Parade of Progress
 

a short article from the latest Car and Driver mag.
Shows how much progress has been made in new tires the last few years.

https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a38992977/lightning-lap-at-a-glance/

Have they made one yet that helps my wife avoid nails? They haven't progressed enough if they haven't.

Truthfully..I've never had a flat on the road.
(I prob shouldn't have said that)

I remember the days of seeing guys changing tires on the side of the road on almost every trip.

I had three flats in one week in my 911 during the 1983 Porsche Parade in Missouri. My car, and the tires, were less than a year old. Nothing like autocrossing in a car on tires that had been plug repaired three times…. It was an unusually fast autocross track that year too, you could reach nearly 100 miles an hour in the fastest parts. Yeehaw…

I started doing DEs back in 1993. "Street" tires were pretty much crap back then. About the best I ever personally used were either the Yokohama AVS Intermediates or A008s. Most everything else just could not hold up under hard track use. So...most of us transitioned to R-compound tires.

Fast forward to 2014 and I start racing in the ChampCar endurance racing series. They require tires with a treadwear rating no lower than 180...so street tires. I was skeptical at first, but my experience is that the current crop of street tires are awesome. They are sticky, predictable and last a long time on the track.

We are currently running Hankook RS-4s and turned 1:45-1:46s a month ago at Road Atlanta in what is basically a mechanically stock E36 (1992 BMW 325is). The FTOD during that race was ~1:37. On street tires. And, we ran 14 hours on the same set of tires. And plan to run the same set of tires at NCM next week. Crazy.

Tires have improved a ton in the last decade. And the prices have gone up just as much as the quality. Having had the same daily driver for the last 30 years and 375,000 miles I have replaced a lot of tires. In the past wet traction was pretty bad, and I have no ABS so it was always something I had to plan ahead for when stopping. Now I can stop quickly in the rain on the exact same roads.

Finding good tires for my 911, with the 15 inch Fuchs is another matter. No one makes good overall summer tires for highway use and spirited driving. Many tires are great on dry roads but terrifying in the rain, and and no good at all for a 4,000 mile road trip. I had to buy the 17 inch fake Fuchs Euromiester wheels to get good tires. I have Michelin Pilot Sports, but not the sport plus. I can drive in temps below freezing, or in rain and still feel like I am connected to the road. No doubt, the new tires are a huge improvement.

It is like changing from bias ply to radials was back in the olden days of the early 70s.

The other extreme from today's tires was the first set of 4 tires I bought for my 1960 VW bug. 36 HP when new, and likely 25 after 120,000 miles. I bought a set of 4 tires, mounted and balanced and tax for less than 30 bucks. They were bias ply recaps. With a 0 to 60 of infinite with any headwind or incline performance was not an issue. Going downhill with a tail wind it could crack 60 and it sounded like the engine was about to explode.

The Civic SI that I have ordered, comes with all-season tires. Salesman mentioned I could upgrade to summer tires that are stickier.
Went with the AS tires. The roads aren't good enough around here to justify the upgrade.

This reminds me of the time my daughter put new tires on her car, at the time it was an Accord 4-dr sedan. She asked what I would do. I gave her a list of options based on budget and performance. She made her choice and went on her way.

Fast forward 30k miles of driving down the road and she was replacing the tires again.

This time I suggested she up the ante and put the same size tires I had on my Accord, Michellin in a bigger size than her OEM sized tires. She did and drove that car another couple of years before trading it in with those same tires on it. I think mfg's often put just enough tire on a car to satisfy 90% of the people buying them. For the other 10% an upgrade is often needed.

Looking back on cars I've purchased, the '02 Accord V-6 was one of the only ones that I think they got the tire size right on. Our other Accords ('80 & '83) were all 'under tired' from the factory, IMO. Our '13 CR-V is one car I've felt like the tires were sized right for the vehicle and putting good tires on it has really improved it a lot.

As far as driving in the wet, I guess it just doesn't rain enough here to have been much of a problem for me as I'm sure it would have been if I lived in the mid-west or back east where wet weather driving is more of a challenge.

I spoke with a rep from Michelin recently about run-flat tires and he said that they'll eventually be phased out in favor of self-sealing tires. The stiff sidewalls needed to run without air will be gone and the new tires will preform better and be able to run at higher speeds for long distances.

Don't know how you'll tell if your tires have been punctured though, unless you examine them periodically. I would imagine that nails, etc. would still need to be removed and the holes plugged at some point.

Years ago, I used to attend many consumer research studies, everything from cold drink vending machines, the look of Dennis Miller's talk show stage and clothing, and car tires.

At that session, we were peppered with many question about the words and visuals used to market tires, and the last bit was a display with six tread patterns of tires. The survey asked, "Which tire is best in wet weather?" and "Which tire is best for off-road use?" and while some were kinda obvious, others not so much. I was nonplussed, and pulled the presenter guy aside and asked, "How am I supposed to tell by the tread which one is best in the wet? Doesn't it depend on the car, wheel, etc?"

He smiled and said, "Well, think about how people buy tires. They go into the showroom, and the sales guy has them stand in front of a tire, and he suggests "this is the one you want for your car" and the customer drags their index finger through the tread pattern and nods, "Yeah, you are right. I'll take a set." :p