New Tire for C5s

[Hib Halverson]

CAC members-

Goodyear will soon introduce, a new, ultra-performance, non-runflat tire to fit C5s except Z06. It's called the "Eagle F1 All Season" and it's the first time Goodyear has had all-season product in its. F1, ultra-performance line.

The last great American tire company will come to market in July with the first 22 sizes and will have another 16 sizes by October 1st. These 38 sizes fit a large number of sports cars, performance sedans and sports coupes. The C5 front (245/45ZR17) will be available in july and the rear (275/40ZR18) will come by 10/1.

The F1 All Season is the debut of carbon fiber technology in an ultra-performance tire application. "CF" is familiar to Corvetters as the material used for the '04 Z06/Z16 hood and the '06/'07 Z06 front fenders, wheel wells and floor. In this tire, CF is in a different form, carbon fiber-reinforced inner and outer sidewalls. It stiffens the sides of the tire to improve steering response. This new tire, also, brings DuPont Kevlar into ultra-performance tires after Goodyear introduced it a few years ago in a broad-market replacement tire called "Assurance Triple-Tred." In the F1 AS, a layer of Kevlar stiffens the tire's structure just below the tread.

The CAC talked to Bob Toth, Goodyear's Marketing Manager for Auto Tires, the guy who developed the "Eagle" branding concept back in the early '80s and is one of Corvette's biggest supporters inside Goodyear. “Our Eagle F1 line has always been synonymous with great dry traction, precise control and crisp handling," Bob told CAC at a preview event last week at Daytona International Speedway. "Our award-winning F1 GS-D3 brought those attributes to wet roads. The new, Eagle F1 All Season extends that envelope by offering traction on dry, wet and snow-covered roads. These new, Eagle 'Carbonfibers' enable enthusiasts in places which experience occasional subfreezing weather to drive their Vettes all year long, if they choose." (our italics)

Using "tread zone" idea Goodyear introduced in the Assurance Triple-Tred, an F1 AS has a directional, "dual-zone" tread. For wet traction, there is the "All Season Zone", comprised of famed "Aquachutes", which channel water from under the tread and away, "micro grooves" each of which has a "biting edge" to enhance traction on snow or ice, along with a silica tread compound unique to this tire and designed for improved traction in subfreezing conditions. The All Season Zone enhances traction on snow and ice to the point that this tire is a "soft" all-season tire. it's certainly not for frequent and regular use in deep snow and ice conditions but, if you drive your Corvette or other performance car every day, do so in a place were, in the winter, you might start home from work and get caught in a modest snow fall or find the roads a a little icy from a sudden temperature drop; this tire will help you get there...and get there in a far more safe manner than will either stock EMTs or other non-run-flat tires will allow.

The Eagle F1 AS's dry traction is comparable to competing products and builds on the F1 brand's reputation for tires that stick. It does this its "Ultra High-Performance Zone", having aggressive, shoulder blocks and a stiff, continuous center rib. Additionally, the All Season Zone has Goodyear's (yet another buz word...sorry) "Treadlock Technology" which is a system interlocking micro-grooves which lock together when the tire is generating significant lateral acceleration. This locking stiffens the tread across both zones and improves traction in turns. All this tread technology, coupled with carbon fiber in the sidewalls and Kevlar in under the tread, makes for a noticeable improvement in steering response.

Two of this Goodyear's competitors are the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S and the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position. The executive summary of test data Goodyear supplied is that the Eagle Carbonfiber is comparable to both in dry traction. Has better lateral grip and much better acceleration and braking performance in the wet.

At Daytona last week, I had a chance to test those three tires against each other. Admittedly, this testing was not done with a Corvette, because the C5 rear size is not available, yet. My brief comparison was done with a few rear-drive, performance coupes, a Mazda RX-8 and an Infinity G35, along with a Pontiac Solstice. While sometimes inconsistent weather from one run to the next made some of the testing difficult, in autocross and running on a short road race course, on wet courses (and this was in actual rain not on a watered-down course) I found the new Goodyear had better steering response and lateral grip than both the Bridgestone and the Michelin and the improvement over the Pilot Sport A/S was significant.

In the near future, I'm going to test this tire for a longer period on one of the cars in my test fleet and a little bit later, once the C5 rear is available, I'm going to put a set on a Corvette and do some testing.

I'll let you know what I find-out.

[Tuna]

It it's not a run-flat, it still will not be on my cars that came with run-flats and no spare.

I don't suppose they'll be in C6 sizes anytime soon either. Still not run-flat though.

Pilot Sport A/S come in Zero Presure versions in C5 size.

Even GoodYear is making F1 D3 in EMT (run-flat) in some sizes. Why not the F1 AS?

[jrose7004]

I wonder how they'll compare cost wise with other Goodyear non runflat tires?

[JBsC5]

How do these compare with Toyo proxi's ?

Thats what I am thinking of for the 4th set of tires on my car..

That is until I heard your report..

Thanks for the information.

JB

[LT4man]

Thanks, Hib, for the great information. You really do a stellar job reporting about our Vettes.

I have been running the Assurance Triple-Tred tire on my 93 Grand Prix for a year and a half. I have been a fan of the Aquatred tires from Goodyear for years. The Assurance Triple-Treds are phenomenal. They work in the rain great and in the snow too. They are really quiet and I have supreme confidence in them.

SAVE THE

[Hib Halverson]

Originally Posted by lt4man

(snip)
I have been running the Assurance Triple-Tred tire on my 93 Grand Prix for a year and a half. I have been a fan of the Aquatred tires from Goodyear for years. The Assurance Triple-Treds are phenomenal. They work in the rain great and in the snow too. They are really quiet and I have supreme confidence in them.

Getting into Assurance is a little off-topic, here, but I have to agree about that tire. I put a set of them on a 96 Camry, owned by my fiance (the Fairest Sandra the Red) and at this point, several years out with the tires about 75% worn, those Assurance Triple-Treds have been outstanding in tread life, noise and traction in the wet.

While I'm going to replace the Camry (it's got 180,000 miles on it) with a Chevy HHR which does not use a tire like Assurance, if I had a car appropriate for them, I'd use the Assurance Triple-Treds, again. It's a great broad-market replacement tire for the typical family sedan.

With the HHR, we're going to try the Goodyear Carbonfibers discussed above.

[bwing]

Good Years were once my tire of choice until I installed Michelin PS2's. Nicer ride than the OEM F1 Supercar and grippier. Is that a word?

[99WhiteC5Coupe]

Hib,

Thanks for the information.

I wish Goodyear would develop a runflat tire for the C5 that was not so noisy. I like the idea that the Goodyear EMT has a 200 mile tire life at zero pressure, but I hate the loud noise that they generate.

The Goodyear EMT noise was one of the main reasons I did not purchase another new C5 to replace the 1999 C5 that I purchased new (my third Corvette).

[Pinky]

Originally Posted by The new, Eagle F1 All Season extends that envelope by offering traction on dry, wet [I

and[/i] snow-covered roads. These new, Eagle 'Carbonfibers' enable enthusiasts in places which experience occasional subfreezing weather to drive their Vettes all year long, if they choose."

Um, yeah - this I gotta see. It's one thing to have snow tires on a front wheel drive Camry, but on a Vette? And if the "subfreezing" gets more than about 4" here, I'm still not going to be able to drive mine!

[MMFaber]

Today we had our worn OEM Goodyear run-flats replaced by Michelin's. We now have a totally new car! Quiet and grippy....it is worth the purchase. The ride is noticeably more pleasant. Wow...cannot explain the difference!

We got 20K miles on the Goodyears and they served us well!

[Hotwing]

I'm stickin' with run-flats no matter who makes them

[VETTEX2]

Originally Posted by Tuna

It it's not a run-flat, it still will not be on my cars that came with run-flats and no spare.

I don't suppose they'll be in C6 sizes anytime soon either. Still not run-flat though.

Pilot Sport A/S come in Zero Presure versions in C5 size.

Even GoodYear is making F1 D3 in EMT (run-flat) in some sizes. Why not the F1 AS?

runflats suck

[Hib Halverson]

A longer discussion of the new F1 AS along with a kinda-sorta tire comparision is posted, here, on the CAC in the reviews area.

http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/...5/limit/recent

[jrbartholomew]

just bought a set today.having them installed on monday will keep you posted.
jeff