Budget tyres

Barr

I am planning a set of wolfrace katana 17" alloys :cool: for my car.They are at a good price methinks at 840 yoyos . The only thing that concerns me is the make of tyre they come with i.e Nankangs !!
Has anyone any comments , suggestion, experiences of this brand
Cheers

bazz26

Never heard of that brand so I cannot comment on them directly.

Personnally, I would not put cheap tyres on my car as more than likely your life will depend on how good or bad they are. My advice would be that if you cannot afford a recognised brand at the moment then hold off until you can. I would stick with something like Vredestein, Goodyear, Michelin, Yokohama, etc.

nxbyveromdwjpg

Nankangs are Yokohamas that didnt make the grade

Captain Trips

Barr wrote:

I am planning a set of wolfrace katana 17" alloys :cool: for my car.They are at a good price methinks at 840 yoyos . The only thing that concerns me is the make of tyre they come with i.e Nankangs !!
Has anyone any comments , suggestion, experiences of this brand
Cheers

The amount of tyre between death and you is around 6 square inches of rubber. I'd say pay extra for tyres and get cheaper alloys.

BrianD3

The whole "cheap tyres can get you killed" argument is completely overstated IMO. If you drive safely and within your own and the cars limits then cheap tyres are grand. If you're constantly racing, pushing it to the limit, looking for the last ounce of grip then yes expensive tyres may be better. But if you drive like that on a public road sooner or later you're going to kill yourself and it won't matter a damn what sort of tyres you have on the car.

drdre

yeah man everyones right pay a bit extra eg 100-200 yoyos and get proper tyres they could save your life.

unkel

drdre wrote:

yeah man everyones right pay a bit extra eg 100-200 yoyos and get proper tyres they could save your life.

Not quite what everyone said

Nankangs are fine, Barr, if you drive safely within the speed limits on the public road

comanche

Barr wrote:

I am planning a set of wolfrace katana 17" alloys :cool: for my car.They are at a good price methinks at 840 yoyos . The only thing that concerns me is the make of tyre they come with i.e Nankangs !!
Has anyone any comments , suggestion, experiences of this brand
Cheers

I had Nankangs on the front of my car (fwd) when I bought it. I switched them to the back and put bridgestones on the front (thought the were the best value at the time). I regret it now, think the Nankangs gave better grip.

Tyres are funny things, cheap tyres can be a false economy coz they may cost you on fuel. Its hard to get a good compromise on grip and fuel economy imo.

2Tagz

..I put 2 x new Nankang EX-500's on my front wheels last November (replacing Pirellis) in order to pass the NCT as the originals had been deemed unsafe despite being passed OK by my garage days beforehand.

Result:?? a full 180 degree spin on the Leopardstown roundabout a week later in the wet when the front of the car lost grip while doing no more than a steady 25 mph around it.. Thought I could put it down to tyres not fully broken in/possible oil on the road etc but I've since had plenty of scary wobbles in the wet in the meantime. They're fine when roads are dry but this place ain't the Sahara...

fletch

2Tagz wrote:

..I put 2 x new Nankang EX-500's on my front wheels last November (replacing Pirellis) in order to pass the NCT as the originals had been deemed unsafe despite being passed OK by my garage days beforehand.

Result:?? a full 180 degree spin on the Leopardstown roundabout a week later in the wet when the front of the car lost grip while doing no more than a steady 25 mph around it.. .

TBH that sounds more like your rear tyres lost grip 1st...I would expect a car to understeer if it loses grip at the front....not oversteer

2Tagz

yeah I wasn't sure what to blame for the spin at the time.. I'd never had any problems with grip prior to the tyre changes at the front but the car does understeer far more now than when I had Pirellis on the front which were much sharper around turns generally; I reckon the front tyres only had to slide very slightly in order to throw the back out and the momentum then shifted it around the bend, very wary of smaller roundabouts now & always get a wobble in the wet on them if I'm not very careful...

kdevitt

Had Nankangs on my last car, they were fine - no scary moments at all despite plenty of spirited driving... did about 2000 miles per month on them too...

They should be fine - its not like you're buying a remould

Shane Smith

Whether you're a boy racer or an elderly nun, do not -repeat do NOT- compensate your tyre quality.

fletch

Shane Smith wrote:

Whether you're a boy racer or an elderly nun, do not -repeat do NOT- compensate your tyre quality.

Agreed....you see these people going around with tyres with unpronouncable names on them when they coulda spent a few quid extra & got a recognised brand.
Was in Kwik Fit one day....some guy walks in, tries 2 get a puncture fixed on his Golf GTi, is told that the tyre is beyond repair, says throw the cheapest things on to it....the guy behind the counter advises him that he has Pirelli P6000's all round and that the handling may be unpredictable on what is a "performance" car...guy doesn't care....on go the Debicas

Ernie Ball

2Tagz wrote:

..I put 2 x new Nankang EX-500's on my front wheels last November (replacing Pirellis) in order to pass the NCT as the originals had been deemed unsafe despite being passed OK by my garage days beforehand.

Result:?? a full 180 degree spin on the Leopardstown roundabout a week later in the wet when the front of the car lost grip while doing no more than a steady 25 mph around it.. Thought I could put it down to tyres not fully broken in/possible oil on the road etc but I've since had plenty of scary wobbles in the wet in the meantime. They're fine when roads are dry but this place ain't the Sahara...

A week isn't long enough to wear the release agent off the surface of the tyres. That takes about 250 to 500 miles. And the release agent is slippy. I believe what you say about subsequent incidents, but the first one is probably attributable to that.

As for tyre recommendations: for performance tyres I can't recommend my Toyo Proxes T1-Rs highly enough. My car had new Pirelli P6000s on it when I bought it but the eejit didn't realise that the car requires V rated tyres and the sizes are different front and rear. He had the same size on all 4 corners and they were only H rated. So this week I got my Toyo Proxes. They've still got the release agent on them, but even so it's like night and day. They feel much more solid and much grippier, as if I've got more rubber on the road (which I don't). Definitely a huge improvement over the Pirellis. They also look the business.

Ernie Ball

Another thing that can cause unpredictable handling is mixing makes of tyres on the same car. If you can't stick with the same make, better to change all 4 at once.

Seth Brundle

some test results:-
http://www.tyretest.com/pkw_sommerreifen/nankang/ns_1/index.html
http://www.fordxr6turbo.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18043
http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t33768.html
...and planty more @ google.
Personally I wouldn't touch them!