Kumho Ecsta Supra 712
Written: Dec 12 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Traction, Great Handling, Great Treadwear, Affordable Sports Tire
Cons: None At All!
The Bottom Line: The bottom line is if you want new tires regardless of what you drive you can not go wrong with the Kumho Ecsta Supras. Just buy them :)
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| DYQ685's Full Review: Kumho Ecsta Supra 712 Passenger/Performance Tire |
* Reason For Purchase
* Specs
* Overall Ride
* Overall Satisfaction
* Reason For Purchase
Well let me start off by saying thank you for reading my review and taking the time to rate it. Next I would like to say to those of you familiar with my reviews thank you for reading this one after my long absence from writing and you can look forward to a lot more now because I'm no longer as busy with school. Now on to the review. Let me begin by telling you that I am building a showcar out of the Suzuki X-90 I bought which I also have a review on. Now of course on a show car you cant have factory wheels! Its simply not heard of. So my choice of wheels became 18x9 Eagle Alloy 178 Style wheels. Now we all know tires are not cheap to begin with and when you step up to 18 inch tires you sure to have a hefty bill to foot. Then once you throw in the fact that I wanted the lowest profile tires I could find that makes things extremely expensive ($200-$300 per tire). I wasn't ready to spend that much per tire I had other plans for the money. So I looked around on the net and found the Kumho Ecsta Supra 712. My first impression was that because of the low price that these tires were of low quality. Well, I couldn't have been any more wrong. I ended up finding my 255/35/18 tires for $115 per tire and that was exactly what I was wanting to spend for tires. I ended up getting my tires for $500 with shipping and that left me with lots left over to do other things to my car considering I had gotten 4 tires for what one might have cost.
* Specs
The Kumho Ecsta Supra 712's a come in a V, Z and W speed rating and feature a directional tread for improved performance. They are designed to deliver a high level of high speed performance and hydroplaning resistance and wet handling. The tread's lateral and center channel provide maximum water evacuation for superior wet traction. These magnificent tires also feature an advanced silica tread compounding which ensures EXCELLENT wet and dry handling and predicability. In addition to please the most discerning driver the ECSTA Supra 712's wide tread contact patch provides extraordinary dry grip, stability at high speeds, braking effectiveness and cornering. They also feature two ply construction which give them high resistance to centrifugal forces while two very wide steel belts provide excellent cornering power and a very stable footprint. The ECSTA Supra 712's are available in almost all popular sizes for all cars. They aren't only for high performance cars they are made in 15-18 inch sizes. They are also capable of very high speed due to the very high speed ratings they have.
* Overall Ride
Let me begin by reminding everyone that I have 255/35/18 tires on my car and that generally causes a very rough ride because the tires are such low profile that there is so little sidewall to "give" under impact and to absorb impact so even expansion joints would normally become very noticeable along with almost and other road imperfection. Now this is basically common place knowledge to people familiar with tires and various profiles. So I spoke with numerous tire shops in my area and they all said that if I put those tires on my car that I would have bone jarring ride. Well, I took the risk anyway and I put them on. It is something that I will never regret doing. These tires although they are lower profile and twice as wide as my stock tires ride 200% better. I don't feel expansion joints, I don't get bounced around when hitting potholes and I have infinitely more traction. Now I know I did get tires twice as wide as stock however I did one of the Firestone 30 day trials on the same Dueler's I had on it from the factory in the 255/35/18 size for ride quality comparison and the Kumhos win hands down. They have a much more refined and sophisticated feel not to mention far superior traction in all conditions. In dry weather you can just dive your car into corners with perfect confidence that it will go where you point it. I have never heard them squeal and I've taken hairpins at 45-50mph. These tires will allow you to make the most fearless passenger reach for the "oh my God" handles! As far as wet weather they are equally impressive. I have made emergency stops from 65 mph in the rain and never even had my ABS come on because they all gripped well enough for me not to slide or hydroplane. I also recently had a chance to test these tires snow ability. Scary thought huh?:) I mean the thought of Z rates performance tires in snow on a 2000lb car. Hm sounds like a recipe for disaster. Well, I got it out into the snow for a few minutes and drove the speed limit (35) and I never slid once. I was truly amazed and I couldn't actually understand why I had so much grip until I pulled into my driveway and looked at my tiremarks in the snow. The way the tread is designed it actually pushed 90% of the snow out from under the tires. There was 1 inch of snow on the road and I could actually see pavement where I had driven because of the evacuation of snow. It made a small "wall" if you will beside the tiremarks of snow they had ejected snow. I was truly impressed. I had also gotten a chance to try them at highway speed (on highways of course). At 65 I could hit patches of snow and watch them shoot out from under my car and not slip! On one occasion I slipped under full throttle from stop but only for about 2 seconds and then they gripped and I was going. I am not saying to buy these as snow tires because that's not their purpose but if you want traction year round you cant go wrong
* Overall Satisfaction
Overall im very satisfied.I have 10k miles on these and im at about 50% tread left so it will be a while but im sure that my next set will be these Kumhos. I have already convinced a lot of my friends as well as my Mom to buy a set for her BMW which I also have a review on. These are truly magnificent examples of engineering and what a true performance tire can be when made properly. I think everyone should have these tires on their car. We would have much safer roads out there! As always thank you for reading my review and I thank you in advance for your rating. DYQ685
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $500
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Epinions.com ID:
DYQ685
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Member: Dion Whitaker
Location: Somewhere, NC
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 22 members
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