Has anyone put Kumho's on their SVT?

Re: Has anyone put Kumho\'s on their SVT?

Love em. Still on my first set, but will definitely be getting another one. But this time I'll be going with the 40 series version.

I previously did a whole big write up on them, but it seems to have been lost with the forum upgrades. The gist of it was the 215/45-17's are HUGE. Much taller than the same size Conti's. Definitely go with the 215/40-17's unless you want the increased sidewall height.

Some old pics of the 215/45's...



Check out the beef!


And after probably 30 autoX runs, 7k street miles and 4 track days.

Notice no real chunking!!!


I'm now at 30k miles and probably am hoping to still get another 5k out of them. These suckers seem to grip very well, yet last decently assuming you rotate once in a while and run proper alignments (in my case almost -3* up front since I'm..ummm... a little agressive with the corners ).

As for comparing to the Azenis. Seems like the Azenis heat up a bit faster, which is good for short autoX runs, but not for track use. Still, many people (not me) that have run both seems to say that the MX's are just as grippy, and even better in the wet. Also the Azenis don't seem to last nearly as long, but I believe they are asymetric, so you can flip them around if needed which is nice.

Re: Has anyone put Kumho\'s on their SVT?

Yo Slick...you might want to get those puppies changed before it rains
30k on a set of tire the way you drive, I think you got your moneys worth

Re: Has anyone put Kumho\'s on their SVT?

When I ran the MX's, I had to run really high pressures to keep the sidewalls from rolling too much. I believe it was about 48 front and 42 rear hot.

It was a toss up between running optimal tire pressure for tire wear, or to reduce the chance of rolling the tire too much. As you can see from that picture, it was a little too high for tire wear purposes. But I choose to go with the safer method, use the shoe polish and go a little higher. Especially after seeing, first hand, what can happen if the tire sidewall rolls a little too much and the rim decides to bite into the asphault. I want the shiny side to stay up.

Re: Has anyone put Kumho\'s on their SVT?

How is the straight-line traction w/ the Kumhos??

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Umm... I'd guess its probably slightly better due to the softer rubber and larger tread blocks... meaning more sticky rubber on the road. But unfortunately I have no real data on straight line numbers.

Would you say that the sidewall on the MXs are stiffer than the Contis...after about 7 AutoXs at 45psi and up I'm gonna cord the tires where the tread rolls to the side wall...

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I feel your pain. I was in the same boat. Just tearing the crap out of the outside shoulders. Yes, the MX's do seem to have a stiffer sidewall. I have the 45 series tires which as I said, are REALLY tall, and even though with the Conti's I ran pretty high pressures too, the MX's didn't seem to have as much roll at similar pressures. I autoX'd my Conti's for a while and I feel the MX's were definitely a welcome improvement, but don't expect a night and day difference. The stock Conti's are actually pretty damn sticky as is.

Though I think the thing that really has saved my tires is that I went with some front camber plates. No one believes me that by adding an additional negative degree of front camber (currently running -2.5* on each side) has really increased my tire life. Not sure if this is just because I am pretty agressive with the corners, but probably no more so than any of us. And most of my miles are highway miles, so common sense seems to say I should be wearing out the inside quite a bit more. But, my tire wear is pratically text book perfect. I did also change from the stock 1/8" toe in up front to zero toe though. That's probably helping a bit too.

So Slick you were saying the do well in the wet? The conti's don't do all that well in the wet. And up there in the rain capital of the US I could use a little more grip in the wet.

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No, what I meant was that I heard they are better in the wet than the Azenis. No idea about the Conti vs MX's in the wet. If we're lucky, it rains here in San Diego more than 5-7 days a year. So I'm the last person you'd want to talk to about wet weather tires.

I'm thinking of getting a set of these in the spring. I've heard nothing but good comments on them. Anything negative to point out about them?

BTW - What was the max pressure on the stock Contis?

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Hmm... bad things. They probably won't last as long as most other tires. Belacyrf burned through his pretty damn quick, yet mine are still around. Not sure if that's because he had the 40 series and I had the 45's or what. Who knows.. Also, I believe they are slightly louder than the Conti's, but if so its barely. NOTHING like my race tires which literally sound like mud boggers. And considering they are classed as a "summer tire", I'm guessing getting them near snow would be a death wish.

Otherwise, they're just great tires that won't be destroyed by autoX or track days yet are very competitive in street tire classes, are very reasonably priced and they are offered in our stock sizes.

I believe the max pressures of the Conti's are 51 psi. Same as the MX's.

Re: Has anyone put Kumho\'s on their SVT?

I also have an LSD, which seems to like to aid in tearing the tires up

Re: Has anyone put Kumho\'s on their SVT?

they don't make an Azeni in our stock size. To bad though... great tire.

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Cant disagree with that comment at all...