My review : Yokohama AVS ES100 tyres

10-19-2004, 06:20 PM

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My review : Yokohama AVS ES100 tyres

Posted in this in the Aussie forum, but figured it'd be useful having this here too.

Had these tyres fitted a couple of weeks ago, so figured it was time to let everyone know how they were going.

First of all, OEM size is 225/45R18, as anyone who's tried to find replacements in that size in Aus will know, it's hard to find anything in that size and generally pretty expensive. I ended up going for 245/40R18s as these are 1.01% different (smaller) in rolling distance, which is not too big a problem. BTW, 245 is the widest tyre you can fit in the stock 18 x 8" wide rims the RX-8 ships with.

I've driven these tyres around for about 1500kms in the past few weeks, around town and up the freeway to Sydney and back. I've had them in the wet, the dry, gentle driving and "spirited" driving too... so a fairly wide range of conditions and driving styles.

Grip : These things grip like there's no tomorrow! Probably partially due to the tyre being wider and to my old RE040s being nearly bald, but I don't ever remember the car having this much grip. You can throw these tyres into corners and they just hang on and on and on. A definite improvement over the RE040s IMHO.

Wet weather handling : We've had a couple of wet and wetish days here in Canberra lately, had the car out on a couple of them, including the day I got them fitted (great way to get used to new tyres - Not!) So far, has only slipped once (ie, traction control kicked in) and that was on a section of bricks at the end of my street when I gave it a bit too much juice... Haven't had them in torential rain yet, but certainly in the rain we've had, again, they grip much better than the RE040s.

Noise : These tyres aren't silent. It really depends on the road surface, on smooth surfaces, they are nearly silent, on rough surfaces, they have varying levels of noise. I'd say overall, they are certainly no worse and in many cases, better than the RE040s. If you buy 'em, don't blame me if the noise annoys you!

The noise is certainly different from the RE040s, but you get used to it pretty quick.

Price : Well, at $395 (this is Australian $$$) fitted and balanced, it was a decent price. Cheaper than the RE040s and these tyres have a better treadware rating so hopefully should last longer. For some of the tyres in the OEM size, you'll pay more than this.

Looks : They look great! Nice and wide, IMHO, it makes the car look a bit lower, certainly looking at it from behind. The tyres look nice and aggressive. They fit the rim well and sit pretty flush with the edge of the rim. They won't stop you scraping your rims though, as I found out on Friday night, but that was my own stupid fault, not that of the tyre.

Now, here's some pics of them...

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