Anyone use Avon Tech M500s?
 

I'm putting 16x7 Fuchs on my 77 911 and I'm worried a bit about the ride being too harsh. I'm told these are pretty comfortable tires while maintaining decent, if not stellar performance. No-I'm not looking for Cadillac plush, but bear in mind that my comparison will be my 196/65/15 Pirelli P6000s. I'm pretty sure any 205/50/16 will be night and day compared to what I'm running now in both performance increase and ride quality decrease. I just want to still enjoy the car as a daily driver while stepping the performance and appearance up. Your thoughts will be appreciated.


Avons at Tire Rack

I bought a set of wheels on ebay with a fairly new set of these on. I'm s'posed to get them Tuesday, and as soon as I can get them on, I can let you know my thoughts. Unfortunately, it probably wont be til the week after next.

I have about 1000 miles on them by now. Can't compare them to 15's but I'm pretty happy with the performance. Not sure I can really comment about and harshness, I'm not used to very cushy rides. So far I think they're a good bang for the buck.

Stef

I have them on my saab 9-5 aero, daily driver, and I've been quite pleased with them, still only a few thousand miles, but they do handle well, no cadillac ride or anything.

-Lewis, Porsche owner next week.

Anyone else have experience with these tires on a 911? They rate better in TireRack test against the ES100s and RE750s(test here)

Looking for a street tire that is good in the wet. Got RA1s for the track.

thanks
alf

I have about 500 miles on 225-50-16 rear and 205-55-16 front on my '79 SC and this morning I got caught in some rain. It did fine, I have not tested them in any twisties yet.

Tim
I'd love to get your take on them in twisties. Now you have an excuse to go find some twisties for research :)

I just compared the Avon Test data to the SO3s, looks pretty comparable overall, not as good in the dry compared to S03 but better in the wet. Half the price too.

alf

Do not hold your breath as I do not know when I will be able to get to a safe place to to let her rip w/out risk of tagging a guard rail on an on ramp. I can only say that they hold much better turning a relatively low speed second gear corner compared to the old hard Firestone SVX's that came on the car! If I get a chance in the near future, I will post my results but I do not have experience with any of the popular tires on this car, so my opinion won't be worth much.

I was at a SCCA national AX in Toledo this past weekend and I saw that some of the guys had Avon race tires on their cars and I saw a couple sets mounted on a couple of guys rain wheels, so at least a few folks must like them.

Where did you get test data comparing S03's to the Avons? The Tire Rack survey shows the S03 higher both wet and dry, and the actual test shows them compared to the RE750, not the S03. I got my new wheels with an almost new set of Avons last week. I'll probably get them on tomorrow night, and I'll do some initial test as I now have S03's on my Fuchs. Since the Avons are a bit wider than my S03 sizes, it won't be totally apples to apples.

Much better than the ES 100's for sure in wet or dry conditions. Much more durable as well.

Not sure if they have them in your sizes, but I put Fuzion (Bridgestone) ZRis on my 951, and couldn't be happier. $420 installed + tax for 17" sizes at the local Firestone store, at the time cheaper than Tire Rack. Matt H on Rennlist is a Bridgestone employee, he told me that the Fuzions have the majority of the technology from the SO3s, but at half the cost. Regardless, they smoothed out my ride significantly, are nearly silent at highway speeds, stick very well, and seem to do quite well in the wet. Quite a few on the Rennlist waterpumper boards are running them, they're even supposed to be pretty good for light DE work. FWIW

Ed
The surveys are subjective and i am not sure how the numbers are derived for the Drive Data charts in the Test Results. But looking just at the quant data in the Test Results (below) the Avons seem to be a better tire at less than half the price. Not sure how much consistency between the 2 sets of data though.

S03 Test

Avon Test

T=Tie, A=Avon better, S=S03 better
T-Dry Slalom Avon 4.20, SO3 4.20
A-Wet Slalom Avon 4.59, S03 4.72
A-Track Dry Lap Avon 29.90, S03 29.95
A-Track Wet Lap Avon 32.28, S03 33.01

S-Dry Braking Avon 84.7, S03 83.5
A-Wet Braking Avon 87.5, S03 97.4
T-Cornering G Dry Avon .95, S03 .95
A-Cornering G Wet Avon .82, S03 .79

Hmmm, i think i just convinced myself to get a set for the Roach.


alf