[john]

Well, I am absolutely astonished by this given my previous experience with tyres.

Today I have taken the 17" Hirsch alloys off my car and examined the tyres.

The alloys were fitted on 3 June 2003 and the tyres already had a few hundred miles on them as they have been fitted to a demonstrator.

It is just six days short of 10 months that I have had the tyres on the car.

The mileage when the alloys were fitted was: 74,768. The mileage today is 92,011 - so they have covered 17,243 miles with me, that's an average of 1,724 miles per month.

In that time I have also been on TWO trackdays - one at Anglesey and one at Goodwood.

Here's a photo of one of the tyres:



So, for long life and performance I reckon the Dunlop Sport SP9000 is a good tyre to go for - I shall certainly be asking for two more to replace the front tyres ...after I have worn them out completely at the next trackday

 

[markcanderson]

Excellent.. I'm glad you're pleased with them. They didn't have a strong enough sidewall for my liking.. but

 

[steisan]

/john, how do you rate them for what concerns grip, steering feel and noise? What size are yuo on?

 

[maartenvandorst]

I'm very pleased with my SP9000's. Had them on my 16" wheels and on my 17" Hirsch wheels as well.
My drivingstyle is not very agressive, so I have no problems with the sidewall being soft. If you're cornering as fast as Mark A or Eric B, you might prefer Bridgestone S03.
Next set of tyres will be SP9000 again

.

 

[mark e]

My 9000 had SP9000s on when I got it... I moved to Bridgestone S02s and subsequently to S03s. Each of those was a quantum leap in grip, particularly in the wet.

I reckon I've got nearly 18,000 miles out of the back pair, including two track days. Fronts I get about 7,000 out of.

 

[Mark in Ireland]

These Dunlops appear to have plenty of life left in them, yet  [/b]

John, This shows a serious problem with your right foot, lack of flexibility has taken over in your ankles not allowing full unpeeded movement downwards. If not sorted immediately permanent damage will occur...suggest standing on the edge of kerb on toes and dropping heels downwards and then stretching the calf muscles as you go up on your tip toes...repeat until tyre wear comes back to high levels.

 

[ms08]

/john
It would appear that the back of the cars are light on their tyres - the P6000's I put on the front in Jan 2003 and coming to the end of their life after about 18,000 or so miles - the tyres on the back which came with the car(purchased Sept 2002) appear to have as much tread left on them as when I boughth it.

Mike

 

[StanleyB]

I personally blame it on the pies. Taking into account their added power-to-weight ratio, a lower downward pressure is now present on the rear tyres. This can easily be verified by measuring the new location of the centre of gravity on /John's car. The rear wear is therefore far lower now than before.

As for the still incredible low wear on the front tyre: my calculation shows that the increased power output due to various power upgrades has severely reduced the downforce normally present on the "standard" 9-3. As we all know, the wear on the tyres on a vehicle in flight (i.e. aircarfts etc.) is 0. The only wear is due to contact of the tyre compound during acceleration and stopping.

All calculations carried out on a modified SID3, with error corrections where the SID pixels were missing...

 

[aeropilot]

John,
Any reason why you don't swop your tyres around front on a regular basis...?

With directional tyres you can still swop front to back on the same side.

This is what I'm going to do now I've got a matching set of 4 SO-3's fitted. Hopefully by swopping front to back on a regular basis, I'll get an even wear on all 4 rather than fronts only.
I reckon you could get 30K+ out of a rear set that is kept only on the back, depending on compound. The Goodyear NCT/Avon Turbospeed combo that was on the back of my Aero had done 23K in my hands, plus whatever the previous owner had done on them, and they were still only half worn....

 

[Eric van Spelde]

If your rear tyres don't wear, your rear anti-roll bar isn't big enough...

(right, Eric B? )

Alternatively, you could start using the handbrake more...

 

[john]

The specific point of my post was to highlight the long lasting nature of the tyre for a grippy tyre.

Regarding SO3s - I can not afford to be replacing my tyres after 7,000 miles. I think that the Dunlops represent a good compromise between performance and longevity - that's the point.

On sidewalls - how do I know if one tyre is stronger than another? With 45psi in the tyres is goes round the track alright.

On wet-weather grip - Pirellis were rubbish even with 4-5mm tread remaining. These are still good at 2mm.

On tyre-rotation - I can not afford to replace all four tyres at once. I shall get two new ones and fit to the rear wheels and move the 6mm tyres to the front.

On pies and other theories - thanks for making me smile on an otherwise mundane monday morning.

 

[Mark in Ireland]

On pies and other theories - thanks for making me smile on an otherwise mundane monday morning.  [/b]

Our pleasure!!

 

[burre]

I can agree with most points made in this thread. Here is my opinion.

SP9000s make the best all around everyday high traction tire. They wear considerably longer than other tires in the class and have plenty of grip for daily driving in both wet and dry conditions. For a street tire with its performance levels, it has a nice ride and low noise levels.

It is however, a [expletive deleted] track tire for those who really put the hammer down and really attack the corners. The grip level is not very high for track work and I had a few chunks come off in just a few laps on the Nurburgring. For track driving, I do find S03s to be immensely better in grip with much better turn-in response, even in 205/55-15 vs a 205/55-16 in the Dunlop.

My opinion is that SP9000s make a great daily tire and the S03s are much better for the track. As for daily driving, in my experience, the S03s really suck as far as they vibrate quite a bit.

A note about the pressures. Make sure that the pressure does not climb too high. On March 15, a 37 psi cold tire turned into 49 psi hot which is waay too high. Air needed to come out and visible wear (yes, you can see it in one Ring lap) was much more even and grip somewhat improved. So a word about this is to check the pressures after the first session at a track day and bring the pressures down to more reasonable levels. Just make sure to air them back up after the track day is over as their cold pressure will end up pretty low.

As EvS mentioned, I do get some pretty good rear wear as the bigger rear roll bar lets the back end slide around a bit more.

Have fun!

 

[john]

Well, I thought I'd report my positive experiences of longevity balanced with performance on this tyre - but it seems everybody knows better

 

[markcanderson]

Well in fairness John.. you're not the only person to have used Sp9000s in anger... we all have our experiences.

 

[burre]

I agreed with you, /john. It is just that my track experience was different than yours. I do think they make a great everyday extreme performance tire though. I am quite happy with them for that use.

 

[ms08]

/john
As I am currently looking around for new fronts, I may well give them a try - mytyres.co.uk are advertising mail order at £88.60 - I paid £125 each last time for the P6000 fully fitted of course - I was considering the SO3's but it may be the wear rate is too great although I only use for road use.
Mike

 

[sj]

Originally posted by /john:
[qb]Well, I thought I'd report my positive experiences of longevity balanced with performance on this tyre - but it seems everybody knows better      [/qb][/b]

Cheer up /john, some of us appreciate the info.

I shall probably never do a trackday and I'm looking for some tyres with reasonable grip and handling, but at the moment I mostly want to get away from my horribly noisy Michelins. They seem to be getting even noisier as they get more worn.
I had a courtesey car recently and the most apparent difference to mine, apart from the Aero/2.0lpt engine, was the total lack of road noise. This was tyred with dunlops, 4 different types of dunlop, but no noise.

Are yours quiet as well as long lasting?

 

[john]

Originally posted by SJ:
[qb]Are yours quiet as well as long lasting? [/qb][/b]

I can't hear them above the noise from the stereo

To be serious - I do not believe them to be noisy - but the only way to tell would be for you to drive my car next time we meet, SJ, so that you can compare them to yours.

Mike - having had P6000s before I have noticed similar wear rates to you on the front and the performance really drops off as they wear.

Leon reports that Eagle F1s are pretty good, too. Check on www.mytyres.co.uk as they are similar price to Dunlop SP9000.

 

[California Saab Tuner]

I wonder if some of the bad press the Viggen got for handling was due to the stock Pirelli's. They're rubbish for sure. With Kumho's just in the front grip is noticably improved. I wish the magazines could retest it with some decent rubber.

The Viggen gave a respectable (albeit not awesome) skidpad grip of about .84 g's. Even with some decent street tires (not race tires like fitted to Ferrari's, Evos, STi's) I think the Viggen could have gotten much more respectable figures. Perhaps more along the lines of .87-.89 g's. The car really does have pretty wide tires, and despite a few comments I've seen to the contrary, handles relatively neural. Though being FWD it will never be completely neutral when under power exiting a corner.

Torque steer is another matter however.

I've noticed with more grip, if anything it's gotten worse. Oh well. Kumho makes a good tire as well. I'm on Ecsta MX's in a 215/45 R17 and the ride is far far better than the Pirellis. Better grip, quieter, smoother, longer tread life. Definite upgrade.

Well there's my two cents ...

Dubbya~