2 New Tyre Brands
Author
Discussion

Lordbenny

Original Poster:

8,733 posts

242 months

Monday 10th June 2013
quotequote all
Anybody know anything about either of these two....

They seem well priced but are they any good?.....

Syron:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SYRON-Track-Day-Tyre-195...

Nankang:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NANKANG-Track-Day-Tyre-M...

I've got a Westfield by the way smile

pk500

1,975 posts

235 months

Monday 10th June 2013
quotequote all
nankang are cheap rubish as road tyres called ditch finders so i guess they aint much better on track!

HustleRussell

26,116 posts

183 months

Monday 10th June 2013
quotequote all
pk500 said:
nankang are cheap rubish as road tyres called ditch finders so i guess they aint much better on track!
Why's that?

g40steve

1,182 posts

185 months

Monday 10th June 2013
quotequote all
pk500 said:
nankang are cheap rubish as road tyres called ditch finders so i guess they aint much better on track!
I remember people telling me that about R888's.

Seem to get good feedback from what I have seen.

pk500

1,975 posts

235 months

Monday 10th June 2013
quotequote all
nothing wrong with 888`s ! going flying round a track on cheap tyres there can only be one outcome !best pay a bit more and have more grip and quality ! you get what you pay for
g40steve said:
I remember people telling me that about R888's.

Seem to get good feedback from what I have seen.

agent006

12,058 posts

287 months

Monday 10th June 2013
quotequote all
pk500 said:
you get what you pay for
If that's the case, why do you have TVRs instead of Porsches?

BusaMK

389 posts

172 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
I don't think that's quite the same argument - the cheaper Far eastern tyres usually do exceptionally poorly in most comparative tyre tests.
Given the obvious lack of research into tyre design and quality that this suggests, the last thing I'd want would be to be relying on a set to keep me off the grass/gravel/Armco.
Then there is the issue of whether having tyres which are a limiting factor on handling is worth it - not much point in adjusting your cars handling if an underlying handling issue is in fact caused by cheap tyres.

mrmr96

13,736 posts

227 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
Optimum Performance (the seller) used to be known as FQ Performance and is a pretty big name in the Evo tuning community.

Website: http://www.fqperformance.com/shop/contact_us.php
(Check the postcode). Same guys, they were just asked by Mitsi to stop using "FQ" in their name I think but not sure why the URL is still the old one.

They have a workshop and do race prep etc. I've used them for various bits on several of my performance cars over the years.

Anyway, the point is that if you look at the quality of work and the brands they sell in their other product lines I'd be surprised if they were selling poor quality tyres. Not saying they're not, just I'd be surprised.

I'll be interested to hear from anyone who's used these track tyres on how they actually perform, rather than just judging them based on reports of their road tyres. (I've also heard/read that Nankang are ditch finders but I've never driven on them myself. I wonder how many other people are out there making comment without first hand experience?)

I've not tried these tyres, but I do know the seller and so I'd hope they'll be good!

Edited by mrmr96 on Tuesday 11th June 15:13

thegreenhell

21,870 posts

242 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
pk500 said:
nothing wrong with 888`s ! going flying round a track on cheap tyres there can only be one outcome !best pay a bit more and have more grip and quality ! you get what you pay for
g40steve said:
I remember people telling me that about R888's.

Seem to get good feedback from what I have seen.
The point is that it wasn't so many years ago that Toyo were the cheap, relatively unknown brand making their first trackday tyre. As far as I can see, the cost of R888 has gone up significantly over the years, but the tyre doesn't appear to have changed at all. This despite the fact that it seems to finish towards the bottom of the table in recent tyre tests against other brands.

mmm-five

12,065 posts

307 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
thegreenhell said:
The point is that it wasn't so many years ago that Toyo were the cheap, relatively unknown brand making their first trackday tyre. As far as I can see, the cost of R888 has gone up significantly over the years, but the tyre doesn't appear to have changed at all. This despite the fact that it seems to finish towards the bottom of the table in recent tyre tests against other brands.
I assume the tyre tests you're talking about are general, road tyre test, rather than trackday tyre tests. So a tyre that is designed for 1000 miles of track use will have little in common to a tyre from the same manufacturer that is designed to last 100,000 miles. So saying that all tyres from a specific manufacturer are crap based on a test of 1 is a bit short-sighted.

Some of the Toyo tyres are fine for road use on high performance vehicles (T1 Sport, R1R, T1-R, Proxes-4) and may last 10-20k and be 20-40% cheaper than Michelins, Pirellis, Goodyears, Continentals in the same performance categories. Others are less 'performance oriented' (C1, CF, Teo, 350, etc.) but might last 50k miles!

Price will increase/decrease due to supply & demand.

thegreenhell

21,870 posts

242 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
mmm-five said:
I assume the tyre tests you're talking about are general, road tyre test, rather than trackday tyre tests. So a tyre that is designed for 1000 miles of track use will have little in common to a tyre from the same manufacturer that is designed to last 100,000 miles. So saying that all tyres from a specific manufacturer are crap based on a test of 1 is a bit short-sighted.
Not at all. Take this test as an example. It was the slowest tyre in the dry, by far the slowest in the wet, is the heaviest, and received poor subjective comment.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Article/2012-Sport-Au...

The point I was trying to make, but probably putting across badly, was that Toyo were in a not dissimilar market position when they launched the R888 to where Nankang are now. I don't disagree that they make some worthy road tyres now, but they were once considered well below premium, as is any brand trying to break into a new marketplace.

With reference to the R888, the previous poster was berating the Nankangs based on nothing more than his brand perception while saying that there is nothing wrong with R888s. The fact is that the R888 was a budget track tyre from a lesser brand when it was launched many years ago, much as this new Nankang is now. The R888 has changed little if any over the years, but is is no longer budget priced. As the tyre tests show, it is now a long way off the performance of its price competitors in this segment, and yet some people seem to view it as some kind of premium track tyre, which it never has been and certainly isn't now.

pk500

1,975 posts

235 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
cause they are posh beetles! pound for punch the 500 chim beats any porky !
agent006 said:
If that's the case, why do you have TVRs instead of Porsches?

pk500

1,975 posts

235 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
good point spot on !
BusaMK said:
I don't think that's quite the same argument - the cheaper Far eastern tyres usually do exceptionally poorly in most comparative tyre tests.
Given the obvious lack of research into tyre design and quality that this suggests, the last thing I'd want would be to be relying on a set to keep me off the grass/gravel/Armco.
Then there is the issue of whether having tyres which are a limiting factor on handling is worth it - not much point in adjusting your cars handling if an underlying handling issue is in fact caused by cheap tyres.

wackojacko

8,581 posts

213 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
Nankangs literally rule.

We run 'Kangs on the rear of the mr2 track car and it grips rather well and the tread depth never seams to suffer !

I run brand new Nankang NS2's for drifting and they're awesome, last for ages and have plenty of grip. Fast road driving they give a great feel and grip aswell.

The Ns2-r's are very good, many people use them in the BDC on the front to offer best front grip.

g40steve

1,182 posts

185 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
pk500 said:
nothing wrong with 888`s ! going flying round a track on cheap tyres there can only be one outcome !best pay a bit more and have more grip and quality ! you get what you pay for
g40steve said:
I remember people telling me that about R888's.

Seem to get good feedback from what I have seen.
Back in the day these were an unknown brand as has been mentioned.

As such was very good value, then the sheep arrived & prices went up every couple of months, better value rubber if you look around.

Some of us don't need to rely on sticky rubber to have fun laugh


Edited by g40steve on Tuesday 11th June 18:24

agent006

12,058 posts

287 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
pk500 said:
cause they are posh beetles! pound for punch the 500 chim beats any porky !
agent006 said:
If that's the case, why do you have TVRs instead of Porsches?
But using your logic, Porsches would be better because they cost more. You get what you pay for according to you, so why did you go for an inferior product?

pk500

1,975 posts

235 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
[So using my logic you must have remoulds on the old crapper you drive ah ! This post was about tyre's and thoughts on buying cheap tyre's !quote=agent006]

But using your logic, Porsches would be better because they cost more. You get what you pay for according to you, so why did you go for an inferior product?
[/quote]

HustleRussell

26,116 posts

183 months

Tuesday 11th June 2013
quotequote all
Paul, folk are just pointing out that your pre-judging a product you've never tried based on the brand. You could easily have it totally wrong.

pk500

1,975 posts

235 months

Wednesday 12th June 2013
quotequote all
HustleRussell said:
Paul, folk are just pointing out that your pre-judging a product you've never tried based on the brand. You could easily have it totally wrong.
That's a fair point ! I had a pair of their road tyre's on a car I bought a few years back the were crap in the wet they was not much better in the dry ! So I changed them for a better tyre ! The point I was trying to make is you pay for what you get so if you want to push to the limit , get a tyre what you know will do the job ! And they other point I was trying to make is if I wanted a porky I would have bought one but I got what I wanted ! Same as his tyre choice the end of the day buy what you can afford or what you think will do the job !

fast eddys

1,145 posts

224 months

Wednesday 12th June 2013
quotequote all
I had very bad experiences with Nangkangs. Never bought any as they have bad rep anyway, but driven a few cars with them on as the owners had gone the budget route. As above rubbish in wet, not much better in the dry. The track tyre may be a massive leap and a brilliant product for not much money, but i would not risk it. I was offered the Nankang and Syron. The new DMack is the best value for money trackday tyre around at the moment with it's WRC heritage.

Eddy