Initial Review (first 400 miles):

Break-in: During the first < 100 miles or so, the car (better yet, steering) felt somewhat floaty/loose (well, it didn't help that the wheels/tires weren't exactly balanced). I thought I was going to regred going with the less expensive/lesser known tire brand. After the break-in period though, everything works fine.

In-Dry: Excellent grip and control! Rock solid at speed well into triple digits. IMO, these are great high performance tires for spirited drivers. When push comes to shove, these tires will let you know before your tires completely lose contact with the road.

In-Wet: Again, excellent grip! I am sure quattro helped also. I can still push the car as hard as the SP8000Es in wet condition... Actually, I detected NO slippage though a 90 degrees turn at speed, where previously with the SP8000Es, I did notice the car sliding abit (you can read that story in the achives). So, I probably could have pushed them harder. Sorry, no standing water test, I try to avoid those as much as possible.

In-Slush (!?!): I was concerned about the HTR Z IIs in this condition. Last thing I want to do is slide around left and right. Well, I am very happy to say that I was able to say that these high perf tires performed flawlessly! Even with the bigger foot print, I/the car had no problem getting traction for going AND stopping. I tried some pretty hard braking/stopping, not once did the ABS kick in. Changing lanes (you know, with slush as the lane divider)... No drama. Very Predictable!!

Overall: The turn in response is better than the OEM SP8000Es, due to the expanded contact patch. There is very little tire noise. They are quieter than the SP8000Es, even over expansion joints on express way. I am not sure if these can be used as all season tires, but during that single day of dry, rain, then slush... I feel that these tires can handle just about anything except the dead of winter. IMO, they are well worth the $118! BTW, my friends love the aggressive tread pattern!

Long term review (10000 miles later):

Tire wear is exceptional! I used to run through a set of Yokos AVS Intermediates each year, but these tires are still wearing great. No unusual wear patterns. Most of my initial review still apply after 10K additional miles. The grip is still excellent. Plenty of life left on these tires. Also, these tires has a very nice rim protection built-in.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a note! 

By: Zsolt Lukacs     Email: zlukacs@hotmail.com     (Mar-02)

Make & model of car the product was used on: 98 A4 1.8TQMS

These tires perform nicely to 10,000 miles. After that they start making a hideous noise.  Howling at 60 mph makes you want to puke.  Slowing to a stop they feel like you are running over the side markers like on some freeways (grooves etched into the road surface to wake up sleepy drivers). I believe the cause is the tread pattern.  Tread blocks start in the middle and curve outward to meet the sidewall of the tire almost at a right angle. My theory is that while braking these tread blocks bend and the forward edge wears more than the edge toward the back.  After a while it results in edges of two adjacent blocks to be of a different height (the rear edge of the front block is higher than the front edge of the rear block (if you see them at the contact patch)) - I did not believe my eyes, it looks like a cogwheel. Did I say enough?  They are cheap, but if you consider their useful life (10,000 miles) they are about the same as more expensive tires. Next I go with S03 Pole Positions and happy to have to fork out the cash.