I was getting prices for new tyres for my scooby today and along with all the usual suspects, a name came up which I haven't seen any discussion of.

I was offered Hankook 205/50/16 K102 at £61.53 including valve, balancing and fitting.

This is a W rated tyre, ie 168mph (I think)
but my knee jerk reaction to it was that at that price it must be useless. The dealer had not got any opinion as to how good it was.

I shall probably fit Yokohama A520 or Toyo Proxes T1S but does anyone have any experience of the Hankooks?

As long as they gripped it wouldn't matter if they wore out quickly at that price.

Out of interest (I hope somebody is interested) I was quoted:- (all 205/50/16)

Hankook K102 W rated £61.53 inc
Yokohama A520 V rated £90.18 inc
Toyo Proxes T1S W rated £109.53 inc
Bridgestone RE720 V rated £130.34 inc
Bridgestone S02 Z rated £147.96 inc

 

Look at the Yoko AVS Sport.

 

Bridgestone S-02s are the number one tyre around - if you shop around, you should be able to get that size for c£120 inc. Have used S-02 for last 2 years on various cars, nothing comes close.

On a recent track day we had 4 identical cars all with different tyres, mine with S02s, others with Pzeros, Yoko 520s and Goodyear F1. S02s were 8 seconds a lap faster than Pzeros, 10 faster than the others.

All that and a sexy tread pattern too.

 

8/10 seconds a lap difference seems an awful lot to attribute to just tyres.

Is it not more likely that driver differences made up the majority of this time? (Although the S02 is doubtless a superb tyre)

Regarding choice of tyres, there are some links to reviews at

 

I agree with Alistair - there must be some major differences in driver ability.
If you have identical cars/drivers I don't think more than a second would separate those tyres - which is still a lot.

 

doc
just fitted yoko A520 w rated !!
fun compared to so2's ie the back steps out if you give it a bit of welly at the right time.(paid £398 fitted ect ,4) had so2's before and they do provid better grip

ps 32k in a year!!

 

Yoko 520's are their standard "passenger car" tyres. The AVS range are more suitable for the Scoob. It's not really fair to compare Yoko's lowest tyres (A520) against Bridgestones "best" tyres (SO2).

 

8-10 secs was mainly down to tyres - I posted all times, cars were identical (Alfa Romeo 156 V6), only other difference could have been looser engines on some. - S02s got a lot stickier, more grip, greater adhesion during cornering, allow you to carry a lot more speed through corner, therefore higher speed down straights!

 

For an unbiased opinion on most tyres - ring Alan at Pemberton tyres in Wigan (number from 192) - he is in the business, and frequently goes on assessment days comparing tyres.

I've only ever driven on Yokohama AVS once, they were great in the wet (though not as good as S02s!), but only average in the dry. HOWEVER - that was in a 2WD car not a scoob!

 

I'm currently on a set of Dunlop SP900 205/45R17 and they are crap!

I was looking to go for Yokohama A520's, but are the Bridgestones SO2's better?

How do the AVS's compare to the Bridgestones?

I'm having problesm trying to wear out the Dunlops! I've done 11k on them, and there seems to be about 5mm left! They look like they'll last for 25k!! Surely I must be driving like a wuss!!

Cheers
Andy

 

All good stuff, if a bit (slightly!) repetitious of a multitude of similar threads.

But back to the original question - has anyone got any practical experience of these Hankooks (a 60's comedian who killed himself in Oz, I thought? Tony? Never mind!). Never heard of them before myself. But my tyres are nearly on the point of replacement, so I'm currently very interested in the topic (Proxes, before anyone asks, and very happy I've been with them too).


[This message has been edited by bruceh (edited 18-09-1999).]

 

Gary.

Are you saying then that it was the same driver driving all four cars? That is the only way it could be regarded as an accurate comparison, and even then each individual car will have it's own characteristics. 8 secs a lap is an awful long time, compared to the 1 or 2 secs that most magazines get when doing a tyre test with EXACTLY the same car and driver.

Stef.

 

Same driver (me), 4 different cars - all same make/model but different milege etc so some of difference would be down to characteristics of car, but having driven all four cars, the S02s really were substantially better. The other three were all within 2/3 secs of each other - don't forget, lap times were c 1 min 40, so 8 secs is only 8%!

 

.....but probably about 300 metres!!!???

Stef.