Rave: General UHP (f-bomb-ing great tire!)

[StereoInstaller1]

So...the tire thing has been bugging me for quite some time. I bought a set of ES100's in 215/40/17 for the E30. In less than 8000 miles, they are just roasted. I have too damn much camber, but still way too short a life.

In the meantime, they sucked. Noisy, LOUD, poor traction. My car could get stuck on a crosswalk if it was raining. Seriously, they sucked ass. My car in the wet would spin all the way through 1st and 2nd...in the dry, I could roast both all the way through 1st. Keep in mind, my car is a bone stock 325is with a fat exhaust. Not exactly a huge powerhouse here!

3 days ago I bought a pair of 215/40/17 General UHP "Exclaim". For those who don't know, General was bought by Continental, and a huge bunch of changes are afoot. I read much about these tires on a couple of sites...they got such rave reveiws I decided to try them.

The Tire shop recommended I not replace the fronts until I do something about my steering rack and tie rod ends, but they did rotate (remount and rebalance) the fronts, side to side so the worst of the wear was not on the road.

I only did the rears, but what a difference. Now, in the wet I get very little tire spin, lateral traction will be tested AFTER I fix the steering. Nice and quiet, no longer sounds like I am losing my differential bearings!

I am just amazed at the difference these tires made.

Best news of all? They are CHEAP! I found them on the web for $70 each, but I bought them local for $210 a pair, installed. Oh yeah...a very aggressive look too. Nice rim guard. All in all, fucking HOT!

If you are looking for tires, look closely at these.

Luke

[Mossman]

No offense but your average tire will have some wet traction and won't have much road noise.

I looked at tirerack reviews and they actually look pretty impressive, but still what we care about is grip!!! Also normal people care about treadwear, I'd trade grip for life any day though :)

I appreciate you calling attention to these tires cuz they look great for a budget summer tire and I hadn't heard about em, but fix that rack and put the car through its paces then report back :)

[StereoInstaller1]

No offense but your average tire will have some wet traction and won't have much road noise.

Maybe I didn't explain this well enough...Yoko's were unable to pull a 3500 RPM launch in the wet without total traction loss. It was diffucult to leave a stoplight without tire spin, wet. Dry, not all that much better. Was easy to spin, poor sideways traction, just shitty traction all the time. Those Yoko's HOWLED like a damn 4X4 too!

I looked at tirerack reviews and they actually look pretty impressive, but still what we care about is grip!!! Also normal people care about treadwear, I'd trade grip for life any day though :)

Yeah, me too. I drive the thing pretty hard...but still...8000 miles and having cord show? Yoko can kiss my butt.

I appreciate you calling attention to these tires cuz they look great for a budget summer tire and I hadn't heard about em, but fix that rack and put the car through its paces then report back :)

I did a bit of "spirited" driving, caught an onramp or three at decent speed. So far, these are a winnar! Still the quietest tire I have had in years in low profile.

Luke

[grapedrink]

Plastic tires with a 380 tread wear. Tread pattern looks like it needs to be on a truck ready for mud.

[Charlie]

Why are you launching at 3500 rpm in the wet? Unless you're driving a FWD honda, I think you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a tire that doesn't break loose under that sort of usage in those conditions.

I'm really skeptical of your review, as I've run ES100s for a number of years on different cars with no issue. I've done wet track days & autocrosses on them, and had no problems. To be honest, they are a very comfortable tire in the wet. These are very sensitive tires to pressure changes, what pressures were you running?

-Charlie