Re960 A/s?

Does anyone here own these tires? If so, please post a review. Searching only turned up 6 threads with very minimal information. The test in TR looked very promising, esp. the tire's performance in the wet. See here: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=72

 

Thanks.

 

EDIT:

 

I got some, 225/45/17 on stock wheels. Will post review in the "compendium" once I get more miles in them.

 

Second Edit: Also look to my post # 36 in this thread.

If you expect any winter reviews you may see none as these tirese were introduced this spring.

 

Krzys

I was hoping for any kind of review...winter or otherwise. Also, in some parts of the country it has already snowed....

The wife had the RE950's on the Audi for a while and we really loved them, they were great in the rain and OK for some snow. I couldn't tell you about deep snow because we always run dedicated snows but did get caught a few times with them in a few inches. They get you going fine but braking was no where near as the blizzaks though. Because of these experiences we ended up buying the 960's which are the newer version and so far so good. Rain performance is just as good and they seems to handle a little better. No snow yet so I can't comment.

According to tire rack rep on NASIOC.com he stated he thinks they are likely the best Ultra high performance all-season on par if not slightly better than Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S. They seem to have decent ice traction at least according to an odd test of winter tires vs performance winter vs all-season vs summers on ice.

 

They are in my sights as next tire but I will put up with RE92's for one last season.

According to tire rack rep on NASIOC.com he stated he thinks they are likely the best Ultra high performance all-season on par if not slightly better than Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S. They seem to have decent ice traction at least according to an odd test of winter tires vs performance winter vs all-season vs summers on ice.

 

They are in my sights as next tire but I will put up with RE92's for one last season.

 

Very true. In the TR ice test (here http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=80) the RE960 was nearly on par on ice with the dedicated "winter performace" Blizzak LM 25 in both acceleration and breaking. The LM 25's are themselves a well rated performance winter tire, so it is more impressive. I may just have to man up and pay the approx $200 total premium for 4 tires over the Contiextreme of ZIEX 512'...

Very true. In the TR ice test (here http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=80) the RE960 was nearly on par on ice with the dedicated "winter performace" Blizzak LM 25 in both acceleration and breaking. The LM 25's are themselves a well rated performance winter tire, so it is more impressive. I may just have to man up and pay the approx $200 total premium for 4 tires over the Contiextreme of ZIEX 512'...

 

Just to be clear, when I compared their braking to blizzaks I was refering to the WS50's. Compared to those cornering and braking were definately reduced. But overall they would be fine for most people. We went for the WS50's because the wife was working crazy hours and often we were finding that the roads were not well maintained on off hours, couple that with having to climb a 25% grade for a mile every day we didn't want to take any chances. We figured they were cheap insurance.

That's it for this TR tire test? Just a 60-foot time acceleration only? What a joke.

Well, I've decided to take the plunge and pickup some new re960's today. I'll let you all know what I think of them. I've decided to stick to AS tires as that is 90% of my driving. 10% is in snow/slush and the PNW predictions are for a mild wet winter.

I'll post my review of snow handling when I can get these tires onto some freshies.

 

Cheers,

Mike

"That's it for this TR tire test? Just a 60-foot time acceleration only? What a joke."

 

 

^^ Yes, its a very simple test. However, it is revealing. I would imagine that in very general terms, one could extrapolate the acecleration tests to braking performance, with tires that did decent in acceleration would correspondingly be decent at braking under the same ice conditions. Grip is grip, and ice (esp in an ice rink) is, appart for perhaps oil, one of the most traction challenged surfaces one could drive on. What was surprising to me was that an all season HP tire (RE960) was very close performancewise to a dedicated winter performance tire. That is relevant.

Well, I've decided to take the plunge and pickup some new re960's today. I'll let you all know what I think of them. I've decided to stick to AS tires as that is 90% of my driving. 10% is in snow/slush and the PNW predictions are for a mild wet winter.

I'll post my review of snow handling when I can get these tires onto some freshies.

 

Cheers,

Mike

 

Sweet! Will eagerly await your review... snow or no snow

mbcracken: Please post your winter performance thoughts on the RE960s. I was seriously considering a set for my 2.5i, but I went with the G009s instead.

 

As much as I wanted to put a set of ultra high performance A/S tires on my 2.5i, my wallet and common sense prevailed. My Legacy is my wife's daily driver and the RE960s would have been overkill for the way she drives.

my wallet

 

Discount tires mad me an offer hard to refuse. $650 total for tires, mounting, warranty and all. Tirerack's price for these tires alone are $650 and then you still have to get them mounted and such.

 

If anything, they should be better then the RE92's from everything I've read. I'm sure it will take me a week or two to find that sweet tire pressure point as well for these tires/car/driving habits combination.

 

Cheers,

Mike

Mike - Which Discount tire gave you that deal? I think we chatted over in the PNW threads so I'm assuming the one in Bellevue.

 

Thanks!

-Ian

I got the re960 a/s installed for $650, including tax, at Firestone in Woodinville. They had offered me 4 tires for the price of 2, which was $404 instead of $808 as they explained (the non-sale price of course was the highest among any other retailers). Then they apparently charged me about $250, including tax, for mounting and balancing and the warranty, which appears to be very high, but, considering that overall I got a pretty good deal I didn't argue with them. The point is that every sale has an imbedded elements of some sneaky BS in it, which they carefully try to disguise in a miriad of small charges, which, when added up, bring you back to the original blown up price.

 

BTW, I like these tires so far, but I'm not a tires expert.

 

BTW, I like these tires so far, but I'm not a tires expert.

 

Thanks for the thorough review...

Mike - Which Discount tire gave you that deal? I think we chatted over in the PNW threads so I'm assuming the one in Bellevue.

 

Thanks!

-Ian

 

Yup, I'm up here in PNW. Fall City.

 

Bellevue Discount tires. Yup. $650 with tax. Then when I got there they offered me an insurance program ($22/tire) where if I destroyed one of the tires, no matter the mileage, they would replace that one and the other three. So, out the door cost was $750 with tax.

 

Day 1 Impressions:

Much quieter and more predictable handeling then the RE92's. I'm running these at 35 psi right now. Yesterday's light drizzle was a perfect day to try them out. I went looking for puddles at different speeds to see how they would handle hydroplaning and didn't find any deep enough puddles to throw these tires.

I am on stock suspension and these tires seemed to also soak up the small bumps better then the Re92's. These tires on the Subby reminded me of my enjoyable & fun old A4/Toyo Proxies setup.

 

Does anyone know if there is a break-in period for these RE960's?

 

Cheers,

Mike

Thanks for the thorough review...

 

No problem! I'm always happy to help out my subie brothers with useful advice!

 

BTW, feel free to post my more detailed review of these tires that I sent you via PM.

Does anyone know if there is a break-in period for these RE960's?

 

Break in? Maybe 100 miles on a dry road to get the greasy stuff off the tread (from the mold).

 

How would the 960s stack up against Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S?

According to tirerack.com, RE960a/s outperforms the Exaltos and directly competes with the Pilot Sport a/s.

One week running on these tires and still like them. How's that for a professional response?

 

I don't have any idea how to compare them to eht Exaltos, but tirerack has a bunch of tests.

 

Cheers,

Mike

I bought a set of RE960's from Tire Rack 3 months ago and have put about 5K miles on them. Here are a few observations:

- Very quiet in a straight line and in brisk cornering

- Decent wet weather handling

- They flatspot quickly in warm, late-summer weather. Even if just parked overnight, I had to drive a few miles before they would smooth out.

- Don't seem to flatspot as much since the weather has cooled.

 

BTW, I never had major complaints with the OEM RE-92a's except for the poor braking performance. I will still switch to the Blizzack LM-25's I bought last winter in a few weeks, so I may never know how the RE960 would perform in snow.

I bought a set of RE960's from Tire Rack 3 months ago and have put about 5K miles on them. Here are a few observations:

- Very quiet in a straight line and in brisk cornering

- Decent wet weather handling

- They flatspot quickly in warm, late-summer weather. Even if just parked overnight, I had to drive a few miles before they would smooth out.

- Don't seem to flatspot as much since the weather has cooled.

 

BTW, I never had major complaints with the OEM RE-92a's except for the poor braking performance. I will still switch to the Blizzack LM-25's I bought last winter in a few weeks, so I may never know how the RE960 would perform in snow.

 

What PSI you running the tires at? I've got mine at 35 and it feels a little soft.

 

Cheers,

Mike

Looking for a decent A/S with a snow bias, I liked the ContiExtreme tread better. They have performed incredibly well in the frequent rain we've had around here lately. I've taken a long, high speed, rain soaked off ramp I'm familiar with a number of times at close to what I've been doing it in the dry on the Conties. The AWD and the tires are great for beating aggressive Chicago cabbies and their V8s off the line. No slip ever.

 

Bring on the snow.

What PSI you running the tires at? I've got mine at 35 and it feels a little soft.

 

Cheers,

Mike

 

I've tried anywhere from 2 to 4 PSI over factory specs. I'll probably stay at about 2 PSI over spec on all 4 corners.

 

And remember as the weather cools, tire pressures drop. Here in Maryland, they lost about 4 PSI when fall arrived.