Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric Tyre Launch
October 31, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
I approached the hairpin corner at about 120km/h, jumped on the brakes and gently pushed the car towards the apex, not bad.
Swap BMWs to the Goodyear car and try it again. I aimed for consistency, 120km/h as I approached, jump on the brakes, smooth transition of weight from right to left, not even the smallest hint of understeer and the 5-series went around.
The difference is not obvious unless you drive both tyres back to back repeatedly (as was done here), eventually you’ll realise the Goodyear gives just that little more, especially in corners, it makes sense after all, ActiveCornerGrip technology isn’t just a bunch of made up words!
You can buy the Eagle F1 Asymmetric in 32 different sizes, ranging from 17-20inch and 28 of the variants come from Europe, whilst four come from Goodyear’s Dalian tyre plant in China. Would there be a difference between the two? There shouldn’t be, after all, there is no RRP cost difference based on manufacturing location.
After five consecutive laps on the European tyres followed by five laps on the Chinese-made tyres, the difference is hard to pick, your better senses might be telling you, make sure you still get the European one anyway, but in reality, Chinese production quality for tyres has improved dramatically over the past decade and Goodyear has stringent quality control to ensure maximum performance and quality no matter where its tyres are made.
The Goodyear tyres are produced to the exact same specification and identical compound worldwide. They are not run-flat tyres but the engineers say they are compatible with the technology if that was a requirement for manufacturers. Speaking of manufacturers the US based company already has a few luxury makers in its sights to become the official standard tyre.
The next activity is not worth mentioning, basically as it involved a Holden Barina, a wok, and a tennis ball. Yes, definitely not worth mentioning.
We left the Barina behind, grabbed some food and headed to the skid pad.
Dear oh dear… Just as bad as Toyota’s ridiculous launches for for new products. What’s the go with the Manpower style doofusses with their shirts off dancing around? I’m sure that would’ve got all the tyre shop blokes excited! Hahaha…
I’ve only heard good things about these tyres, I have the RE050As on my car now, will see how the price compares when I get new tyres in December. How can you tell if they are made in China or Europe? I certainly would want to get the European ones.
Sounds like a great tyre but put the topless dancing promo guys up on the “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING” Wall
How much? I’ve got RE050As runflats on my car, however, they’re pretty exy. $700 per tyre
with the new age of esp,esc,vdc etc,really expensive tyres are now o.e.,or put on my people who really punt their cars hard…which leaves the other 80% of people putting on the ‘monthly special’.falken,hankook anybody!!
I recently got some goodyear eagle f1 tires, they are very expensive but worth every cent, the difference from the older generic brand is light and day, the car is quiter, feels a ton more stable on the roads and very secure in the wet.
Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot
Tyre frollocking – The new olympic sport.
I’d be interested to see how these tyres go. I have a set of the GSD3’s and they’re pretty good, but very noisy and they run down quickly. Got a new set in Feb and there’s not much left of them. I did find though that the GSD3’s aren’t as good in the wet as I’d like.
Alborz, what was your cut? Perhaps you should be in marketing.
What bias!?!?
Where was my invitation?
I’ve heard, but don’t know if it is true that with esp and the like, these days that if you don’t have correct size tyre, and type of tyre as indicated by the manufacture that the insurance company can bail on you, is this true?
Golfy, don’t forget, we live in a whole other country….
Pierre, when you have the competitors tyres there to test against on the same cars, it’s not that hard to see the difference, in fact, if you actually read the article, you would notice I do praise the RE050s, they are one of my favourite tyres.
Andrew, insurance companies would need the car to be road worthy and kept to a required level. So having tyres which don’t meet the specifications can indeed void your insurance. Although not many tyre shops will fit tyres which are not going to meet the requirements cause they can get themselves into a lot of trouble too..
andrew,
the things that WILL bother insurance companys are wether you tyres are wider,are increased diameter,and have speed and load ratings less than the tyre placard on the car.but every insurance company’s different…so check with them first.which brand is open slather…
westnastraya, Karl?
Yes mate.
Wait Awhile!
how are you guys telling what variant of eagle f1’s you are running?
Equal rights…………finally!
Gosh thats all jolly interesting, Wonder if all those corolla drivers will be ripping round corners at 0.5km/h faster now.
a little academic for the humdrum of everyday motoring.
Funny how when you experience tread separation at 130km/hr, you get wary of some brands of tyres.
I’m kind of with John of Perth on this one. I learned very early in car ownership not to toucha. No toucha, no change-a. I’ve just replaced the Golf’s original hoops with Michelin Energy XM1s, with a minimum of research and no buggerising around with widths and profiles.
It could just as easily have been Goodyears. I figure that if I go Goodyear or Michelin, very little research is needed in the first place.
Andrew, I figure I might as well throw my 10c in too, for what it’s worth.
The situation you would have with an insurer with respect to a claim dispute resulting from you fitting different tyres – or making any non standard alteration for that matter – is largely dictated by section 28 of the Insurance Contracts Act. The insurer is basically entitled to reduce or deny your claim to the extent that they have been prejudiced by either your non-disclosure or misinformation (ie. if you don’t tell them something or just flagrantly lie.)
If you fit tyres that don’t meet the car’s minimum requirements, thus rendering it unroadworthy, the insurer can then deny your claim completely because they would not have insurer your car in the first place if they knew it was unroadworthy.
More likely however, assuming you fit tyres that are wider than the standard specification but still suitable for the given rim size, the insurer may have charged a slight additional premium if they knew. In this event, they can either demand you pay this additional amount on top of any applicable excess if you lodge a claim, or they can reduce this amount from the amount of the claim they pay out.
Some insurers flat out wouldn’t care either way if you fit 1 size wider tyres etc (providing it remains legal and roadworthy), even if they did know beforehand, and in that event you shouldn’t have any trouble.
Whatever happened to the Michelin Assymetric tyres developed in I think the 60’s. Michelin tyres at that stage were all radial which was just starting to be offered by manufacturers. The assymetric tread patterned tyre I think was offered on Citroen’s which Michelin owned or partly owned at that time.