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    Falken Azenis Sports

    First.....props to the R3V crew for setting up this product review page. Excellent addition :up:

    Now....these tires. I'm sure many of you have heard of them by now since they have been around for a little while. I have been running on my first set (195/60-14s) on bottlecaps, racking up roughly 2,500 miles to this day. My opinion of them thus far? I like them....a lot. I haven't had a chance to try them out in more extreme conditions (i.e. track day) since I purchased these at the beginning of the bad weather season and my schedule as of late has not allowed me to do a high performance driving course. However, up to this point I have been happy with the results. Despite the large flat areas that make up the contact patch, the few grooves incorporated into the design do a good job of evacuating water on rainy days and deliver respectable grip in wet conditions. Only when you hit an area of standing water do things get sketchy.....but then again, that can be said for a lot of tires out there. When its dry, freeway connector ramps and twisty roads can be taken at greater than posted speeds with confidence. Only if I really push it hard does their weakness become apparent....and even then its been a predicatable affair.

    Despite all these positive points I have mentioned, there are a couple of negatives. First, the limited fitting options. Falken didn't produce the Azenis Sport in a lot of sizes which gives you the shopper very few choices. In the case of the E30, there are 195/60-14s, 205/50-15s and 215/45-16s. There is a 17 available (225/45-17), but that's actually a bit oversized for these cars. Which brings me to my second point: the other 3 sizes I mentioned are all a bit undersized for the E30, so running these will give an inaccurate speedometer reading. This may or may not be of serious concern to you. The Azenis Sport is also more "square-ish" in shape once mounted on a wheel and properly inflated. This can result in a clearance problem depending on the offset of the wheels you're running and your cars' stance if its been lowered to the pavement. For most set ups, however, they should be just fine.

    Finally, the cost. As the title of this thread states, these are great performance tires to have if you're on a limited budget. The 195/60-14s I have were purchased through Discount Tire Direct. Once they were delivered to me, I had a local mom-n-pop type tire shop do the mounting and balancing. My final cost (tires, mount & balance, disposal fee) was just shy of $240 for a set of four. Not a bad deal when you consider what you're getting and what similar offerings out there are commanding in the way of price. Falken has a new performance tire in the works as I type this, and its been rumored that they will carry a higher price. I have no idea if Falken plans to phase out the Azenis Sport once this new tire has reached full production, but if you find yourself in need of some replacement tires and you're looking for performance without breaking the bank, put the Azenis Sport down on your list of considerations.

    Jon
    Rides...
    1991 325i - sold :(
    2004 2WD Frontier King Cab

    RIP #17 Jules Bianchi

    #2
    Nice review, thanks for writing it up.

    Comment


      #3
      I had my review posted over on maXbimmer back in November of last year, I'll throw it up here too.

      I have had these on my car since April of this year, put on about 20k kms or so. They are sized 195/60/14. First thing I noticed is that even for a 60-series tire, the sidewalls are STIFF. Any type of cornering load is responded to immediately, no squirm, no squish, no wait. I love it. The dry grip is beyond anything I have ever experienced (note: I have never driven on an R-compound). Now, for the wet. Here's where it gets interesting. The common belief from the crowd is that these tires are not suited for any wet driving. On the contrary, I have found these tires to be very good on wet pavement, to the point where full throttle acceleration is met with 100% grip. The tread pattern does not bode well for standing water, and there's no way around it, once past 50% worn I didn't feel very comfortable doing any type of speeding in heavy rainfall on the highway. New they are very confident, but just look at the tread, it's not made to expel water once it gets shallow. After 20k kms the tires are completely gone, there is no longer any tread from the sidewall-face edges, it's completely smooth. It's rated UTQG as 200, so I was very happy to get the mileage I did, especially with my "driving" and about 4 auto-x's. And they are cheap, Ithey list for only $100/ea CDN from Tiretrends.

      In summary, for a street tire, and knowing they are not made to last long, I give them an 8/10. If it wasn't for the standing water issue when worn I wouldn't hesitate to give them a 9.5 for the sheer amount of G's they can produce, but on public roads hydroplane resistance is very important. If you're planning to use them as an auto-x only tire, there isn't much better in the street class.

      Here's what they were new:



      Note these reviews are for the old RT-215, not the new and improved RT-615

      Comment


        #4
        Here's what they looked like after 5, 25 minute track sessions in my MINI at Texas World Speedway... :shock:



        I've been autocrossing on the RT-215's for a long, long time. Totally awesome. Sure, I give up 1-2 seconds over the guys with R-Compounds, but I still win my class every time!

        My RT-615's came in a few days ago, and will replace the worn RT-215's which lasted a full autocross season (9 events, 8 runs each event) and 3 track weekends...

        Comment


          #5
          sucks they bumped the price on the new style
          BEERTECH

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Rob
            sucks they bumped the price on the new style
            word, 70% increase on the 195/60-14s.

            Comment


              #7
              i heard if you ran them on the street the do not do good in the rain. is that true or not?
              Bobby

              '87 325 (Track Rat)
              '04 C5500 Wrecker (Work)
              '94 525i (Daily)
              '90 325i (R.I.P)
              H&R Race, Racing Dynamics Sway Bars, Tree House CAB's, Sparco Strut Bars and more.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by 88325isboy
                i heard if you ran them on the street the do not do good in the rain. is that true or not?
                Bobby
                From what Jay was telling me they are decent in the rain when new, and with some tread depth. Not a balls to the wall rain tire, so take it easy in the rain if you get them.


                Keep it slideways!!

                Comment


                  #9
                  Ya, if the tread is low, the rain is a death trap
                  BimmerHeads
                  Classic BMW Specialists
                  Santa Clarita, CA

                  www.BimmerHeads.com

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by 88325isboy
                    i heard if you ran them on the street the do not do good in the rain. is that true or not?
                    Bobby
                    I've read some reviews that agree with my claims, that these are some of the best tires made on wet pavement. People argued with me both on the forums and at auto-x's, but I know what I feel. If the road is wet, there really aren't many better tires out there.

                    Here is a little note from a Eurotuner tire shootout, done recently:

                    DRY
                    Don: The eleventh tire driven in the dry, these were the closest to an R-compound that we've driven on. There was very little squeal from them, and they probably had the highest lateral grip of any so far, although they weren't as precise as the BFGoodrich.
                    Will: These were up at the top for ultimate grip -- not as precise as the BFGoodrich, although there was a similar level of grip. They were predict-able, well balanced, and excellent all round the skidpan where many tires push but these didn't.

                    WET
                    Don: As the sixth tire tested in the WET, the Falken were the second best so far. The time is probably closest to the Dunlop, but they felt more consistent for throttle response and had great braking and good grip on the limit -- higher than anything except maybe the Goodyear.
                    Will: After looking at the tread pattern, I am amazed by the grip they had. They probably offered the highest speed through the skidpan -- you can keep control of the front end and get on the power sooner than anything. They were excellent in the high speed sections and felt almost as good as the Goodyear, while being more consistent in the corners than the Dunlop. These gripped all the way through while the Dunlop didn't hold on so well.
                    And that is Don Salama and Will Turner commenting. If you don't know who they are, sell your BMW right now. ;)

                    Comment


                      #11
                      good quote


                      http://www.cardomain.com/ride/657387

                      Comment


                        #12
                        good quote


                        http://www.cardomain.com/ride/657387

                        Comment

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