Falken tyres

Have any of you guys usedFalken Tyres?.
I have ben reccomended their FK541 as a good high speed tyre. Prices are pretty competitive too.

Paul,

I have Falken(Dunlop)Ziex 502's on my car.

They are quiet, and their dry grip is very

good. I would not recommend them for racing

in rain, although they would be fine on the

street.The FK541 is the replacement for the

502, so I would imagine that they have

improved upon the older design. The prices

are hard to beat. I have 225/50ZR16 and

255/50ZR16's on my car. I hope that helps

you.

Regards,


Bill

Thanks Bill.

You mention Dunlop, are Falken a subsiduary company?. I thought they were an off shoot from a Japanese company?

The Falkens are quite a bit cheaper compared to the Dunlop 9000 Super Sport:

275/40 ZR17 Dunlop-£200.00 Falken-£135.12
245/40 ZR17 Dunlop-£170.00 Falken-£115.15

All inclusive of VAT and fitting.

Regards.

Paul,

Falken is (was) a Dunlop subsidiary.

Their tires are manufactured in Japan.

With the Japanese penchant for corporate

takeovers, it wouldn't surprise me a bit, to

learn that they had bought out Falken/Dunlop.


Regards,

Bill

Paul,
If you need to look at the cutaway section of the tyre, it is avaiable on www.falkentire.com

Also, carreview.com gave the FK-451 a 4.38 out of 5. It also has personal reviews from people.

Paul. I have been running falkens on my car for over two years now. They have done over 13000kms (8125 miles) and they show very little wear. I have had them on the track a number of times and they have good dry grip. Don't seem too good in wet. Regards

Norman,
If I can just come in about wet grip on tyres
the main fact about the performance in the wet is that the tread shoulders - that is the right angled formed by the grooves and the running surface of the tyre is the paramount aspect for a tyre's wet performance. Once that 90 degree right angle has been eroded ( rounded?) no tyre will perform very well in the wet. The actual groove pattern is also important for moving the water but if the sharp edge of the groove has gone you are almost to a degree aquaplaning (which happens at [9x square root tyre pressure expressed in lbs] mph ).
An example would be an F1 car with intermediates or wets in (last years)qualifying trim running wet. Once the right angle edge has gone (say three laps) the tyre is scrapped.
I doesn't really make sense for us to fit new tyres whenever its wet (even if we had built up wheels ready) and I think we all suffer from degraded handling to some degree.
regards
Dave M

Dave,

Your formual for the speed of aquaplaning seems very simple. Is the tyre pressure the internal air pressure as per usual?? Does the actual pressure of the tyre on the road not come into it - i.e. corner weight divided by tyre footprint? I understood that the wider tyres the earlier aquaplaning starts?

Dave,
It's the actual tyre pressure prevailing at the time ie any heat build up must also be taken into account. Every time a wheel is removed or the car returns to a garage the temps of all four are taken for analysis by Michelin or Bridgestone. The width of the tyre is, believe it or not, not the deciding factor on the aquaplaning speed. What wider tyres seem to do (IMHO)is railroad or tramline quicker in the wet but at the end of the day the Aqua/speed is purely a function of tyre pressure. To me that throws open that a slick at the same pressure as an inter or wet will behave the same and its not something I have figured out yet. F1 cars go out of the garage at around 12 to 14 psi and return at 19 to 21psi. They use a totally dry mix of Nitrogen (better heat chracteristics and tyre wall life) with one or two guarded additives. In the wet a driver will know instantly when the shoulders between the running surface of the tyre and the grooves has lost the 'cut' as his lap times degrade instantly.
I figure my -40 on goodrich comps will acquaplane at around 45mph.
On a Boeing 747 with around 125psi it acquaplanes around 95knots indicated ground speed.(Which it does!)
Dave

[ April 02, 2003: Message edited by: David Morton ]

Interesting. The ability to remove water from under (or in front of) the tyre is the prime purpose of wets so this is why they must surely aquaplane at higher speeds (or am I confusing aquaplaning with loss of grip). I recall someone wroting an article on this in the GTD magazine but I am struggling to find it again.

Dave, ET ALL,
to quote Mike Gascoyne (Renault F1)just after the problems they had in Brazil:
"You run softer compounds because you want to generate heat in colder conditions when you've got water. The trick is to run soft compounds that can last when it dries out and don't generate too much heat. What happens is you generate heat on the edge of a tyre and with a treaded tyre , you've obviously got lots of edge, so the block breaks down as it heats up and wears away. The trick is to have a soft enough rubber to generate some internal heat, but one that remains robust. Its easier to have a harder compound so that the tyre will stand up as it dries out, but in the wet it wont get hot enough and you'll have no grip. Intermediates
have a shallower groove because you're talking about less water , and you have to transport less away from the contact patch. The problems with a very wide tyre with a large contact patch is that you have water between the road and the tyre and there's nowhere for it to go, so you aquaplane. The grooves are their to take the water out.
But it all boils down to what you choose..."

Two types of tyres would seem to be a solution but it would mean extra rims and storage (they not small items on a -40). That's showbiz though!!

Dave M

[ April 13, 2003: Message edited by: David Morton ]

[ April 13, 2003: Message edited by: David Morton ]