Dave's old JCW had regular Nitto (all-seasons?) and the ride was pretty decent.
After swapping the factory rims and tires for a set of winter wheels on the new JCW, I knew I couldn't go back to those godawful runflats again. So I ordered some BF Goodrich g-Force T/A KDW2's (summer tires, not all-season) and had them mounted to my factory challenge rims on Friday. Mounted them on the car and tried them out for the first time today and was very impressed with how well they "stuck" for brand-new tires. Sometimes you get some sliminess from the lubricant they use on the tires to keep them from sticking to the mold, but that didn't seem to be the case with these. Either that, or I'm in for even more grip when they fully break in. I didn't sense any tread shuffle with these either, and I've gotten used to a great deal of tread shuffle with the winter tires.
So far I'm pleased, we will see how well they do in heavy rain.
From left to right, factory runflats, new summer tires, winter tires.
If the new tires look bigger, that's because they are. The factory size is 205/45R17, the summer and winter tires are 205/50R17. I ordered larger tires to correct the speedometer which reads 4% fast otherwise.
The factory Dunlop SP Sport 01 DSST in 205/45R17 are 862 revs per mile. The winter tires I have are General Altimax Arctic in 205/50R17 and they're 826 revs per mile. With those, my speedometer still read about 1mph slow at interstate speed, improved over reading 3mph slow. The summer tires are 819 revs per mile, and the speedometer seemed dead on with what my GPS was saying today. I will have to confirm that sometime when I'm not driving for pleasure. Maybe 819 revs per mile is close to the sweet spot for having a dead-accurate speedometer reading?
