon

[FormulaMarauder]

bump for update pics and review

[CBT]

Shiney, I like 'em.

[CoreyM75]

They look good, they look even better to a cheap skate like me. Under 450.00 for a set of 4 is a really good price for a tire that size. Now i just have to use up the rear tires so I can get a set.

[rayjay]

Hmm, I have time to let you guys do your evals. My Nitto 420's are wearing like iron, so I won't be needing new rears probably until late next season.

[joedee]

Hi, So did you put the same size tire on both the front and rear?
I am going to be needing tires and these sound like they may work but I want the same size as the originals (Bigger back and smaller front).

You must have put some miles on them by now. How are they?

Thank you,
Joe


OK, here is the review.

Very strange thing about these tires. Super quiet, straight road manners/bump/vibration control, all excellent!

I only put 5 or so miles on them cause I gotta go to work, but they seem like a good everyday driving tire. I did put it in boost turning a 90* corner and she did bark the tires like some rabid dog. Then a quick jump on the highway kicked the tires shifting in second, no different that the KDWS.
When I got home I did notice that there was still oil and probably coolant on the treads from the shop floor.:shake:
I didn't exactly go slaloming with it, but I think for practical use they are OK. Shouldn't see a problem in the rain either, but I'll report back.
I wouldn't exactly expect great times with these at the track, but like I said, for $107 each, they seem to make a good putzin around tire.

Here are some pics.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/FormulaGod/tires005.jpg

[FormulaMarauder]

Hi, So did you put the same size tire on both the front and rear?


You must have put some miles on them by now. How are they?

Thank you,
Joe

Joe,

I still have yet to drive the car. And the front are the stock size, not the same as the rears.

[FormulaMarauder]

Logged in another 50 miles, mostly spirited and highway driving. No problems to report.

[rayjay]

Logged in another 50 miles, mostly spirited and highway driving. No problems to report.

Do they hook up or just spin? I only 5/32 to finish burning off my 420's :D

[Aren Jay]

the speed rating also isnt just "Speed". Have you ever physically felt the differnce in a T or a V rated tire. The sidewalls/construction are much stiffer with the higher speed ratings.

Going to a lower speed rating will change your handling


The speed rating is the speed at which the sidewalls can handle a turn, albeit at speed your not going to be turning very much, without slipping off the wheel.