[Baby Dave]

I am looking to ditch the rubbish Bridgestones. I have a choise of Faulken fk452 or Vredstien ultrac. Both are a similar price. Has anyone used any of these and are they any good.
Cheers.

[YvesD]

Originally Posted by Baby Dave

I am looking to ditch the rubbish Bridgestones. I have a choise of Faulken fk452 or Vredstien ultrac. Both are a similar price. Has anyone used any of these and are they any good.
Cheers.

Just had a set of Sessantas fitted on mine.

Early days but very happy so far.

Yves

[Skid]

I'm more than happy with the vreds.
After the initial bedding in they are great now.
I have done around 15 thousand miles and there is still plenty of tread left.

I wrote a post on a thousand mile review about them.

Mine cost me £380 for the set.

[A335i]

Did quite a bit of reading on tyres before I ditched my bridgestone's and two came clearly on top for the beemers for me. Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymmetric & Vredestein ULTRAC SESSANTA. Even phoned up the tyre shop and asked the sales guy whether I should consider Continental sport 3 or Michelin Pilot as these seem to be what most performance BMW's are on. Despite these options being way more expensive and he could probably have convinced me to get these he said I should stick with either the Eagle's or Sessanta's as they always top test results.

Went for the Vredestein and no regrets at all.

[Baby Dave]

Thanks for that Ive just ordered a set of Vredsteins from Camskill.

[milesr3]

Bit late now, but my local trusted tyre place recommended Falkens over everything but PS2s/PS3s.

I put a set of ZE912s on my 535d and they're so much better than the OEM RE050s it's not funny. The extra grip in the current cold, damp conditions is really noticeable.

I know the ZE912s aren't as popular as the 452s, but their 'all season' performance is really working well in the current conditions and from what I've read in reviews they give little away to the premium brand summer tyres.

My car has gone back to the dealer today and they've given me a 320d on 18" RE050As. I was shocked just how noisy they were and how little grip they have - I could get the 320d to lose traction and step out far easier than my heavier and more torquey 535d. I think it's a crying shame that BMW put these awful tyres on their cars.

Anyway, I'm sure you'll be very pleased with the Vreds.

[MEGA]

Originally Posted by Baby Dave

I am looking to ditch the rubbish Bridgestones. I have a choise of Faulken fk452 or Vredstien ultrac. Both are a similar price. Has anyone used any of these and are they any good.
Cheers.

Neither. Falkens

[MalM3]

Try F_A_L_K_E_N..

or H_U_M_E

[Baby Dave]

thanks for all the above. The Vreds are on and it feels like a new car. Cannot see why the RFTs are fitted as standard.

The Vreds look a lot better as well if that is not too sad.

[YvesD]

Originally Posted by Baby Dave

thanks for all the above. The Vreds are on and it feels like a new car. Cannot see why the RFTs are fitted as standard.

The Vreds look a lot better as well if that is not too sad.

Normal tyres are night and day different to RFT's arent they.

Vreds on mine, very happy with them and yes I do know what PS2's are like, had them on previous M3, 911 etc.

Yves

[Captain Chaos]

Newflash chaps - it's not the RFTs that feel like crap, it's Bridgestone RFTs. Fit a set of Michelins and you'll feel the difference in a proper ZP tyre instantly (and in your wallet, of course ).

But yes, the required sidewall build doesn't make for a happy handler on them. FWIW, having spent a fair while selling tyres earlier in life, there's little between Vreds and Falkens, maybe a bit better winter grip v summer performance respectively (although it's relative, both are a budget tyre).

[MEGA]

I know everyone calls the 452 a budget tyre but I find dry grip to be very very good on them.

I've had Dunlop sportmax and toyo t1r on there and can't say theres any real difference between the 3.

However the fecking nankang specials I've got on the back right now, DEFINITELY a difference there

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by MEGA

I know everyone calls the 452 a budget tyre but I find dry grip to be very very good on them.

High performance tyre at a budget price. Better performance than many premium tyres. I'm certainly impressed with the 452 on my 330d and I'm driving in a pretty testing environment. Wheels in their tyre test, rated them second, only just pipped into first position, by the Goodyear F1 asymmetric.

HighlandPete

[Captain Chaos]

Dave, they're a budget tyre, if people weren't buying them based on cost then Michelin and Continental would have a monopoly! But yes nobody's saying they don't out-perform their level, which is why so many get sold, I run them on the Golf cos it doesn't get driven hard apart from the odd summer de-coke so they're perfect. Maybe the definition sounds damning, but there's a lonnnnnnnng way down the budget tyre list. Maybe calling them 'mid-range' would be fairer, but they and the Vreds (and F1s, to be fair, as Pete highlights) do out-perform their price tag.

However..."High performance" from a 452?? Sorry Pete, have to disagree entirely there, presuming that by performance we're talking grip etc and not longevity/cost/noise etc. Tests have to be based upon set criteria, and I used to see a lot of tests where the latter would be part of the assessment, but they're not relative to performance. Personal opinion comes down to driving style too, of course, as 'performance' tyres generally show themselves on the limits.

Not looking for an argument, everyone has their opinion and favourites, just airing mine . I reckon I've run 6 or 7 types of tyre on the cars in the last 3 years (best way to find out what rubber suits you) and I can say with confidence that if someone put fresh 452s or F1s on my car and convinced me that they were even roughly in the same ballpark as fresh PS2s or CS3s I'd let them keep the car. I'm serious. It's like winter tyres - people think the difference is marginal until they try a proper set and realise what they can do.

Oo look at me, I went into one!

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Captain Chaos

....presuming that by performance we're talking grip etc and not longevity/cost/noise etc. Tests have to be based upon set criteria, and I used to see a lot of tests where the latter would be part of the assessment, but they're not relative to performance. Personal opinion comes down to driving style too, of course, as 'performance' tyres generally show themselves on the limits.

So what criteria do you use to judge the performance, in a given tyre category?

Tests such as Car and Driver, Wheels & Eurotuner? Controlled tests, dry, wet, braking, skidpan, etc., or are you using other points of reference?

I know tyre choice depends on what we want from a tyre, even the premium tyres still seem to have a particular performance bias (and/or weakness), when compared against each other.

Our humble Goodyear F1 GS-3D seemed to make its mark against the mighty Michelin PS2. I chose the Goodyear based on the wet weather performance gains, over the Michelin PS2 and found them a superb tyre up here in the Highlands on water drenched roads. I find the Falken 452 is up there with the Goodyear F1 GS-3D for the same conditions.

HighlandPete

[MEGA]

Far be it from me to argue with a man who was driving M3s before I got out of school

I know they aren't PS2's /CS3s or Cups. But I think the only way you can define them as a budget tyre, is the price point. "Budget tyre" always brings the phrase "shit" to mind right. I think a budget tyre is synonymous with a shit tyre. Falkens must be in the top 5 or 6 performance tyres? Or am I way off. So regardless of the price point, they aren't a budget tyre. Imo. Atleast by my definition.

Did that make any sense?

Anyway. I've learnt a long time ago not to argue with yas But meh

[Captain Chaos]

Agreed on the budget thing, it's an unfortunate stigma, hence the thing about being more mid-range if you like. Depends if we're being literal or descriptive I guess, it's all semantics. And I saw the bit where you called me old.

Pete, there's a million ways to test tyres, you've listed a load there off the top of your head. Hard to know which one would apply to 'you' in a daily situation. That was behind the little test-everything phase I went through - I found out a few good things, and also some bad (and expensive) ones, and that was with a fairly good level of industry knowledge to start with. I know for sure what works now - for me.

I guess that's kinda where I was coming from about tyres being different per person, you'd probably struggle to push a PS2 into it's advantages up there and an F1 will gain whatever you'd lose by having it's sweet spot where you spend more time driving. For me, down sarf, the big girls always get CS3s (mainly based on PS2 pricing tbh) and the less 'focussed' ones have what we'll now call mid-range rubber cos I seldom push them hard enough and (to coin a phrase from the better half) I don't go putting Jimmy Choos on if I'm doing the gardening!

That was a very long paragraph considering I was just saying 'cool, horses for courses'.

[MEGA]

Hah. Needed to be done.

Speaking of which, I've just ordered 2 new tyres for my arse end, Its a great time of year to buy.

FK-452: £120 per corner from camskill. 265/30/19.

PS2's would have been £280 per corner. My preferred tyre is the T1r but at £190/corner, yeah - I'll take the £140 I've saved and spend it on some Jimmy Choos

Re: PS2s... I struggle to see how you could ever justify that amount of price difference to be honest.. I really do...

[Captain Chaos]

I can't these days , but if I wanted the ultimate grip for summer mentalism then I'd do it. The M was always a PS-front/PS2-rear car on it's track setup and it worked beautifully. I tend to do CS3s now though, as the price difference is significant even on those these days and the tyres aren't too different (until the CS start into the last couple mm when it tails off).

The T1R is a good tyre, sticky as hell when it's fresh, I like them a lot too. You check out Event when you bought? Checked them against Camskill when I bought the last half dozen tyres and they were the same price but included fitting wherever I wanted, was a proper result.

[MEGA]

I tend to just take my tyres to Alfie's yard to get tyres fitted. Pakistani price point Very rarely beaten

[doughboy]

Now I've got a set of winter wheels and tyres I'll be looking to sell the all-rounder CS3's I bought and get some more focused summer rubber.

Just need to decide what to buy, then I'll seel the Conti 3's

barely used

225/40/18 Y
255/35/18 Y

[TMP]

I am going to face this in a few months and I am well confused tbh....

Dont really want to stay with Bridgestone RFT's unless the 3G's are out...even then not convinced

Do not want to pay £280-£290 for PS3 RFT

Why are Vred's so much cheaper then CS3's, is it too good to be true?