Kinda Disappointed in the Sumitomo HTRZII's

My 245/45R16 Fuzion ZR1's were wearing out so I got 17" rims fitted on the 275/45ZR17 HTRZII's. My friend who has them told me that they need to be worn in a little before they grab...maybe some kinda compound on them when new. So I drove them for about 200 miles and spun them for about 10 seconds, so I think they're broken in.

I just tried several launches (after a good 30 minute drive on the freeway at night) and they spun pretty easily. Seems like they didn't bite as well as the Fuzions of all tires! I just read that these Sumo's need to be heated up. I didn't spin them before the launches, maybe that was the problem. They definately spun longer from the dig than my old Fuzions did.

Still haven't really taken them hard on corners yet, but they do seem to grip good on corners.

Very quiet tires though...just like the Fuzions. No noise at freeway speeds.

What do you expect from a budget tire??? You tend to get what you pay for.

I have them. They feel like someone soaked them in oil and I'm driving in the rain and that's when it's a sunny summer day. In the rain they're a real mess.

They spin at will at almost any speed. I guess that's cool if you're into that. Maybe they would be a good drift tire. lol

Funny thing is, quite a few folks I know who like to "race" swear by them. If it was THAT bad, they'd be the first ones throwing them in the trash. Maybe I'm running too much pressure in them...I have them at 34lbs. This is street driving, not track.

I usually run 32 psi front and 30 psi rear. Try that and see if anything improves.

I've got htrz's (315/35) on my zr1's, they had about the same mileage the frist time I went to the track, and they spun like hell, now that they have almost 1000 miles on them, they grab much better, and mine do react to heating them up, pretty good too, so put some more miles on them and then see how they do, write down some notes now and then in another couple weeks try doing the same things and see if there's a difference.

I know a couple local guys who love them, they say once you really heat them up they can cut some pretty god 60"s for street tires. One buddy was cuttin 1.8s on a stock stall

How long do you spin the tires before they're heated up? Having to do this, I can see how their tread life would suck!

I've gotta try their lateral grip on a big open road to see where the grip limits are.

Go to a track day or autoX, you'll find out about lateral grip.

Spin until smoke starts. Anything else is gratuitous. :D

when I was at the track last, I think about 10 sec, and next time I'm gonna do a little longer and see what happens.

Sumitomo = overrated. 34lbs of air is too much air pressure to be "launching" with. And also if you were looking for something to race or launch with, why didnt you just go with a drag radial?

when I was at the track last, I think about 10 sec, and next time I'm gonna do a little longer and see what happens.

Thats way too long for a street tire. With a street tire youre better off going around the water and just spin them real quick to get the dirt off them. When you heat a street tire up that long you make it "greasy" and your burnout becomes pointless.

Sumitomo = overrated. 34lbs of air is too much air pressure to be "launching" with. And also if you were looking for something to race or launch with, why didnt you just go with a drag radial?

Cause DRs breaks stuff

Cause DRs breaks stuff

Catch 22.:)

Cause DRs breaks stuff

Really? I guess I'm just lucky then. Although being an A4 helps.

Cause DRs breaks stuff

That all depends. I have a friend running Nitto DR's, making 400rwhp w/an M6 and he is still running his stock 10 bolt.
While not DR's my tires are quite soft cold and even softer warm (BFG KDs, RT-615s) and I'm running a cammed LS1/M6 with 86k+ miles on the stock 10 bolt.

Then i have also known people who broke the rear on stock tires. A guy my dad worked with broke 3 and his car was bone stock. He blamed the car. I would blame the driver.

IMO it is more in the driver and the abuse it'll see.

Thats way too long for a street tire. With a street tire youre better off going around the water and just spin them real quick to get the dirt off them. When you heat a street tire up that long you make it "greasy" and your burnout becomes pointless.

the 10 sec was the last run I made, and I'm also counting the entire time that they're spinning, and I also just kinda guestimated, it might have been a couple seconds longer, but all I know is that on my last run I spun 'em up more than my others and picked up a tenth. I'll try some varying burnout times tonight when I go to the track. My tires also have a 160 tread wear rating, so they're pretty soft, as far as street tires go.