Firestone FireHawk 500

Zyonara91

Hello,

Hope you are all doing well today. Already searched up the topic, however, not much information on the actual characteristics (handling wise etc) of this tire.

I would appreciate it if someone could tell me their experience with this tire thus far.

Chan Chee Hoe

Not popular here,but just think,Tyres are just 4 small contact patches on the road,should get a better set of tyres.

Brendan

People here seem to lump ultra summers in with all seasons for some reason. Maybe because the car came with max summer they see ultras as a downgrade?

If you are just driving around on the street you should never notice the difference between an ultra, max, and extreme summer tire aside from wear. With ultras, like the firestone and bridgestone re760, you give up some ultimate grip from a max summer with comparable levels of noise and ride quality.

jliu

I purchased a set of these tires a month ago. Have yet to put them on as my stock tires will have some life on them. Will report back after they are installed.

As to this comment:
Not popular here,but just think,Tyres are just 4 small contact patches on the road,should get a better set of tyres.
It is the most meaningless statement. What is your definition of a "better" set of tires? Did you personally have experience with these tires? Useless comment.........

barncobob

I dunno, a lot of us oldtimers remember the "Firestone 500" debacles from way back, myself, I don't want to revisit.

Z_ealot

Barnco, the new firehawk indy 500's are in no way related to the old indy 500 tire and are in fact just rebadged bridgestone re-003 which is the succesor to the global re-002 which was known as the bridgestone re760 here in the states. I have been running the firehawk indy 500's for the last few months and can personally say i love them and they are very grippy and communicate really well to let you know when they are at the limit


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jliu

I had these tires put on yesterday. All I can say is why did I waited so long. These tires so far are much quieter and provide a more comfortable ride than the stock Bridgestones. Traction is excellent on city and highway driving. For the price of less than $600 for the set you can't go wrong. The only unknown is how well they will last and if there will be any decrease in performance as the tires wear down. Will definitely report back.

Zyonara91

Thank you for that heads up! I already got the tires installed, I live in Toronto, so the tires set me back $884 taxes in, balance and installed.

The tires so far have been fantastic! Grippy and responsive! I look forward to a good time with these tires! Tread life will have to wait, have only 100 km on them so far!

barncobob

treadwear of 500(MPSS 300) those tires must ride hard and will never wear out,,,Im too old to worry about mileage

Fuzzzy

I am one of those oldtimers. I had a set, and 3 of the 4 went bad--two out of round to the point they couldn't balanced and one starting to separate IIRC. No relief at all from Firestone. By the time the feds ordered Firestone to make amends, mine were all long gone. I would have been gold if I had kept the old carcasses.

I'll never buy another Firestone product, regardless of what is underneath the badge.

barncobob

I don't know if I could stomach "firestone" on my tires, just my .02 worth.

Halfkiddio

Knowing that they are a rebranded Bridgestone is the only way I will even consider buying them. However, I will be getting them as my next set as the Federal's I currently have are heat cycled out at half life and one of them is now shaped like an egg. I will never buy the 595 RPM's again, or recommend them to anyone. I at least know Bridgestone knows what they are doing with quality control unlike Federal.

Zyonara91

So far, I have around 200 km on the tires and they are doing great (then again it is extremely low mileage). Only time will tell how these tires handle when the tread gets to around 50% or so.

The grip is fantastic, the ride isn't smooth but it is better than the stock RE50s I had on, *shivers*.

I know they had a history, but that's like bashing Takata, Toyota, Honda etc for their recalls and so forth. Mistakes happen and the loss of lives that occur are extremely sad. However, if mistakes by corporations are brought to justice and they learn not to make the same mistakes again, then we can all move forward in the name of progress.

I gave these tires a chance because of the word of mouth referrals and testimonials, not online reviews and so forth. Maybe I could "relate" to the tires, I mean I had a bad reputation in the past and someone finally gave me a chance and they were beyond impressed with my performance, so why not do the same with tires? Weird I know, but hey, no regrets here.

Love the tires and with Bridgestone at the helm as the parent company what's not to like?

scottIN

So I just had a set of these put on this morning. Only driven about 70 miles but here are my impressions:

Soooo much quieter than my OEM tires. Granted they were worn (28,000), but night and day. It was tough to have a conversation with the stock ones - even when new added to the FI exhaust. Wish I had done a dB meter, but definitely a noticeable difference.

They do have a little more 'thump' to them over bumps, but maybe I'm just noticing it more because the others had so much road noise.

Wheel guards - pretty much non-existent. Don't get too close.

Haven't pushed them yet - want to wait until the goo dries & all, but responsiveness seems fine for the couple of exit ramps I took.

But the big thing is the noise. Feels like a completely different car. I always thought that the noise was the exhaust. Nope. The tires.

$706 plus $46 tax at a Firestone Service Center.

Halfkiddio

They are just about as stiff as the set of S-04's I had on the Z at one point. I'm happy to be back on a Bridgestone tire. I'm 600 miles in so far and they are almost as good as the S-04's in the dry, but not as good in the wet hydroplane-wise.



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