Nankang Tyres

[Kevsta]

This coming weekend I'm going to get a pair of gt radials champiro 328's. Check the link below:

http://www.tyres4u.com.au/product_details/...0&from=consumer

These are a directional tyre. Not sure how good they are, but they are endorsed by Alan Moffet. Price fitted & balanced is about $180 each.

The dudes at the tyre shop recommended this tyre and said it has better grip/handling than the stock turanzas. Price quoted for the Turanzas was $259 each.

I wanted to get the Toyo Proxes T1R but apparently they are out of stock and next shipment is 2 to 3 weeks away... (we all know what that means). Something I can't wait for as my spare's all worn out on one side and has a puncture in it - not worth repairing.

[qkslvr]

got my set of wheels and tyres just two weeks ago. Now that the tyres are nicely scrubbed in, i would like to offer my views on the Nankang branded tyre. Since my search on google for reviews on these tyres resulted in a million pages of some Falcon or Commodore driver saying that these tyres are "Really good" or "these tyres are cr*p" and not explain why, where, or how i thought it would be cool to do a proper write-up. which means that is Looooooong. so if you hate reading hit the "back" button now. =)

Some of you may have read my previous post which i had not such nice things to say about the tyre. Since then, the tyres have been nicely scrubbed in and i would like to retract my opinions. The tyres I have are the Nankang NSII 215/40-17. I have heard reports that they are alot better than the older NS1 tyres which are no longer available (my source works at HOT4's)

Ok, now that i have the formalities out of the way, lets get on with the juicey stuff. Firstly the tyre gives good traction off the line, ofcourse with a wider width than the puney 195/55-16 Turanza, you will notice an improvement in both traction and lateral grip. Since we are comparing apples and oranges I will just say that you get much better launches and that chirp you get from 1-2 and 2nd-3rd gears changes is not as noticable, which translates to better accelaration into each successive gear. this also means more strain on the driveline; namely, the clutch. You'll notice it slipping more into the next gear.

This leaves us only with rating the responsiveness and feel of the tyre. I thought to properly test these tyres out I would need some road, some really twisty roads. Fortunately, the local council thought it would be really neat and against the grain if, instead of making the local backstreets grided, they would employ a amputied, one-eyed, alcoholic architect who suffers from tremors to draw the street layout. Which is perfect for the sportivo =)

first, a long sweeping right hand turn, late at night, no traffic. maintaining the turn at an undisclosed speed, the car felt like it had plenty of lateral grip. no signs of understeer under moderate power though the entire turn. then at the end is a short and sudden right hand hairpin through a railway underpass. On the brakes, steering wheel goes around, initial turn-in is excellent but halfway through the hairpin some understeer develops. A little more lock on the wheel and lifting my lead foot of that throttle slightly brings the car around. As soon as the car straightens up, hard left turn. Again, hot on the brakes and line up for the next turn. The most amazing thing about this budget tyre is definitely the turn-in. they bite the road. they fade away slighly as the corner progresses but still hold on. you can hear the tyre squirming under the car as you haul it around the corner. Hooking the sharp left, you can feel the car holding on. with the sportivo on these tyres riding on lowered springs, you can feel the slightest hint of oversteer. It's almost as if the car is on 4wheel steering. Because you're sitting fairly midship in the car, all you feel is yoursef almost spinning about ur axis as you go round the turn. It's actually so much fun you want to go back to do it again =)

Some may say that Nankang's are a cheap budget tyre by Yokohama, they wear too fast, too noisey...etc and the list goes on. However, for almost half the price of a "good" performance tyre you definitely get more than half the performance. and even if they wear twice as fast it's still worth the smaller initial outlay. Ofcourse, another factor in tyre performance is consistancy. Some of the boys have taken the stock Turanza's to the track and said that they go soggy after a few laps. Since i can't really test this aspect of the tyre on the street, i'll omit this "minor" detail :) and leave it for another day. The NSII may hold up or they may get as soggy as an oil slick in a bubble bath, i'm not sure. i guess we'll have to wait and see.

So in conclusion if you want a high performing branded tyre for the track, the Nankangs may not be the one for you, but if you want a good street tyre that gives good turn-in, minimizes understeer for the sportivo and quite frankly, makes the car more fun to drive whilst still sticking to a budget, then get the nankangs. Your wallet will love you for it. :)

And on a side note: the stock shocks on the Sportivo are fine with lowering springs for around town driving. But on even slightly stiffer spring rates, the stock shocks rebound damping abilities (or lack thereof) can bee felt. the bumping absorbsion on the outside corners of the turn are fine, but as you exit and straighten up, the weight shift away from loaded corners causes the stiffer springs to "kick" back. since the kick is harder than stock, the dampers have a real hard time damping the motion and as a result, the car literally pounces out of the corner. Not the safest way to exit a turn. So beware those with stiffer springs on stock shocks.

sorry for the lengthy post guys but i thought i'd do a proper write-up since there is a none on the entire p*rn-infested internet :) Hope this helps those currently making an informed tyre chose.

Edited February 23, 2006 by qkslvr

[SyxXPaC]

Great post qkslvr,

I have a family member in the tyres industry and they agree mostly with your comments.

But recently a brand probably unknown to you all NEXEN, brought out the n3000 tyre to complete with nankangs value for money budget tyre.

Based on my expereince in friends cars who have brought the NEXEN over the nankangs you will notice the same if nto better grip, but with the added bonus of lastability that puts it over the nankangs.

check out this site howing the tred pattern and review of the Nexen N3000s

http://www.blackcircles.com/tyres/nexen

Top Ten tyres in Caramar (sydney) usually stock this size and will usually match the price of the nankangs

[C-rolla]

anyone heard of "Ling Long" tyres??

good, bad?

anything cheers..

[MT]

the tyres on my new wheels are Federal's.

anyone had any experience with them? as far, i think they are shocking... but i've only one a couple of hundred k's

[eggbert_99]

anyone heard of "Ling Long" tyres??

good, bad?

anything cheers..

WTF ... who in their right mind names a tyre "Ling Long"

hahaha

[STYLSH]

^^^^ hahaahahah Agreed

Nankangs are not all that bad... I am running them on my camry. It isnt as tho you are going to take your car to the tracks or even drive it like it was stolen every day... Also Nankangs will get about 30,000km if you treat it right. Just because sports car owners who use them and drift/spins the wheels at every corner on a saturday night cant get good milage doesnt mean you wont get good milage. It all comes down to how well you treat it.

Look after your car and tyres and you'll see them live a longer life

BTW the dry grip of the nankang is exceptional can be comparable to more expensive tyres. In the wet, its a little more slippery than more expensive tyres but know it and drive more carefully.