New rubber - Toyo T1-R's orderd..

[DanSA]

Can't put it off any longer, so have gone with some nice new ruber in the form of some T1-R Proxes in 225/40/18.
By all reports very good , so will post my findings for others shortly.

Others looked at were Bridgestone R001 ($400ish) , Goodyear F1 Assymentrical ($400ish) , Michelin PE2's ($350 TR )and Conti CS3's.($539 from Skoda Dealer!!!)

Price from my local dealer was too goood to refuse at $275ea.. (other places quoted $320 ea)

FYI I have got 23k out of the CS2's it came fitted with. They performed well, but not well enough for the price..

By all accounts these babies still like the proverbeal. :driver: Rated as a Ultra High Performance , more info here:
http://www.toyo.com/docs/tires/tires.asp?lpid=18966&name=Proxes%20T1R™&category=sport

Will be hanging on to the car untill after Xmas now - got to get my monies worth :duh:

[RhysQ]

You obviously didn't read my report on them, one of many whenever i see the words 'Toyo Proxes T1-R' pop up. It's ok to read the company's review but they aren't going to tell the truth, just what they want you to hear.

My latest comment on them:


I repaced my T1-R's for the Marangoni's I have on now. I told the guys at the tyre shop to burn the T1-R's because they were so sh*t. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

No traction when launching in the dry (wheelspin the whole way through 1st, 2nd and part of 3rd) and in the wet I pretty much didn't take the car out because it was too dangerous. I couldn't even turn slowly in the wet without the front end sliding around everywhere. Going around roundabouts, all fours would let go....

[DanSA]

No, I hadn't seem your comments. I must say tho, that they are in direct contradiction with other GTi owners with them.
I can only hope that you (unfortunately) had a bad batch or something. How many km's did you use them for? ie did you experience this just as you fitted them? did you wear them in?

Ian from Rennehaus (VW parts specialist) has them on his own GTi with no issues. Is your Pogo chipped? (Edit: see it is, but only to similar stock Octy figures)

These are the next step on from the T1-S and aremenat to have a stiffer sidewall.

I have only used Toyo R888's before on my old RSC and they were amazing , however are a semi slick obviously.

[RhysQ]

I bought the car second hand with the T1-R's and heaps of tread left on them. I thought they were great tyres when i bought the car and was more than stoked that's what I would be running, until i put the foot down :(. I know chipped Polo's are well known to have traction issues but with my Marangoni's I have now, I don't lose traction at all any more.

You never know, maybe they were a bad batch but honestly, they were dangerous.....very dangerous.

I had some money in the bank to spend and it was a choice between an FMIC or new tyres. I soon found out I had a couple of nails in the tyres and that confirmed my decision. I'm glad I didn't get the FMIC now, can you imagine even more power with the issues I was having :eek:, i probably wouldn't be here today!

Those 'other GTI' owners comments you are referring to, have they actually had the tyres or have they just 'heard' they are awesome. Everything i've read on this forum is only people who have 'heard' with the exception of maybe 1 or 2 people in far less powerful cars.

[aliasmk2]

Thats the first bad rap that I've heard on these tires.
I have had 2 sets in 195x50x15 on my mk2 gti found them outstanding especially in the wet, which is where they get their best reviews.
I did a bit of research reading comparisons from places like the tire rack & the toyo t1r's out performed the others in most situations, but really stood out in heavy rain when aqua planning can become an issue.
I am now running Bridgestone ponteza g3 & would not recommend them to any body in comparison to the toyo's

[gareth_oau]

hi Polo, its a proven fact that tyres lose their performance, even with quite a bit of tread left in them. therefore its a bit unfair to compare a secondhand set with a brand new set, especially, if the tyres were on the car already when you purchased it and you dont know what their history is like.

I tend to rely most on independent testers who do back-to-back testing with new tyres, on the same car, in the same conditions

[DanSA]

;250362']I bought the car second hand with the T1-R's and heaps of tread left on them. .. :(. I know chipped Polo's are well known to have traction issues ).

Those 'other GTI' owners comments you are referring to, have they actually had the tyres or have they just 'heard' they are awesome..

Had the car been tracked? Maybe they had been fried ? Seems a bit odd..

See above for another person with a good review, and the others have been from people that have had them on modded GTis.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback, its all welcome..

[RhysQ]

hi Polo, its a proven fact that tyres lose their performance, even with quite a bit of tread left in them. therefore its a bit unfair to compare a secondhand set with a brand new set, especially, if the tyres were on the car already when you purchased it and you dont know what their history is like.

I tend to rely most on independent testers who do back-to-back testing with new tyres, on the same car, in the same conditions

The tyres looked in very good nick when i bought the car. You can usually tell tracked tyres by the type/degree of wear up the near the sidewalls and these looked as though they hadn't been near any track at all.

I had the Marangoni's for about 4.5 months now and i'd be confident in saying the wear on my tyres now is more than the T1-R's when i bought them and they are a LOT more stuck on the road... and i really drive my car spiritedly :D (if thats even a word :?)


Had the car been tracked? Maybe they had been fried ? Seems a bit odd..

Anyways, thanks for the feedback, its all welcome..

as for being tracked, see the above comments.

As for feedback, no worries at all, I always appreciate it when people have honest opinions on my possible decisions. I'd hate to jump into something and be utterly disappointed due to lack of knowledge and user feedback.


I suppose it's one of those things no one will ever know the real reason for it. Oh well, I'm happy now and it sounds like you are too!

[gareth_oau]

motor magazine actually rated the Marangoni quite well.

I know that Bridgestone (I think) started marketing atyre with a "new lease of life" halfway through the treadwear, acknowledging that tyre performance does go off with normal wear.

if you check out www.tirerack.com they actually review all of the tyres (or is that tires?) they sell, and rank them as well. the goodyear F1 Asymmetrics seem to rank the best

[gregozedobe]

Dan, once you've used your new tyres for a couple of 1000Kms please do a review of what they are like. Maybe they will (hopefully) suit an Octy better than a chipped Polo ?

[DanSA]

Will do Greg.

I was going to get Michy PE2's from tire rack , until the arse fell out of the AUD...

Anyways, these were my #2 choice, so hopefully they wont dissapoint.

[woofy]

I was going to get the T1 Rs for our Sports ed mazda 323 (which we traded on the Skoda years ago) when they first came out. They are ok new, but wear really really quickly and lose grip fast, the T1 S were reknowned for it as well.

I suspect they were probably in this state when people have had bad experiences with them. We ended up getting the Yoko c.drives which were new and replaced the yoko A539s which were a good tyre, so far the c.drives have been really good, but undecided about what to put on the Skoda in the future, the Bridgestones which came on my 6 which cost a fortune are not so crash hot so will stay away from any Bridgestones I suspect for both cars.

[awestonvp]

I got T1Rs to replace Dunlop SportsMaxx on my Polo GTI, Big regret! Sticky in a straight line, but real sloppy around corners and wear very fast. Increased the pressure (41 psi) to support the sidewalls a bit more, but still very disappointed in them. Wrote it up in Polo tyre thread. Next I'd try Bridgestone (apparently stiffer sidewall) or go back to Dunlop.

Best Al

[gregozedobe]

..... undecided about what to put on the Skoda in the future,

I'm pretty happy with the grip (including wet roads) and ride of the Michelin Pilot Exalto 2s that I got my dealer to put on my Octy. Can't say anything about wear yet as I haven't done enough Kms. Lots of the poms on Briskoda seem to like Falken 452s for their RSii (plural of RS).

[woofy]

I think I have those already, mine came with Michelins but haven't looked into what exactly they are. They do seem ok, hard to tell whats good though with ESP on, the real test is what spins etc when its off.

[brad]

I'll also add to the T1R-is-Rubbish debate. If you can back out of the purchase, I'd strongly recomend it.

On the forum I help run, we've had 3(?) guys with T1-R on their cars. 2 of them consider them lousy tyres. The third thinks they are good but I wouldn't rate his opinion anyway.

The biggest issue appeared to be that there was no feedback about what the tyre was doing. In cornering, they seemed to hang-on, but would then let go without any warning...... but not consistently. So the speed would vary & sometimes the front would let go and others the back would let go but there was no telegraphing of what was going on.

Among the cheapies that seem to give good service - Marangoni, Falken FK452, Federal 595RS.

Also, Tempe Tyres in Sydney have big specials on Hancook at the moment. 225/40x18s are $150 (directional or assymetric). You just need to allow for freight & fitting.

[woofy]

Just realised that the ones on my car are the Michelin Exaltos, so far so good, but no idea how they will hold out. I'm guessing they are really pricey?

[DanSA]

re PE2's - Yep.. If you can find them at all. Expect to pay approx $430 ea, unless you get em from tire rack when/if the dollar improves. They are a great tire tho.

[DanSA]

Well, I hedged my bets ,and on advice from the workshop, only replaced the 2 fronts - rears have another 5-10,000k in them , so will re-evaluate come rotation time. I don't usually like to mix tread patterns, but this will give me time to see if these cut the mustard.

All done for $550 fitted & balanced, and I can confidently say that they are great bang for buck. Obviously long term will tell as to how they perform past the 6 month issue, but seeing as my Contis gave up after 9 months and 23k, I'd say they should stack up well.

I should preface the following with stating I'm not into the traffic light grand prix, I'm more of a sprited hills driving man with an equal amount of long freeway commutes ..:driver:

Fist hills drive was good this morning -

Comfort 5* (better absorbsion of bumps)
Noise 4* (i was expecting them to be bad in this area, but they are better than the CS2's)
Grip 4* (Seem to hang on well , progressive when limit is reached)
Sidewalls Stiffness 3.5* Could be marginally softer here than CS2, but not by much, need to drive em more to tell really)
Feedback 4* (again, need to drive more to know)

So overall, at this stage, I am happy with them, and will post again with any updated feedback after a few weeks.

Cheers for all the feedback guys, hope this is of some use to others..
Dan.

[brad]

but seeing as my Contis gave up after 9 months and 23k,

Bloody Hell!
I've done 10,000km on mine & they've only worn 1mm-2mm. At current wear rate they should be good for 40,000km.

[DanSA]

What do you drive Brad?

[brad]

What do you drive Brad?

1.8T Octavia. 118kw/250Nm. Tyres are CSC2 205/55x16 (which are about right for the torque produced).

I know why mine are lasting - 400km a week of near straight highway. Only about 3000km of my 10,000km usage has been "spirited", the rest I have no choice but to kick back, put on some music & go with the flow.

[woofy]

Its all in the driving and maintenence sometimes, my wife and I drive our cars a mix of hard and gentle, my 6 has the supposedly really bad yet expensive Bridgstones that come on it from factory, yet they are wearing well and have done nearly 40k and still have heaps left. Sometimes all it is, is regular rotation, but the Skodas only get serviced potentially once a year so I might do them myself. I factored in replacing them a year ago but in the end the money saved went towards the Skoda. I guess I get mine as a tax deduction in the end but still prefer bang for buck.

[DanSA]

Rotation is definitely the key. I should have done mine at 7.5k, but it didnt get done till 15k ish (around 6 months)
Hence why my front faired so badly I think.

[brad]

I rotated the RHS at 5000km, then it started raining & didn't get around to doing the LHS.

Then I decided to finish the job last weekend.

Some how or another I wanted to incorporate the (same size tyre) spare into the mix at some stage as when I had the Liberty it was the same 4x alloy, 1x steel setup & the spare never hit the road in 10 years / 140,000km (and it was probably unroadable by 6 years).

So I'm leaving the LF where it is until it's buggered and I put RF-->RR; RR-->LR; LR-->RF. Will repeat at 15,000km.

Hopefully by shifting them about a bit more they will last & eventually I'll be able to put the new spare on the car for a while. I assume by the time the tyres are worn, the CSC2 won't be made anymore.

[DanSA]

Already happened, CS3's now, I was quoted $539 a pop :eek:

[woofy]

yeah I wanted to do that with my last two cars...never happened with the one I sold recently, and the 6s spare which is identical is still in the boot.

The Skoda can't really do it as its a smaller size rim, and a different tyre. ALways seems a shame to leave a brand new tyre to rot.

[GoLfMan]

ive heard the TR1's are good, a friend of mine with a Laser TX3 AWD said that they stick really well and have an awesome wet tread
I was going to get them for my new wheels but will now have a good look around :)