Firestone Wide Ovals

I just picked up a set of these and I will admit I am very impressed. I picked these up over the GS-D3's because Firestone had a special buy 3 get one free. I got about 300 miles on them and really like them. Prior I had these all season BFG Traction T/A crappers. The Wide Oval has really good cornering abilities and straight line is pretty darn good too. Its nice going hard into a corner without hearing your tires screaming:bow: . I havent had a chance to get them in the wet but I think they will be good enough to drive the car, I bet the GS-D3's really hook in the wet though. Treadwear is 320, so hopefully I can get 2 years outta these bad boys.

Treadwear numbers mean nothing. :shrug:

I've got a couple hundred miles on my new GS-D3s, and I love them. I'd be interested to compare.

I haven't done very much driving in the wet with them yet, but my first impression is that they hang on MUCH longer than my old set of KDWSes.

Treadwear numbers are a very very shady way of saying how long the tires last. Note all the DOT approved competition tires have treadwear ratings around 10-50. They will not last. All seasons are larger. What I mean was that this tire is good and will not wear out like a drag radial.

I agree with you on comparing the tires. I read alot of customer reviews on both tires and they were all real positive. I wanted the GS-D3's but they were considerably more expensive than the Wide Ovals. I was thinking that possibly the Wide Oval maybe a Bridgestone tire? It says made in Japan on it, maybe it means nothign though?

What psi do you guys run on your street tires? 40 psi max and I am running 38 front and 33 rear. I really have no clue what is a good setup though.

Despite all the good reviews, I was not impressed with my GS-D3s. Tread wear was horrible for such a pricey tire, they really didn't seem to handle much better then the old stock F1-GS or whatever it was, and the kicker came when I had one blow out while attempting to avoid some debris in the roadway.
I haven't tried the new Wide Ovals yet, but I love my BFGs.

Which BFG's are you using? My KDWS had crappy traction wet or dry, but they were on the car when I bought it, so I don't know what they were like when they were new.

BFG g-force T/A KDW.

Im pretty impressed so far with my Wide Ovals. The hook pretty good and so far seem pretty good in the rain. The ride is SLIGHTLY harsher than the stockers, but I imagine thats from the 35 aspect ratio of the rear tire, not the tire itself. Im running 36psi all around on mine, 275/40-17 in the front and 295/35-18 in the rear. What size did you get?

I've had these bad boys for about a year, and I love em. I replaced my Firestone Firehawk SZ50-EP with the Wide Ovals and I loved the SZ50s. These are the best tires I have ever had in the 275/40/17 size. As far as treadlife, its to early to say, but I have about 10k on em and they look great. My SZ50s lasted about 50k, which I think is amazing for that size tire. I am hoping these last about as long.

:cool:

^How are they in the wet?

Update on the Wide Ovals. Tires hook good enough in the wet to be confident driving them. My old tires would hydroplane and get me sideways all the time, not these. I didnt do any harsh driving in the wet because im smart. Im liking them more and more I drive them:)

where are you guys finding these tires? i've been reading about them, tried doing a search and didn't come up with anything on where to buy them.

what size do they come in? tread pattern?

thanks

They have em at the Tire Rack. Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval. 275/40WR17s are $156 per. They didn't have any 315s, at least not at Tire Rack.

damn...figures...

We've got a set of Wide Ovals on the purple T/A, and they're great. MUCH more quiet than the F1GS that were on there, and a ton more grippy, and I've noticed that the car feels more stable with them.

Sadly, the wide oval wasn't offered in the sizes I wanted for my new wheels for the Vette, so I had to bite the bullet and get GSD3's for them.

My friend just got some wide ovals on his '85 corvette (17" zr1 wheels) and he loves them.

I'm in the market for wheels and tires, and I wanted to get some 18" y2k wheels, but the wide ovals don't come in many 18" sizes.

I think the zr1 wheels are the best for our cars, but lost of ppl. have them and not sure if they look good on my firebird. If I had a camaro i'd go for them. Just don't know what to do, but, want the wide ovals!

I also have WideOvals [275/40/17] and love them. I have them with WS6 wheels. I haven't driven it in the rain, but they handle great on dry roads. And very low noise, but then again, my exhaust is all I hear anyway, lol.

I just ordered them local from firestone since it came out cheaper than tire track plus had the road hazzard in town.

I barely picked these over the Kumho MX (there still on my lt1 car) I just wanted to try these on my ls1. I hope these are good and worth the extra money over the MX. They should last a tad longer and justify the cost.

I'll post when I get some miles on them!

I just (2 hours ago) bought my z/28 (97 Lt-1 stick) and saw that it needs tires, my boss has a ws-6 '00 formula with 275/40r17 Wide Ovals and loves 'em too. As a new member and a Firestone employee let me say thanks for the great reviews and great advice!

Well I got some 4K miles on them, there great. I don't feel the GS-D3 could be much/if any better and was like 200-300 bucks more. These tires hook really well for even my HP level and GREAT in the rain. I'm going to get these again! I hope they last. My Kumho MX lasted 26k before I sold them. And these should be more. GREAT TIRE

resurrecting old threads ftl

Well I got some 4K miles on them, there great. I don't feel the GS-D3 could be much/if any better and was like 200-300 bucks more.

Based on magazine reviews, GS-D3s are a little bit better in the dry, and a whole lot better in the wet. I forget which magazine it was (probably C&D, that's what I read most often), but I remember seeing that the GS-D3's braking performance didn't suffer at all in the wet compared to the dry. The stopping distances were exactly the same.

That's something I'm willing to pay for. :)

I would like to see that. I looked for proof like that for about 2 months but couldn't find anything. Still it was the price for me. I feel 100$ safe with 400HP in the wet with these tires. I really did like my Kumho MX's to for the price there hard to beat.

I've put about 20k miles on mine so far and tread still looks pretty good. I swap them out late fall for my Continental Conti-Extreme contact tires that are way better in slushy and snowy weather. The Wide Ovals are a great warm weather tire though, low noise, great handling, good in the rain and they have excellent grip requiring little warm up time. When mine wear down I will surely buy another set.