Update: Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval tires

[ausie]

Miles driven so far: 12,000
# of times rotated: 3

I was hoping for more life out of them. They still have plenty of tread left on them that would pass inspection but their performance has dramatically changed.

Dry pavement: Grip has been very good overall. Cornering, braking have remained very much the same. Under hard acceleration it has become easier to break the rear loose.

Wet pavement: Once you are moving the performance is predictable and in some cases it can be white knuckle. If it is raining, forget about driving. Very easy to spin the rear end loose when on the highway if the road surface is just wet. If there is standing water even worse.

Drag Strip: Not a good tire for recreational use. I have used better street tires at the strip.

Overall: They are OK tire but I have had much better. The first few thousand miles I was impressed with them. A good tire for summer use but when fall comes around and temperatures drop below 70 F, they tend to loose their grip under acceleration. Cornering or stopping has not been an issue. Hydroplaning resistance is fair. I would not rate them as a good wet tire since I have had better (Toyo T1-R and T1-S). Would I buy them again? If I can find something better in a 275/40-17 probably not. First experiences were very good except for getting caught in a heavy down poor.

Tread pattern is similar to the Nitto 555 and was thinking about trying them next. Best overall tire that I have used so far has been the Toyo T1-R tires mounted on 18 inch BBS wheels, but they do not have them in a 275/40-17 size.

[mrpork]

thats good to know thanx

[ausie]

Just a small note: They are not the worst or best tire that I had on 17 inch wheels. The worse tire title still to me is the Michillen Pilot Sport AS. Probably the best overall tire I ever had on 17 inch stock wheel was the Bridgestone Potenza S03. However they did wander when moving slow (speed limit below 40mph) when I got them for the 18 inch BBS wheels. My guess is that the taller profile tire 245/45-17 on the 01 Cobra masked the hard side wall but once the profile was dropped for the 18 inch 245/40-18 and 275/35-18, the characteristic was different at low speed. My thoughts on that tire in a 275/40-17 would probably be the same. So far the best tire I had on the 18 inch wheels were the Toyo T1-S and T1R's. Too bad they do not come in a 275/40-17 :( . Something tells me that the Nitto 555 tire will perform about the same as the Firehawk wide ovals since they share basically the same tread pattern. I may end up with a set of Toyo Proxes 4's even though they have an M+S rating, I have read some good reviews on that tire. I still have some life left on the wide ovals so looks like I can have some fun burning them off in the spring.

Any tire recommendations for 17x9 inch wheels?

[RF Cobra]

Thanks for keeping us updated Ausie! For daily driving the Khumo ASXs are doing better than I thought they would. I like them much better than the regular Khumo summer tires for year round use. Only wish they had 315s for the rear. For those familiar with it, they did a good job taming the Dragon on two separate trips.

[ausie]

Thanks for keeping us updated Ausie! For daily driving the Khumo ASXs are doing better than I thought they would. I like them much better than the regular Khumo summer tires for year round use. Only wish they had 315s for the rear. For those familiar with it, they did a good job taming the Dragon on two separate trips.
Thanks for the recommendation. I have seen them on tire rack.
I am usually cautious when it comes to all season or M&S rated tires for use on the cobra since my experience with the Michillen Pilot Sport AS. Those were a set of tires I could not wait to get off the car. I will not let that bias me against M&S type tires. What I may end up doing is getting another set of 10th anniv. wheels for the rear and mount drag radials on them.

Since I gave the Firestone Firehawk wide ovals as a recommendation shortly after I had them on the car, and as well as during their life. They are great tires but once worn down to 3/32 above the wear bars, they tend to have a bitter ending. That is typical of most tires since they generally use a harder compound in the rubber material when closer to the tire casing. I may drive aggressive at times but do not sit and burn the rear end. Only one trip to the track and 4 runs down the quarter mile. I am not overly disappointed with the tires since they provided good performance as long as the road surface remained dry. However they seem to loose their confidence as temperatures drop below 60 degrees after 10k miles. I think my next purchase for the 17x9 wheels will be in the M&S performance category so I do not have to worry about traction in the cold mornings common with spring and fall months.

[RF Cobra]

I've only got a few thousand miles on the ASXs so I don't know how they will behave once the tread is worn down. But so far the wear is much better than the Ecsta 712s. In places where the others tires would always loose traction from a standstill in the cold the ASXs have not, unles you get into the throttle aggressively. :)

Time will tell, but so far I'm much happier with them than the Ecsta 712s they replaced.

[ausie]

I will state that the firehawk wide oval tires are a good tire choice if you only use them in the hot summer. I did not expect the tire to maintain the same grip in the colder months of the fall or spring. However, I have had really good tires on my 18 inch wheels that far exceeded my expectations that were striclty Summer tires only. They held up to the increase in power created by the cold dense air as well as made you feel you were driving on rails no matter what the road conditions were. When you pay so much for a tire, expect to get what you pay for. The Firestones were not all that expensive so it was worth a try. Since I have driven on better but in a different wheel size, my seach has not ended in finding something that would satisfy my driving habits.


This time I will go a different route. I will get a M&S rated tire (not exactly an all season though) for the 17x9's and only use them for the Spring and Fall months up until I have to remove them and mount the snow tires on the car (basically used to prevent flat spots on the other tires when the car sits for longer periods of time). The summer months will be for the 18 inch wheels and since I need new shoes for them, they will be in a different rubber than I am familiar with. I am debating on the MT Sportsman S/R tires in 26x12x18 for the rear and 26x10x18 for the fronts. Not sure how good they are but they sure look like they would offer a good contact patch. However if they are only for show and offer no advantage performance wise, then I will stick with the Toyo's.

[Blk03Venom]

I have to admit, I love my Firestone Firehawk Wide Ovals. In my opinion, best bang-for-buck tire. That's only my opinion. I've had the Nitto 555 on my GT, and I had too much wheel spin before they gripped. My Cobra loves the Wide Ovals. On my second set of Wide Ovals now. They do fine in the rain here in Houston too as long as I drive how you should in the rain: the speed limit and cautiously.

[ausie]

I have to admit, I love my Firestone Firehawk Wide Ovals. In my opinion, best bang-for-buck tire. That's only my opinion. I've had the Nitto 555 on my GT, and I had too much wheel spin before they gripped. My Cobra loves the Wide Ovals. On my second set of Wide Ovals now. They do fine in the rain here in Houston too as long as I drive how you should in the rain: the speed limit and cautiously.
I am not trying to give the Wide Ovals a bad report but they did become less desirable when worn down to 4/32" above the wear bars. Of course by the time I wore the tires down that far it was already time to put on the snow tires although the daily temperatures were still in the low 70's which is rare for December and early January. In the summer months these tires hooked like glue, were not too noisy and provided confident handling. On dry roads and summer months they get the :thumbsup: . In the rain they performed okay but I did not have any confidence with them on the wet surface. I would agree with you that the Firestone Firehawk Wide Ovals are a good tire but best used in temperatures above 50 degrees. I did one track day just to see how they would perform at the drag strip, they were a bit greasy to start and got worse with lower tire pressure. Allowing the tires to cool down a bit improved the ET's but I did not expect them to perform well at the strip after the first run. On the street it is all a different stroy and was much harder to spin the rear end loose. I would have loved the tires if they did as good a job in the wet as they did on the dry.