BGTV8 has new boots

BGTV8

My Zed has 27600klm up in just over a year and I have just worn out the first set of tyres. The Kumho KU36 I fitted right after driveline break-in (I still have the factory tyres under my house) have finally given up the ghost, following 26000 road klics and over 200 track day laps in 5 track day events at 3 different circuits here in southern Oz.

I got a good price (for Australia) on the Dunlop Direzza DZSP1 so I have 245/40R18 on the front and 275/35R18 on the rear, fitted and balanced for A$1620.

I gave the car a light spanking on the way home (those from Melbourne who are located in NE outer suburbs might know of the Mount Slide junction road from St Andrews to Kinglake West) ... 18 klics of 2nd and 3rd gear "fun" - nothing much faster than 100-110kph but also no straights more than a couple of hundred metres long either ... I suspect it is what the guys in the US call a "canyon run".

In any event, the Direzza seem to have as much or more grip than the KU36, which I rate as an excellent tyre on basis of grip for the money (around 2/3rd the cost of the Dunlop), but maybe not up to the grip level of a true "R-Spec" tyre. It will be interesting to see how the Direzza compares to the KU36 and a proper R-Spec tyre like a DZ03G or R888.

I am at Sandown International next weekend and will be able to do back-to-back lap time comparison as I was at Sandown the same weekend lasy year and still have the timing logs and data logging files .... it will be interesting to see how the two tyres compare.

vehl

26k under a set of tyres is pretty impressive considering the track times you've seen..

BGTV8

What can I say - its my daily driver and does not really get a spanking unless on a track. Daily driving returns 10.2 litres/100k's so I really don't give the car a hard time on the highway. In my state, the police are really hot on mobile speed camera and 15kph over the limit attracts 3 points and hefty fine so I leave the agreesive driving for the track. Remember this is 26000 kilometres (around 16000 miles).

Almost all of the wear is the track time. A friend with a turbo MX5 ran KU36 as his track tyre and they lasted 14 track days.

As I have observed several times in the past, in Australia, the KU36 is by far the best grip for money tyre available - ther are lots of other tyres that offer more grip, but no where near the price. It is the difference between $1100 per set and maybe $16-1800 per set and whilst the more expensive tyre ultimately has more grip, they only last half as long, which effectively more than doubles the price.

That said, the Dunlop Direzza was offered as an alternative at a reasonable price, so I thought "why not" and have fitted them to see how they grip and last.