King Traction
Written: Jun 25 '02 (Updated Jun 25 '02)
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Pros: GRIP!
They are the stickiest tires and cheap as well
Cons: They wear fast, and once overheated they don't stick as well
The Bottom Line: Best performance tire on the market! These tires are a fraction of the price of other performance tires and have more stick then anything I have ever owned.
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| Jrocket's Full Review: Falken Azenis Asymmetrical Passenger/Performance T... |
If you have read my previous post about other tires forget everything I told you. These tires are jokes compared to the Falken Azenis.
Over the last two summers I have spent many weekends out at the local autocross. For those of you not familiar with autocrossing you are missing out. It is a form of racing that is a lot of fun and is very affordable while putting almost no risk to the participants or their vehicles. Over these two summers I have had mixed feelings about different performance tires but my biggest problem was the best tires are generally more expensive and wear faster then every tire out there. What this really means, you spend more money to go faster, but for a shorter period of time. Then I found the Falken Azenis. I was told by a fellow autocrosser that they were the best tire on the market for street tire classes (most classes of autocrossing are ran on racing slicks). I started to do a little research and what I found I liked more and more.
Not only are these the most inexpensive performance tire on the market (around 60 a tire for 14's, 70 a tire for 15's and so on), but they are also some of the best performing tires. My times dropped 1 to 2 seconds at the track and in autocrossing that is A LOT of time. Not only did my times dropped by my cars handling improved all over. I could hold more speed through corners, I could use the throttle to drift the car easier and more predictably, I could stop faster giving me more time on the gas. I have not found anything about these tires I do not like yet. Compared to my old Dunlops and BFG's these tires are in a totally different league.
For example if you look at the tire you can see some of the largest tread blocks of any tire on the market today. The rubber is soft but not overly soft. Also their tread design helps them remove water faster giving them very good wet traction considering the size of the tread blocks.
Ok, so you want to know the worst part of the tire. You know they are a performance tire so of course they wear fast. I have had mine on for about 3,000 miles and I have not seen them wearing faster then previous sets of tires, and most of the wear I have seen was from the race track were I was pushing the tires to their limits. I have also noticed that these tires are easy to overheat. Previous tires I could run Five times at the autocross track in a row and not get them warm enough to become tacky. Two runs on the Falken is enough to warm them, and if you don't cool them off by the third run you are going to be sliding all over the place. I now carry a water sprayer and wet the tires between runs to keep their core temperature down. A few seconds of spraying the tires off and they do not loose any traction.
I am going to put another set of these tires on my car when the current set wears out. I will probably keep putting these tires on my car until I find a better tire and the way things are going, I don't think that will happen for a long long time. If you love to drive hard, and want a great summer tire this is the tire! If you drive like a grandma and want a tire that will last 20 years, pass these tires up, they will be wasted on you.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 70.00 a tire
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Epinions.com ID:
Jrocket
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Member: Josh
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 8 members
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