Just the other day I aquired a set of 195-60-14 Falken Azenis RT-215s on craigslist for $175 with about 8,000 miles on them. My previous tires were the original Radial G/T from when the car was bought (I think) on the rear and some crappy Woosung tires on the front. Needless to say, with those tires, reach the limit of the tires way before the limits of the suspension. You could feel them squirm in the corners, they wore funny, and would pull to the right when I let go of the steering wheel.

Now, onto the Azenis. First of all are the looks of the tires. The tread pattern is really badass, and everything on the tire looks so solid. Just looking at them I knew they would be better.

What was is even better than the looks is the performance. These tires GRIP. I have them at 50PSI all around, with the max being about 51PSI. Going around corners at normal speeds there is absolutely no squirm in them at all. They also ride smoother, are quieter, and much more solid than my old tires. To really bring out the true potential of these tires you have to heat them up and be in dry weather. It's been raining the last couple days on and off. Naturally, I was worried about the wet weather performance of these Max performance summer tires. So far they handle the wet better than my old tires. Just as long as you keep it at the speed limit you should be fine. This weekend I'm going to a novice autocross school, so I should be able to push these tires further than I have.

Overall, I would give these tires a 11/10 because they're grippy, visually pleasing, and are well worth the money. They discontinued the RT-215s a while ago, but now they have RT-615s, which I plan to put on my 17s once I get some more money.

Here is the test subject, my 85 2m4 with 50,000 miles aka "low 'n' slow". It's begging to be lowered.



Here are a couple pics of the tread of the tire, which I love.

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um, just one question, why 50 psi? if you have to inflate the tire more than 32 for the front or 34 for the rear, then the tire is crap.
normally you lower pressure for grip. over inflating a tire to kill that squirm from sidewall flex is dangerous and will lead to premature tire failure.
get a good tire, an you won;t have that problem.

I ave no tire squirm at all with the BFG traction /h's at stock pressure on the gt, and they stick like glue even on wet roads.
Those tires might be ok for track, but the look like dry day only tires.

They were at 50 psi when they were mounted on the rims, so I haven't really messed with the pressures yet. I'll try the 34PSI range when I get a chance. I have no doubt in my mind that they were designed for dry use only, but they seem to suffice in the wet.

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The max inflation pressure is molded into the sidewall of the tire. So far I have run across 35psi and 44psi tires. Anyone else have different numbers?

Most of my tires say 50 some for max pressure, but I usually run about 30 something in them.

Ive had all kinds of crazy tire pressures after getting new tires mounted. Don't leave them at 50 PSI, they'll wear in the middle faster and I'm wondering if this is why you said your old tires wore funny. I wouldnt run more than 34PSI in my Fiero tires, so I would definitely let some of that air out.

the highest I have went is mid 40's as well, but that actually loosened my car up, because of some of my crazy autox settings.

unless you are playing with tire pressure for racing, a normal street tire for a small car should be mid 30's front and rear depending on where more of the weight is.

for the Fiero it should be around 32 front and 34 rear.

I've had a set of these exact tires (different size) on my old Cavalier (205/55/16s) and they are exactly this: awesome.

I ran mine the entire summer that I had them at 50psi. It was the best balance for my car, especially when autocrossing (why they only lasted one summer). However, that was on a highly built suspension. For day to day, I would run them a bit lower, but I doubt it will make much difference because the sidewalls on that model are VERY stiff.

Even at the high pressure mine were at, they wore very evenly. Again, maybe a process of autocross shredding them in a hurry, but I kept them (very frequently) rotated and wore them all out at the same rate.

In your case, I would drop the pressure to ~30 psi, maybe 32 all around and see if the ride improves a little bit (probably won't). I might go so far as to suggest running them in the 35-40 range if you plan on driving around "spiritedly" on a regular basis, and reserve the extra high pressures for track days.

Something you can do to see if your tire pressures are optimal for performance:
Put a dab of white shoe polish or "glass chalk" on the sidewall of your tire right where the tread begins. If you rub the mark off beyond the tread, you could use more air, and if you don't even reach the sidewall you should let out some. The idea is to get full contact of the tread face to the road.

Grr, I don't have a good picture of the tire, but they did look killer!

I plan on autocrossing them this weekend. I love everything about these tires. I got them because my old tires were cracked and rotting away and I needed something to keep me going until I got some RT-615s for my 17s I have in the garage.

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they haven't made those tires for awhile. great tires. as for the guy above saying by a better tire. the aziena will smoke any street tire bfg makes :P

yeah I know. I see all those super stick tires all the time. cars are usually wrapped around a tree.

the point is, if you bother to read up on the subject and check with the tire mfg's is the tires pressure stated on the sidewall is the max you can inflate them to. they will tell you that the tire should be inflated to the specifications of the car. that assumes a relatively close match to the original size tire.
Track tires belong on a track only. not the street.
I;ve driven falken tires on other cars. I wouldn;t bother with them on the street. and honestly, the bfg's I've got on there now will smoke any "falken" I;ve ever seen on a real road. and that's dry.
I doubt those tires could bend a upper control arm shaft on wet roads in a high speed extreme stop. these bfg's did.
if they were pumped to the max pressure stated on the sidewall, I doubt it. you are reducing your contact patch by distending the center of your tread. you have less rubber on the road than a properly inflated tire. just be careful how you run your tires especially on the street. those rules however do change if you are running 18-20"rims, those low profile tires are designed and reguire higher pressure to save the rims. then it is a matter of experimenting. the fiero is not a heavy car, you don;t need to run at max pressure as stated on the tire. remember the tire can fit many cars, and wieghts are different an will be reflected in the specs for the car and tire.
improper inflation wears tires and reduces the contact patch to the road, both a hazardous condition.

(old trick, put a stripe of latex paint across the tire and drive it straight for a distance, then look at the wear on the paint. if it is nto the full width of the tire, inflation is wrong. center wear is too high, outer edges is too low.)

TJM's right, typically you don't need to run a tire near it's max pressure. The paint trick he's mentioning is the same concept as the shoe polish I was talking about, but I wouldn't just drive in a straight line for it, unless you plan on doing a lot of interstate driving. (Why would you do that on those tires though )

quote Originally posted by tjm4fun: yeah I know. I see all those super stick tires all the time. cars are usually wrapped around a tree. the point is, if you bother to read up on the subject and check with the tire mfg's is the tires pressure stated on the sidewall is the max you can inflate them to. they will tell you that the tire should be inflated to the specifications of the car. that assumes a relatively close match to the original size tire. Track tires belong on a track only. not the street. I;ve driven falken tires on other cars. I wouldn;t bother with them on the street. and honestly, the bfg's I've got on there now will smoke any "falken" I;ve ever seen on a real road. and that's dry. I doubt those tires could bend a upper control arm shaft on wet roads in a high speed extreme stop. these bfg's did. ...(snip)... (old trick, put a stripe of latex paint across the tire and drive it straight for a distance, then look at the wear on the paint. if it is nto the full width of the tire, inflation is wrong. center wear is too high, outer edges is too low.)

Um, bend an upper control arm shaft? I've yet to see *track* tires (Hoosier R6's, Kumho V710's) do that in the DRY, so what model of BFG was that, because I want a set NOW.

Seriously, the last set of BFGs I had came with the Fiero when I bought it. They were Comp TA's. They were pretty terrible (old too, which probably was the problem). I run Falken model 512 Ziex for my DD Fiero (And for autocross since I'm too poor for dedicated track tires) and have nothing but good things to say, especially at $80 per corner all told (after purchase, mount and balance).

The Azenis ST215 is not specifically a track tire, it has (mine had) a treadwear rating of 200. They're not the best wet weather tire by a long shot, but dry they were pretty hard to beat. Equal to better traction than my friend's set of BFG KD's and my cousin's set of KDW's, and at a lower price.

the comp t/a's were dry road tires. never were too fond of them, as I drive my cars daily. any old tire, especialy ones that sat for any lenght of time unprotected usually are terrible, the rubber compunds on tires do have a shelf life.
I only mentioned the straight line driving as that is the best way to see the contact patch. cornering tends to work it;s way up the sidewall, so you need first to establish the baseline max contact patch. you can repeat it nicely with some cornering and adjust from there, but if you find you are rolling the tires too much, you are likely overdriving the tire, and should look into something with a firmer sidewall. course, that does get expensive! , but if you are tracking the car, you have to expect that you will be dropping bucks.
Somewhere there used to be a chart of tires with inflation pressures and skidpad numbers, but those were older style tires, most showed a slight lowering of pressures yielded the highest skidpad numbers. as I recall, the regular bfg radial t/a's we usually at the top of those lists. I am actually planning on going back to them when these tires wear out, as they are a bit too hard on rough roads here, tho on the newly paved highways, they are a dream.
these are the ones I'm running now:
http://www.tirerack.com/tir...speed_rating=W&speed _rating=Y&minLoad=S

I don;t baby the car, I'm on it all the time in turns, that';s the reason I got the car the only time I ever had a wiggle is on some sand on an exit ramp. the incident I quoted above occurred on a wet road in misting rain, car ran a red infront of me and I stood on the brakes harder than I ever have had to in a long time, expecting a slide, they never locked up, just slipped slightly on the white stop line, then went right back to rolling. I suspect that shot is what bent the shaft. the wheel was then noticabley turned to the right, and I had to replace the shaft. (I was surprised, they usually just shear off the ends on the 88.)
they may not be the perfect track tire, but if you drive the car daily and want to bang your head off the side windows, these will do it!

KDW's suck, pretty much all I have to say.

I like goodyear f1 tires..

Good luck with those. And make sure you run the 50psi. I had a set (still on but ready to trash) on my yellow car and if PSIs were low they would aquaplane like a boat without keel. Once on correct psi they were fine. But these and a second set I bought on my truck were junk in very little miles (less thane 15K)_. Fiero ones scaloped on the sides and the truck set got out of round and scallped too. Would never buy Falken again.

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