Gravel tire comparisons

So I am trying to decide which gravel tire I want to purchase for use on my fronts and am looking for any comparisons between them by people who have used them.

The Silverstone S525, 16/64-15. $150 per tire (unless I can get others locally in on it and bring it down by bulk quantity purchases.)
The Hankook Ventus R202, 160/640-15. $155 per tire.
The Pirelli KM2, 195/70 R 15 from 4 Star. $165 per tire.
The Michelin Pilot, 16/65-15. $180 per tire.

Anyone used any combination of these and have anything to report. I'm leaned most towards the Silverston or Pirelli at this point. I've not been hugely impressed with Hankook as I managed to tear through a pair of fronts in 33 miles of hard driving. We've also had a few tires that have signs of tire wrap resulting in tread blocks coming off. The Silverstone's always have had a good reputation in my mind, though they seem to be less out there and seeing less use these days than in the past.

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Grant Hughes

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Nothing in the 15cm width?
I really don't think any of us, including the so called bad-ass 34mm restrictor 4wd cars need 16 or 17cm wide tires
and there were 64 cm Michelins in the past. 16/64 and 15 /65s sound good.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I believe 15 width are only available in Silverstone and they become 62 cm height.

Michelin has 14/62.

Looking at the Ford books, as I always do , they seemed to run 205 or 215 width in rear and 185 width up front. That's partially what I'm basing stuff upon.

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Grant Hughes



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2008 06:09PM by NoCoast.

I have some 15/64 michelins that work really well. Wish I could find more. Oddly they are heavier than the 17/65 michelins that I also have.

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Matt Smith

Racing in glorious black and red

My daily life is a Saab story (sold!)

I'm not impressed with the Hankooks.

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Pete Remner
Cleveland, Ohio

1984 RX-7 (rallycross thing)
1978
Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.

I've used Kumho, Silverstone, Falken and Michelin gravel tires, and in general the Michelins are by far the best in my opinion. We try to use the L82 if we can (for 15's), but have also used the ZE80 in 16/65's on the Integra. It should have been way to big and wide, but ended up being faster than any of "properly" sized tires from the other manufacturers.

I can only surmise that the taller gearing and extra weight were offset by the fact that the tire is much butter then the others.

I can highly recommend the Michelin L82's which come in the 14/62. They are quite a bit lighter than the ZE's (as they should be), and are symmetrical which is nice for those of us who have to mix and match tires sometimes.

One of the main differences that I noticed is that with all the other manufacturers we'd chew up the tires pretty bad. On the Michelins it seemed that they just wore down evenly, retaining good shoulders/edges. At the end of 100AW I though we still were on new tires, until I compared and realized we had lost about half the tread to wear, but with no deformation.

On the new car I'm hoping to keep running 14's so will probably go with the M4's.

Too be fair Pete, if you are refering to the Hankooks that you got from me they are a different tire from what he is looking at. The R201 like the spec focus runs is the lowest spec tire that Hankook sells.

I found that I was much faster on Michelin tires than any of the others and I have used them all except Hankook and Pirelli. (I did have a good exp on Pirelli's once but it was too short to really get a feel for them)

However I often ran the Silverstone as it was a lot less $$ and in the softer compounds it was a decent tire that lasted longer then teh Michelin in warm temps. I would worry about tire wear in a L82 Michelin in the summer where you live.

As you will likely end up with too wide a tire grove them to help get up to temp faster.

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In the long run reality always wins.

I haven't ever been stoked on Hankook. The seemed to do okay the two rallies I codrove on them, but they did seem to wear oddly. And we've had two tires on two seperate cars experience tire wrap recently. I need to think about tire diameter for the fronts, and what I have and want to run in the rears and if I can get an adequate ride height, even with bigger tires to keep my car from looking too much like the van in the other thread.
If I was ordering today, I'd probably go with the 14/62 Michelins in the hard compound. As about half the events I am running will be over 70 degrees, and two that will be into the 90s likely, I think hards will probably be the way to go. Plus, I'll sacrafice a little grip for less wear.

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Grant Hughes

NoCoast Wrote:
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> I haven't ever been stoked on Hankook. The seemed
> to do okay the two rallies I codrove on them, but
> they did seem to wear oddly. And we've had two
> tires on two seperate cars experience tire wrap
> recently.

What's tire wrap?





I need to think about tire diameter for
> the fronts, and what I have and want to run in the
> rears and if I can get an adequate ride height,
> even with bigger tires to keep my car from looking
> too much like the van in the other thread.
> If I was ordering today, I'd probably go with the
> 14/62 Michelins in the hard compound. As about
> half the events I am running will be over 70
> degrees, and two that will be into the 90s likely,
> I think hards will probably be the way to go.
> Plus, I'll sacrafice a little grip for less wear.

I stink maybe 14/62s might be a tad small for a Xratty.
I use those on my 2000lb Saab, Derek used thos on Golf, they are sized for cars in the next step down weight and size range.

A 2300 Turbo makes some poop.
>
> Grant Hughes
> www.nocoastmotorsports.net
> Denver, CO

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

When the whole outer part moves at a different rate than the inner and the tread blocks seem to pull away from the cords.

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Grant Hughes

NoCoast Wrote:
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> When the whole outer part moves at a different
> rate than the inner and the tread blocks seem to
> pull away from the cords.

Never heard the term.
Did you make it up?

Anybody else know what Grant is talking about??
Yo no comprede muchachito!
>
> Grant Hughes
> www.nocoastmotorsports.net
> Denver, CO

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

I just googled it. It seems to be a drag race term. Doesnt mean its not applicable to rally, just maybe not used or as common.

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Welcome to the cult of JVL drink the koolaid or be banned.

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-Tom
DemonRallyTeam | Fine Tuning | CTS Turbo & RP Turbos | RalleyTuned | JRM | Meister Autowerks
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Dazed_Driver Wrote:
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> I just googled it. It seems to be a drag race
> term. Doesnt mean its not applicable to rally,
> just maybe not used or as common.
>
Well brilliant, EINSTEIN.
Glad to know you looked it up.
Too bad you couldn't ber troubled to cut and paste the section you thought might---or might not be---what the fawk Grant wuz talking about.

I like Tom's idea.
Least he informed us about something.

Silly wabbit.

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John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.