falken fk453 feedback

[davidmk001]

Hello everyone, has anyone tried these ?
Fairly new and very little info on these so far on the net. I was unfortunately laid off recently and as it just so happens (amongst other bills / payments etc), I am in need of a new set of rear tires on my SS.

Given the financial situation I am considering these as they are hundreds cheaper than the pirelli p-zeros .....

The guy at the tire shop is saying they're decent and grip good etc.

[ALLTRBO]

I have them, haven't driven much with them yet (mostly in cold temps, maybe 100 miles total) but first impressions are very good (once they scrubbed in a little). I like the steering feel and they seem to stick quite well. They're 295/40/20 rear and 275/40/20 front, all on 20x10 wheels. I can't tell you much more than that yet, unfortunately. I'll have to post up once I get some miles on them.

[davidmk001]

^^^
Thanks ALLTRBO.

Just an update at this point; as I have just arrived home after having these put on (275/40/20) on the rear only.

Hopefully if someone else out there is considering these they can find this useful ?

Currently raining out ...So my first impression is based on wet roads as of right now. It started soft as I was leaving the shop but got harder pretty quickly.
(Higher is better; just to be clear)

Grip 3.5/5
Wet Traction 2.5/5
Road Noise 4/5
Dry Traction NA (will need to update after ridding around in dry conditions. They're calling for rain all week!)
Grip under hard mid-hard accel. from rolling start 3.5/5
Cornering 4/5

Considering the wet roads I think they're decent. I will be back to update highway ride and some cornering in dry pavement etc.

[Toms2010]

How do they compare to the tires they replaced?

[ALLTRBO]

Originally Posted by davidmk001

^^^
Thanks ALLTRBO.

Just an update at this point; as I have just arrived home after having these put on (275/40/20) on the rear only.

Hopefully if someone else out there is considering these they can find this useful ?

Currently raining out ...So my first impression is based on wet roads as of right now. It started soft as I was leaving the shop but got harder pretty quickly.
(Higher is better; just to be clear)

Grip 3.5/5
Wet Traction 2.5/5
Road Noise 4/5
Dry Traction NA (will need to update after ridding around in dry conditions. They're calling for rain all week!)
Grip under hard mid-hard accel. from rolling start 3.5/5
Cornering 4/5

Considering the wet roads I think they're decent. I will be back to update highway ride and some cornering in dry pavement etc.

Thanks for the update. They REALLY need to get the mold release scrubbed off before anything can be considered, more than any tire I've had (which is quite a few). I don't know how long it takes in the rain, but it took me probably 20 miles or so of 'purposeful' driving in the dry to get them to actually start coming into their own. I haven't driven on them in the rain yet.

I took a few hard (known) corners today to get a feel for them (one has rough pavement, another very smooth which is a 180 degree turn.) Temp was about 70*.
I'm not pushing the full limits yet because I need to work up to it with them to be safe, but WOW! The limits are quite high because I didn't reach them but I was stuck like glue to the side window. It's more than I expected from them.
The rough turn I still took quickly, and though it has a few mid-corner "small speed bumps", they didn't upset the car at all, the tires took it in stride and just kept on grabbing.
I haven't tried launching yet but it shouldn't be too bad (that's relative though, I'm ruined by my hundreds of AWD launches in my 11-second Talon.)
Once I have a feel for the limits I'll be able to give a more proper review of how they handle.

Originally Posted by Toms2010

How do they compare to the tires they replaced?

It's not quite fair for me to compare, because I came off of 295/45/18 Nitto NT05's all around. Those are some of the stickiest street tires there are (made for handling), and the tall sidewall 18's really don't give me an apples to apples with the new 20's. Needless to say, they REALLY held their own as far as lateral G's and were pretty decent off the line too. I just couldn't quite get used to the lazy steering response because of the tall sidewall. Everything else about them was A+ though (maybe excepting tread wear... they went fast.)
Unfortunately I also cannot compare to the stock Pirellis because I carefully drove the new car home 10 miles then immediately pulled them off to sell as "almost brand new" (I got $1250 for the set of MS wheels and the mounted tires). I went straight to the 18" NT05's.

Hopefully more can chime in when the tires start becoming more common.

[davidmk001]

Was fortunate enough to have a break in the rain yesterday. The entire afternoon cleared up and the sun was out. Pavement got pretty dry. I wanted to do a highway test, so I did a 150-200 KM road trip (93 - 124 miles). I live in suburb of Ontario Canada so I drove on up to a northern rural area and even did a 0-100 (0-60) launch.

I have to say that on dry pavement these things are awesome! I would highly recommend. They grip very well, very minimal road noise on speeds of 100km/h (60mph). I didnt go crazy, but did push them into some corners and they held pretty well. It just took some driving to get them to settle in and get settled on the road.

I did a single launch from a dead stop. Traction off. They gripped very well when I dropped the hammer! (Better than the stock Pirelli's which they replaced - mind you they had very low tread left, so I would expect them to chirp and spin more than these).

Anyways, here is the revised review that I personally give them based on some dry pavement driving.

Grip 4.5/5
Wet Traction 3.5/5
Road Noise 4/5
Dry Traction 4.5
Grip under mid-hard accel. from rolling start 4.5/5
0-100km/h launch 4/5
Cornering 4.5/5

I would also like to point out that on my way back home the rain started up again and they felt more settled after getting some miles on them and hence felt as the wet performance had gotten a lot better! For the price I paid on these and what I have seen thus far, I am thoroughly impressed. (I picked up 2 of these for my rear for just over what lets say Canadian Tire charged for a SINGLE Pirelli tire).

[davidmk001]

Originally Posted by Toms2010

How do they compare to the tires they replaced?

To compare with the tires which came from the factory, I'd say you won't even notice a difference. Maybe a bit more road noise, but its negligible.

I would also like to point out that I bought the car used and with about 50-60% left on the pirelli's which it came with. I have not had the chance to experience the p-zero's at 100% so please take what I am saying with a grain of salt.

[ALLTRBO]

I have some driving time on the FK453's now, and in the warmer weather. Very happy.

(Note: All of this was with Stabi and traction control full off)

The max dry grip isn't quite as good as the Nitto NT05's, of course, but it's impressively closer than I thought it'd be, and they don't seem to need warming up as much as the NT05's to expose their full potential. Going beyond the traction limit is progressive, not snappy. As with most street tires, they start to sing a little when the limits are near so you know when to expect it if you wouldn't otherwise. The NT05's were virtually silent in that regard because of the huge tread blocks.

Steering response is great, worlds better than the tall-sidewall 18's, but it's noticeable that the stock steering and suspension are holding back these tires in terms of steering feel so I can't get a 'really' good handle on how good they are in that regard.
Also, I got some understeer back from going to narrower front tires again. :( The NT05's were 295 all around but these are 275 front 295 rear. More came back than I had hoped for, but still not as bad as stock. This isn't the tires' fault, but it leaves me feeling that I could get more of a 'feeling' for them if the car was more balanced again (it will be soon).

Straight-line traction is very decent for a street tire, again, not as much as the (warmed up) NT05 18's but impressively closer than I would have thought. I've a little bit more to gain because I started a bit high on the tire pressures (40psi cold) and a burnout reveals a darker patch in the middle than on the sides. I think the stock Camaro pressure of 36psi cold will be a sweet spot.
As I mentioned earlier, no RWD car on street tires holds a candle to my Talon's AWD launches, so I'm totally ruined in that respect. I can compare to the other tires, but IMHO, this car can't hook up to save its life (in all fairness, it hooks up WAY WAY better than my twin-turbo IROC-Z did. )

Full-on braking is amazing, the ABS doesn't kick in easily. It's quite a rush to stand on the Brembo pedal at 60mph. I think this test was the closest in dry performance to the NT05's from my perception (which admittedly may be off... I don't have actual data).

I drove several miles in the rain too, great wet traction, better than the NT05's which were still impressive. Tires in general are amazing these days, much better than 15-20 years ago, and this is most noticeable to me in the rain. In that regard, I feel that these tires on this car let me stop faster in the rain than I ever have before. It's almost like I'm on dry pavement unless I full-on panic stop. It pulls more G's than I used to think possible on water.
That being said, surface condition matters, as does the amount and timing of the rain. This was in the middle of a moderate shower on a smooth road. It wouldn't be as good if it had quite raining a few minutes before that (oils in the road coming out).

Overall, for the price, I would highly recommend these tires. From the sounds of it, Michelin Pilot Supersports are THE best performance street tires available right now, but they have a limited amount of sizes and they're very, very pricey. If you can't come close to affording those but want good performance, then get these.

(For the record, I'm not affiliated with Falken in any way nor do I get anything out of posting this review... I just think they're pretty good).

[Toms2010]

Thanks for the informative post here. Will have to look into them when it is time to replace, which will be soon.