GR1VLET

Anyone have any experience with this tire? These will be going on a 2009 Cobalt SS/TC with stock wheels.


Tire Details - Discount Tire Direct

I am curious as it has a 280 tread-ware rating and tread design that is extremely similar to that of higher-end tires (Eagle F1 asymmetric, ContiSportContact3, PS2) but is dirty cheap.

For the cost even If I only get 10-15k from them I would be satisfied. I haven't been able to find any really solid reviews, but the questionable ones look relatively good (IKNORIGHT)

Most of the research I did led me to Australia so, late last night, I got on Tyreright.com.au. They have a "chat now" option and I talked to a fella named Jack who I promptly told I was from the US so he knew he wasn't going to get any business from me. He still proceeded to contact a few of their install locations to get feedback for me and apparently they do pretty well over there and are actually considered an upper mid range tire in Australia.

GT Radial ChampiroUHP1 235/40ZR18 95W | Tyreright - The Right Tyres and Advice

They are not cheap over there...

He said 35,000 - 40,000 KM (22-25k miles) was typical for this tire on a performance car that is driven "normally" but he did also say that their roads are terrible. He said they typically recommend them for some of the bigger V8 Holdens so if that is the mileage he is quoting on them then it should do a bit better on a cobalt (probably much worse the way I drive...) He also said this would be considered a "better" on the "good,better,best" scale over there in the UHP tire category.

The tire is made in Indonesia so there is that, but it does have an XL sidewall rating and a AA traction rating as well (I dont know much about tires but I do think an XL sidewall is a good thing to have for turn-in response?)

With free shipping and no tax (they don't have a location in TN) the total for a set comes to:

$307.92 in 225/40r18
$339.88 in 235/40r18

Unless someone had one catastrophically fail I think I'm going to pull the trigger on the 235's. It looks like they could be really good for auto crossing/HPDE especially at the pricepoint - I would lap all day!

More info:

MFG website:
CHAMPIRO UHP1 - GT Radial USA

Sales brochure with size-specific specifications:
http://www.gtradial-us.com/en/_pdf/C...tern000586.pdf

GR1VLET

BUMP - no one? nothing?

How can this tire exist on the internet and have no reviews, no info on any forums (not only our cars... but ANY cars)

I refuse to believe it. If I do get them I will do a very thorough review and if they don't suck then GT Radial better send me a free set for the marketing.

DarkChild

iTrader: (2)

I have a set of tires similar to these. If you want traction then these aren't for you, they do have good treadwear though. I have roasted the tires many times and they still look brand new. I got mine for a lot cheaper than $300/ tire. I paid $400 for all 4 brand new. I would try to get a brand name tire. You get what you pay for.

GR1VLET

I typically only buy the best thing I can find within reason (I was going to purchase the Michelin Pilot Super Sports) but I am in a crappy financial situation right now temping to hire with a new company so I am forced to spend less but need tires ASAP as my current tires are dangerous in the rain. I figured I would just go cheap right now.

I don't know if you saw the specifications on the tire but they are 280 tread-wear rating (pilot super sports are 300) with XL rated sidewalls so they should actually be very sticky and have a pretty short lifespan (the tires you probably had were 400+ tread-wear and all season based on what you said), which is okay as they are cheap and I plan on replacing them relatively soon. I will do a full review of this tire as they age so there is at least some info on the internet about them.

Also these are 84.00/tire (free shipping no tax from discounttiredirect)

Kyle09TC

iTrader: (1)

thats cheap for new tires, they would be fine until you get money for better tires.

LNFTX

280 is the treadwear not a representation of traction
Traction grade is "a" meaning its middle of the road traction wise
From my experience if you don't have a tire with "aa" ratings you will be fighting traction with this car isand I'm stock.

GR1VLET

AA traction rated, XL sidewall as well. 280 isn't necessarily a indication of grip - its just tread ware - but the stickiest of radial race tires are at 100-180. So AA @ 280 XL sidewall has me kind of excited.

If this tire sucks I will be the first to let everyone know but I actually have pretty high hopes based on some reviews I found on some Australian website. They should be here on Thursday and I'll try to get them on by Saturday.

Im still noobish... should I start a new thread with a tire review I can update every 5-10k miles with tread depths and observations? I think it would be helpful if everyone did something similar with tires to gather some beneficial data for everyone.

LNFTX

Discount tire direct shows them as"a"
But you should keep updates could just use this thread

GR1VLET

Info on MFG's website claims AA:
CHAMPIRO UHP1 - GT Radial USA

If you zoom in on this picture (from their site) it say traction AA temperature A near the bottom (albeit upside down lol)
http://www.gtradial.com/pcr_photo/Ch...1510173426.jpg

DarkChild

iTrader: (2)

I'd buy them. Not like you are losing anything. It would be nice to know how these are for you. I will go see what mine are rated at but I think they have a treadwear of like 400.

GR1VLET

tires came in today and I'm going to have them put on right after work and hopefully an alignment tomorrow. hopefully these are decent, I will post some first impressions and pictures once I get them on!

DarkChild

iTrader: (2)

Are they on the softer side or the harder side?

GR1VLET

Uploaded with ImageShack.com

This shows the size of the 235 vs the 225.

Tires seem to be on the softer side, once I get a little bit of temperature in them (nothing crazy just some backroads at 40-50 mph) and pull over to check them the tread softens up further. When the tire is cold you can definately push hard enough to displace the tread so I would call these pretty soft.

Turn in and on center feel are not what it was before with the bald tires on there, but I figured this would be the case anyway because the new tires have much more tread and are a little softer.

Traction from a dig, however, is greatly improved over the Fuzion UHP all-season tires that were on there. Before I could easily spin the front tires in first gear rolling into the throttle from about 10-15 mph, these hold steady.

Road noise is very very low and ride comfort has improved (again compared to tires that were going bald, so this might not be an accurate representation)

So far I am happy with them. I will put some more miles on them and check back in!

bcc09ss/tc

I might get these lol

AARON-SS-TC

iTrader: (3)

I was gonna get these or the fullways to try them out. Are they heavy tires?

GR1VLET

Shipping weight was 96 lbs, GT Radial's website shows 23.5 lbs per tire.

GR1VLET

Another update:

Drove the car down to Jackson, TN (260 mile round trip) and I found the tires to be comfortable and quiet the whole way. While I was out there a buddy of mine took me to some back roads that were pretty tight and quick and I can report that after the first run through (they were a little 'greasy' at first, probably the mold release) I started to get used to their characteristics and on the way back down the road I could feel them starting to really grab as the mold release got out of the tires and I scrubbed the rest of that outer layer of new rubber off. Lateral grip was pretty good and I could feel the car "rolling" more than before and I don't believe it was the sidewall (pressure @ 37psi all around) of the tire but rather the fact that the tires were actually gripping enough to load the suspension up more than I was used to.

After running up and down the road a few times I felt pretty confident in the car and like they are at very least able to compliment the suspension of the car to a good degree (obviously there are better tires out there, this is taking into account price).

One thing to note - the tires do not make any noise... at all - they breakaway in a linear fashion and are not unpredictable but you have to pay a little bit more attention as they will not scream to let you know when you are at the limits of adhesion.

I now have about 400 miles on the tires and cant report on wear or anything but even after spirited driving I am not cupping the outer edge or anything. I feel like 37 psi is a good pressure in the tire because at 33-34 psi they felt a little bit mushy (they are XL sidewall so you can run a little higher pressure).

From first impressions I would say these are a good tire, not a Pilot PS2 or anything, but definitely better than the Fuzion tires that I had before and some of the other value tires I have experienced in the past. Again I cant speak for wear yet but I wouldn't feel bad recommending these to someone.

DarkChild

iTrader: (2)

These are the reviews that I like. You should take the car to the track and see what kind of 60' times you can get with them.

GR1VLET

Wet weather update:

Well I had to drive home in a torrential downpour today and I can report that the tires held up phenomenally well. Took standing water like a champ and straight-line acceleration in the rain was pretty surprising. First gear spun only a TINY bit more than when in the dry and 2nd held even in the lower RPMs in the torque band. I'm pretty impressed.

I also bought a tread-depth gauge and I'll be posting my tread depths when I rotate and hopefully some feedback from an autocross here in two weeks!

GR1VLET

So I competed in my second auto-x today (first on these tires) and they continue to impress me. Despite my driving (I did get better through the day) I managed a 13th fastest RAW time (of 44 drivers including 2 carts) and actually beat a Ferrari 458 Italia and a 2010 AWD Porsche 911 Turbo and a few other cars. I felt like I had another .5 or so left in the car and I think I could have gotten it into the 47s pretty easily if I could have just gotten a good run in and 'connected all the dots'.

Just need more seat time but the tires performed beyond expectation.

To reiterate and give specifics:

Tire: GT Radial Champiro UHP1 235/40/r18
Pressure: RF:35 LF:35 RR:30 RL:30
Suspension: Stock
Modifications: Catless downpipe, Intercooler, Muffler delete, stock tune

Results:
Final Raw Time Results

I ran in the STU class in novice and won novice beating a B Stock Solstice GXP on 265 Hoosier A6 slicks. This is my fastest run (48.499):


After this my friend Justin (3rd fastest time of the day in the GXP Solstice) Wanted to give my car a try and the sky absolutely opened up and it started pouring. There was a pond in the middle of the parking lot 2-3" deep through the slalom and in the beginning you can see us laughing as the 350z drifts/hydroplanes his ass off through the whole course.

He ended up running a 50.477 first time driving my car, in the rain, on $85 tires. I'm pretty impressed. He actually (unsolicited) mentions how much grip the car has during the run.

Rain video here (sorry my helmet was all in the way):


I will check tread depth as soon as its not pouring out but my first impression is that despite 6 runs this event the tires showed little signs of wear. Turn in was excellent and the ability to put the power down (watch the boost gauge in the first video, I get on the power pretty early out of the tight corners) was better than expected.

Long story short, if you need cheap tires BUY THESE!!!

oh and #lolferrari

SuperFlea

I registered just to thank the op for posting this, i was searching online for a good review of these tires and had no luck. Thanks. Any other updates? How are the tires holding up now?

BlackielawlessSS

iTrader: (1)

Buying 4 tomorrow. Thanks for posting them.

GR1VLET

Semi-update time:

Used the tires at a Rally-X event and did quite well, with my fastest run beating 3/4 of the AWD field and all of the 2wd field. 35psi front and 40psi rear.



Wrote a little article on Oppositelock about Rally-X (ddin't get front paged, but did get top spot in "best of oppo"), and how everyone (yes, you) should get involved:
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/sto...y-x-1510441255

Video from the event (caution: FWD drift ****):



Tires are now getting quite worn, did Christmas Day at the Dragon (yep, I only saw 5 - 10 cars over 4 up-n-downs - best dragon day ever?).

Me and a buddy really pushed the car and, predictably, they wore quite a bit and had some feathering. I didn't think to take a picture of the tires, but here is a video of my friend (faster driver than I) chasing a turbo AP1 S2K up the dragon. He had coilovers, agressive camber (race, not stance) and was familiar with the road. We kept on him pretty good and he was quite impressed with the fact that we hung with him:


tires got really, really hot, but did not grease up noticeably. Tread squirm is down since the tires were new. Aside from this I have done 4 more autocrosses on them, a rally-x and now have accumulated 15,000 (rather aggressive) road miles. The tires are on the wear bars on the inside (from front camber or possibly needing an alignment) but the middle and outside of the tire have substantially more tread left. These tires, if treated normally and not raced on, would easily be capable of 25,000 - 30,00 miles. **I have 17x9 Team Dynamics ProRace 1.2s on the way, so I'll beat on those rather than my street tires from now on!!

Overall I have been very happy with these for the price. There are quite a few other tires that fall into this price segment, and I might try another one out next time. I did read another review on another forum (toybaru I believe) where he was running a taller tire, And I can say (I discovered this at another auto-x) that the tires LOVE high pressure. 37-40 psi all around seemed to work well, but did make the center of the tires wear a bit more quickly, but the wear has evened out since then. Here is a run on high pressures - the car is MUCH more responsive and "loose":


as you can see in that video - the more aggressive I got with my inputs, the more the tires responded at that high pressure. Even though they were making noise (which my brain is programmed to believe is an indication of loss of grip) they just pulled through even though they sounded like they were dying. I did heat them up good on that run though, which is apparent when I understeer massively at the turn around before the slalom. Slalom was great, with good, fast transitions. Last run of the day, however I pushed harder (because it had worked so well thus far!!!) and they bit back - I almost took out the timing box and had to drive around it. Not good:

I was asking a bit much of the tires at that point, however.

I will take some more pictures of the tires as they are now, I recently rotated them so the worn fronts are now on the rear, and this is the 2nd time the tires have been rotated. Pictures tomorrow if I remember!!

LNFTX

Thanks for the update I might actually buy a set of these
On a side note I posted a video of you doing that Rally X a couple of weeks back I cannot believe you did that to your car how did it not just rattle apart but I must admit it looked like fun

GR1VLET

The location we run at was graded and prepped for concrete (was supposed to be a dragstrip before he ran out of money) so what you are left with is a very consistant, level surface. It was not hard on the car at all. I would say a single NLS or drag launch is far harder on the car than a whole rally x run.

My paint was shot when I bought the car, but even then this did no damage that I noticed, its just nice sandy soil and some grass/dirt. Not bad at all.