Falken Ziex ZE-512
 

Anyone tried these tires or heard anything good/bad about them?

Seem to be a reasonable price here in Australia, have found mostly good reports on them, but nothing in relation to an RX-8 and compared to the stock RE-040s.

cant really go wrong with falken in my opinion

ze-512 is a good 'all-season' performance tire, excellent wet traction and very good dry traction.

they're probably of equal performance to the stock tires.

do they even have these in RX-8 sizes?

Apparently, they're doing them here for $395 a corner, as opposed to $420-510 for the stockers.. Can get some Michelin Pilot Sport for $520 a corner, but that's still $500 extra for the lot...

I don't have ziex's but I do have the gr 451s. After a week on them I really like them. Traction is good and the ride quality (even though going from 45 series to 40) feels no different. Totally recommended, the azenis are good too, if you are looking for a tire that can insulate road noise real well. A few of my friends have them and stuck to them ever since. Falken makes pretty good tires for the price.

Good tire, rated very high, not as sticky as the Potenza's in warm weather, but totally beat the Potenza's in cooler weather, high treadwear 360 I believe on our size, and good tires to drift with. Much quieter than the Bridgestones too.

I have them on my 240sx. Very quite and grip well in the wet and dry. I even used them in the snow and they didn't do that bad for the type of tire. They are Z rated which means they come with a 30,000 mile guarantee to have 1/16 of tread left. All reviews I've read agree that the tires wear extremely well, but I have not found that to be the case. I drive very conservatively yet after about 8,000 miles I would say that at least half of my tread is gone.

Hey pepe,

I have ZE-512 on my 8, those are 17inchs(225/50) though. It is a value for money tire. Quite good balanced and performance, unless you go for circuit run. I like its side wall and tread pattern design too. The catalogue says it uses the new compound of material which prevents from deteriorating after long period. :)

Thanks for the advice all... think I'll give them a shot, will let you know what I think when I get them fitted.

I've had the Falken Ziex RE512 245/40 18" (Z rated!) on stock wheels on my RX8 for about 4 months and 3000 miles now. Here is my $.10 on the tires and how they perform.

Driving style - my 8 can do 0-30 faster than anything else in commuter traffic. It is my everyday car. I don't autocross, race, or otherwise push the limits of the car or tires. I just want to get back and forth to work, in cruddy weather if required, and do it in style :-)

Summary:
- In dry warm weather (2 days of the year - I do live in Seattle :-) RE040s are somewhat better.
- In normal commuter conditions - I.E. cold, wet, and/or icy conditions, the Falkens are so much better that there is no comparison.
- The Falkens are all-season tires. It shows when pushing the car hard around corners. You can feel the tires squirm.
- Tire life should be decent - 360 treadwear and AA traction and temperature.
- Lastly, the price of the Falkens is much more friendly than just about anything else.
- And yes - I would buy these tires again.

Hope this information is valuable.

Yours,
Jason

Pepe, Maybe this reply comes a tad late, but my research has suggested that Falken Ziex RE512 is a great all-season tire choice, just not enough of the tire for our RX-8. I found the following quote from NASIOC, which shed light on its characteristic and targeting audience:

Although the Ziex-512 and the Pirelli Pzero Nero M&S have never been directly tested against one another, it is possible to conduct a "virtual comparison" between the two using test results posted by Consumer Reports and Tire Rack.

In the Consumer reports tests, actual performance numbers are replaced by their usual mindless dots - red filled dots indicating higher performance, open red dots lower performance and black dots indicating poor performance. The Ziex-512 gets highest marks in wet and dry braking, but only good marks for handling and hydroplaning. Outperforming it in handling was the Bridgestone RE950.

The RE950 has been tested by Tire Rack and found to be a middling performing ultra-performance all-season tire. Tire Rack uses the Goodyear GS-A as a "control tire" for its testing so you can see how tires compare across categories by reviewing how they compare to the GS-A. The GS-A and RE950 are very close in performance, while the Pzero Nero M&S (in 225/50x16) easily bests the GS-A in the wet and destroys it in the dry handling tests.

My conclusion - the Ziex-512 is a good all-around tire that does not compare at all to the Pzero Nero M&S in either wet or dry handling. The only all-season tires that do are the Michelin Pilot A/S (better in the wet) and the Dunlop SP5000 (better in the wet and snow, cheaper too). According to Luke @ Tire Rack the Pirelli's have by far the stiffest sidewall of all the all-season tires he's tested and that may make a difference in your decision as well - the Ziex-512's reportedly having a softer sidewall.

My conclusion is if all-season is what you need, consider the following two tires for best dry/wet/snow traction/handling compromise:

Toyo Proxes 4
Pirelli PZero Nero M+S