Sumitomo HTRZ:Anyone have them?

I've read good reviews about the Sumitomo HTRZ's from tirerack and was wondering if anyone had any personal experience with them? I was thinking of getting them as my next tire because of the good reviews and the price.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Sumitomo&tireModel=HTR+Z&vehicleSearch=false&partnum=74ZR7HTRZ&fromCompare1=yes&place=0

I have the HTRZ II and love them. :yes: GREAT price and very attractive tread pattern/sidewall.

Mediocre tires. At least they tested to be better than the Kumho 712, but not by much.

I don't get why people spend a lot of $ to mod their car to make more power and mod it to make it handle better only to go cheap on the only parts of the car to contact the ground. W/out good tires, you won't take off as quick, stop as short, or handle as well.

It may be a "GOOD tire for the money," but I'll guarantee it'll limit what your car could be doing.

The HTRZ & HTRZ II are two different tires and I would NOT call the HTRZ II a mediocre tire.

Seeing how the link is to an HTRZ not the II, whats your point? Even the II is a "middle of the road" performance tire which would mean mediocre or moderate in my book. Really though, how much can you expect out of a $100 275-40-17 sized tire? Now the Kumho 712, I would say is marginal. They are better than stock, but not much.

Spend a little more cash and you can have a better tire that'll allow your car to perform better instead of limiting it. Thats been my experiences with budget tires and why I've sworn off of them. I'm in no way saying you have to buy the most expensive either. Look at how much the OE GY F1's cost and how crappy they are.

Actually, I was looking at those in a 245/50/16 size. I need new tires to replace my crappy GY Eagle RS-A stockers [and those things cost $195 a peice new!]. Then I want to either get a set of TT2's or WS6's and then get some better tires for those. Right now, I just need to get rid of those junk GY's.

Why not buy used if you're just wanting to get by?

Why not buy used if you're just wanting to get by?

Used tires are like someones dog crap, no one wants it. My opinion.:rolleyes:

Posted by: Greed4Speed
Mediocre tires. At least they tested to be better than the Kumho 712, but not by much.

I don't get why people spend a lot of $ to mod their car to make more power and mod it to make it handle better only to go cheap on the only parts of the car to contact the ground. W/out good tires, you won't take off as quick, stop as short, or handle as well.

It may be a "GOOD tire for the money," but I'll guarantee it'll limit what your car could be doing.

Some pepole just don't want to spend the money and some others have no need. Just because a guy owns a Camaro that makes pretty good power doesn't mean that you are running it hard all of the time. I have HTRZ's and have nothing bad to say about them. I went with them when I got my new rims because they were CHEAP and I didn't need expensive tires. I drive my car about 300 miles a year. This year, I probably drove it about 50 miles. Why would I spend $1000.00 on tires when I don't drive my car any more than that?

W/ only $300 miles/year good tires would last a long time and do better when you are driving the car.

You don't have to spend $1k on tires to get good tires. You can get a set of BFG KDW that'll outperform the Sumi for $664 in 275-40-17 at tirerack. Doesn't look like a gran to me.

I guaranteed I can find cheaper but that was the first place I looked. So much for your $1000 set of tires. Just as an example I got a set of 2 brand new BFG KD tires for ~$240 shipped to my door. That comes up to $120/tire, so I could have gotten a complete set for $480. Tirerack will ship a set of your HTR tires for ~$392. Wow, $88 more is really breaking the bank for a much better tire. This is all on the 275-40-17, so it'll be cheaper to get 16's.

As far as used tires being dog crap... I've seen some nice deals on good tires in the local section of the LS forums. I wasn't talking about going to "Bubba's Used Tire and Tobacco" to get worn out generic crap. Even then, when I was tight on cash I got a pair of F1's from a shop with a couple hundered miles on them for $120 mounted and balanced.

If you had an M6 would you run a weak clutch that was prone to slippage because it was cheaper or would you spend the cash and buy one that held the power? Your tires you are choosing will hinder your performance in more ways than a weak clutch yet you want to cut corners here?

There's a reason why there so cheap in price and I'm not talking about the tread life either. Spend a tad bit more you'll get better tires.

I really like the tires. I like to have fun driving my car, and I am not actively competing in the open road racing circuit, so I don't feel the need to spend a fortune on tires.

Like I said, I like to have fun with my car, and if some old man at a cruise tells me to light em up, I don't feel remorseful about doing so like I would if I had an $1800 set of super duper supreme tires. :blah: I don't need Pilot Sports or <insert premium tire here> to cruise around on the weekends with on the street.

Read my post. $88 more than Discount's listed price for the HTRZ and I could have a full set of BFG KD. Ya, thats $1800 super duper tires. Its funny how inflated people like to get these prices to justify their purchase.

There is also a difference in view point. I buy tires to hook up, ie. provide traction, better braking, NOT SPIN. You apparently buy tires to spin.

Read my post. $88 more than Discount's listed price for the HTRZ and I could have a full set of BFG KD. Ya, thats $1800 super duper tires. Its funny how inflated people like to get these prices to justify their purchase.

There is also a difference in view point. I buy tires to hook up, ie. provide traction, better braking, NOT SPIN. You apparently buy tires to spin.
In other words, double the price.

I buy my tires to drive on and play around with, not to spend large amounts of money to have tires that 'hook up' and wear faster, and cost more for the same mileage. I'm not racing on the track, open course or drag strip. When I do, I'll have the appropriate tires. When I'm driving on the street I have no desire to tear up high dollar tires like I'm going to win a race at Laguna Seca.

Not to mention a friend of mine crashed his Z28 during a simple emergency lane change on KDs. Yeah, he was pissed that his supertires didn't stick for sh** and actually didn't hold up to a simple lane change with NO braking. Car pulled in front of him at the last minute, he changed lanes, got loose and the car went around. Amazing tires let me tell ya.

i use my car for weekend fun and aggressive driving. no track use

i regret getting ****ty tires even though I only use the car for the above uses

In other words, double the price.

I buy my tires to drive on and play around with, not to spend large amounts of money to have tires that 'hook up' and wear faster, and cost more for the same mileage. I'm not racing on the track, open course or drag strip. When I do, I'll have the appropriate tires. When I'm driving on the street I have no desire to tear up high dollar tires like I'm going to win a race at Laguna Seca.

Not to mention a friend of mine crashed his Z28 during a simple emergency lane change on KDs. Yeah, he was pissed that his supertires didn't stick for sh** and actually didn't hold up to a simple lane change with NO braking. Car pulled in front of him at the last minute, he changed lanes, got loose and the car went around. Amazing tires let me tell ya.

In other words, that was $88 extra for ALL 4 TIRES TOTALLED, not each.

F-bodies have light rear ends and he obviously oversteered. Had he had crappy tires up front, they wouldn't have grabbed up front where the weight is but would have more likely plowed straight on. Besides, some things are unavoidable no matter what tires you're running. ;)

Just keep telling yourself you bought good tires, doesn't matter to me, but don't be too pissed when you lose to a slower car that has better traction. :D

Seriously, you have a GMMG. A $700 catback that isn't any better than a $350 catback and yet your whining about not wanting to spend more cash on better tires???

Seriously, you have a GMMG. A $700 catback that isn't any better than a $350 catback and yet your whining about not wanting to spend more cash on better tires???
I won't have to replace my cat back sooner if I drive the car hard. You drive hard on some expensive tires, and you can count dollar signs blowing away in the breeze.



So now you're telling me BFG KDs are $110 a piece? :lol: Wow, what happened there, they decided they weren't the awesome pieces of rubber they were billed to be? Sounds like you do the opposite of what you were complaining I was doing; and you're padding the prices WAAAAY down to justify your reasoning.

Nope, I just found a damn good deal. It pays to shop around. ;) I never said you had to go out and buy expensive tires, just GOOD tires - if you'll actually take the time to read my posts. I'm just against buying cheap tires like HTRZ and Kumho 712's and then telling people they're good when they're mediocre at best. Ya, they may be "good for the money" the same way cheap brake pads may be "good for the money," but they'll never be anything above average if even that. I used to have the same line of thought as you until I actually tried some really good tires. Now I won't go back.

If you want a good relatively inexpensive tire, check out the Nitto 555 or Kumho MX. Even Hankook has some decent rubber. It doesn't have to be BFG, GY, or Michelin.

I drive daily on the KD's. 16K miles and I still have at least 75% tread left, but I'm also not doing burnouts to show off to "old men". Sorry, I care more about my drivetrain than to do that.

Yeah, because all those hard launches with your tires 'hooking up' are great for your drivetrain. :lol:


Hey, you got a great deal eh? Hook me up with whatever fantasy place you found that gave you that bullsh** price! ;) :lol: Hell, I'll buy some KDs for $110 a piece. Pretty good considering the average price is $250 each. Yeah. Nice BS price there dude.

Either that or you bought KDWS (probably what the case is) and you keep on trying to drop the WS off the back and pass them off as the better tire. The KDWS isn't all that, bud.

Hard launches come with racing. I'd rather have breakage from that than from doing an immature act such as showing off that I can smoke my tires. Because exhibitions of the lack of traction are so impressive. The most breakage I've seen from hard launches is rear or driveshaft. From burn outs I've seen rear, trans, and engine failure. Do you see the difference yet?

They are the KD and they were ~$240 shipped for 2. Dig around on the internet and you can find great deals. I couldn't care less if you don't believe it. Even the guys that mounted them for me at Tirerack were amazed. lol They asked why I didn't get tires from them so I told them the price. All they could say was, "Oh." This is why I have the KD instead of the GY GSD3 or Toyo T1s.

I do know what the KDWS is because they were on my wife's Grand Am, and I agree...they aren't all that and I've said as much in other threads.

I dumped $850 on 275/40/17 Goodyear GS-D3's. Money well spent until I needed new tires 30k later. Then I bought a set of used GS-D3's from ebay with 42 miles on them for the price of one. A great deal to say the least and with no problems at all, they were used in the from on some 17x9.5 TT 2's. Then for the rear I went with some Sumitomo HTRZ's since they are only $110 for 315/35/17 and all the others two or three times that. The tires perform just as well as when I had the GS-D3's on all 4 corners. The Sumitomo's actually seemed to have a bit stiffer side wall in the corners. This was on 17x11" TT 2's. All compared to 17x9 SS Rims on all four corners.

After my experience I'd have no problem spending over $400 less on cheaper Sumitomo's. Granted I like Goodyear better, but for the money right now on my tight budget I'll stick to the cheaper tires. $400 would be a set of headers, Hotcam kit, or TC that in my opinion would be extra money well spent.

-Dustin-

Sumitomo is now the owner of Goodyear tire and now do all the design & engineering work on their tires. That why the Sumitomo HTRZ-II had the advance tread design before the Goodyears with the big price tag.

Actually they're calling it an alliance. Neither is owned by the other.
Goodyear acquired 10% of Sumitomo's stock, worth about $88 million. Sumitomo acquired the same dollar value of Goodyear's stock, or about 1% of Goodyear's shares.

At the center of the Sumitomo-Goodyear agreement are six joint ventures.

The largest venture will combine 14 factories operated by Goodyear and Sumitomo in Western Europe. Goodyear will have 75% control of the venture, which will have a combined $4 billion in annual revenue. The venture will sell Goodyear brand tires as well as Sumitomo's Dunlop and Sumitomo brands.

A second venture will give Goodyear 75% control over Sumitomo's two U.S. factories in Huntsville, Ala. and Buffalo, N.Y. The facilities have about $800 million in sales.

Goodyear and Sumitomo will combine their global purchasing and research and development operations into two joint ventures that will be majority owned by Goodyear. In the research venture, Goodyear and Sumitomo will seek to eliminate duplicate product development efforts. Both companies, for instance, have tires that can run after they get flat. Eventually, the companies will likely sell the same run-flat technology.

There will be two joint ventures in the Japanese market, both controlled by Sumitomo. These will take over Goodyear's small Japanese marketing operations and will target auto makers and the replacement market.

As stated before, this thread asked about the HTRZ, not the HTRZ-II. I'm sure the II is a whole new animal just like the BFG g-force line was to the Comp-TA.

But even the HTRII doesn't test much above the Kumho 712.:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/uhp_give_you_more_charts.jsp