[KenH.]

I've put about 1500 miles on these tires now and thanks to the crazy weather I've had them in the hot the cold and the rain.

So for the $812 installed with road hazard warranty I paid for the tires i think I got what I paid for, but not much more.

The first thing you will notice is how much quieter the cabin is when you get off the run flats. Those things howled at highway speeds and these are nice and quiet.

How you rate the performance of these tires will in a lot of ways come down to driving and acoustic preferences. I don't drive like a jackass in traffic, but where opportunities present to put the hammer down I do so frequently. The rears do not hook up nearly as well as the stock tires and have a tendency to screech as you break traction under acceleration. I don't really like the screeching tire noise so this is a negative in my book. Others may like it.... hell at 19 I would have loved it.

What displeases me the most is the traction I get with the front tires. Taking corners at speed or under acceleration the car pushes the front end a lot more than the goodyears ever did....and again with screeching protest. I remember back when I bought my camaro and took some really hard turns being amazed at how planted the car was and now with these new tires I'm amazed at how good the old tires were at making the car turn.

These tires handle well in the rain and do a good job resisting hydroplaning.

The tires came at the right price with my wife finishing her last semester of nursing school, but as we get closer to becoming a two paycheck family again i'm going to burn these tires off the car and try the Pirelli tires and if they are not noticeably better I'll probably just go back to stock and deal with the extra noise with the added run flat protection.

Overall because of the cost I'm happy with the purchase. They perform well in all but my most hoonish moments, but don't expect to get near 1g in the corners anymore.

-UPDATE- 5/8/17

These tires do not have the extra lip on the sidewall that protects the rim from damage and it's showing.

I drive the same roads all the time and now I'm noticing more and more marks on my rims .. not on the sides as though i curbed them but on the top of the lip of the rim like it has made contact with the road in several places on 3 out of 4 rims now.

I avoid potholes and rough roads and am still seeing significant damage after switching to these tires. I handwash my car regularly so new marks/damage are easily identifiable.

My ss is a daily driver. I will have owned it a year next month and already have over 25k miles on it. Because of this I'm not going to freak out about it but for those of you who are super picky about marks on your wheels you will not want to buy these tires.

[Eric SS]

Great review. I've been waiting for a review of these so thank you. It seems like you have not had as good of an experience as a lot of others have. That's probably because most of the tire rack reviews are from cars that didn't come with factory tires as good as the Goodyears are.

[KenH.]

No problem. I know a lot of people are on the fence about them so I wanted to give an honest appraisal. They are not on the same level as the goodyears. Not even really close, and I know that is what people are hoping for but sadly they are not, but for the price they are worth the money.

[BradfordCamaro]

Originally Posted by Eric SS

. .......... most of the tire rack reviews are from cars that didn't come with factory tires as good as the Goodyears are.

These were actually tested by TireRack. Scored highest in just about every category.

[enzia35]

Originally Posted by BradfordCamaro

These were actually tested by TireRack. Scored highest in just about every category.

Tested against older tires. And Kumho tires.

[BradfordCamaro]

Originally Posted by enzia35

Tested against older tires. And Kumho tires.

BFG Comp 2s. Not old.
That is why they test them. Too see if the new products are better than those already out. That is the point.

Trust Me. I'LL Be The First One to Voice My Displeasure if I Don't Like These Tires. No Trouble With Speaking My Mind.

[enzia35]

Originally Posted by BradfordCamaro

BFG Comp 2s. Not old.
That is why they test them. Too see if the new products are better than those already out. That is the point.

Trust Me. I'LL Be The First One to Voice My Displeasure if I Don't Like These Tires. No Trouble With Speaking My Mind.

The Comp-2 are 5 years old.

[jaymsu]

Originally Posted by enzia35

Tested against older tires. And Kumho tires.

What's so funny about Kumho tires? Viper ACR comes with Kumho and they perform pretty darn good at reasonable price.

[KenH.]

If you expect grip to be on par with the goodyears you will be disappointed. If goodyear grip was a 9 the firehawks are about a 7.5. Some level of grip loss is to be expected when you go from a treadwear rating of 320 to 400. I was just hoping for less.

[Evil-Bee-NH]

I just had mine put on today only did the 50mi highway trip home. I will 100% agree the cabin is much more muffled without all that road noise from the goodyear run flats. I haven't had them on enough in dry weather or driven with them enough yet to give a complete review. I will say they handle excellently in rain better honestly then the goodyear run flats did however i'm reviewing these under northeast conditions not NC conditions so apples to oranges in terms of road use review.

[DetCam]

OP you're breaking my heart. I too read the Tire Rack reviews and was hoping these would actually be comparable to our stock tires in terms of traction and handling (or maybe a hair better). If the Firestones truly are comparable to the Michelin Super Sports, then all those guys who immediately threw away their run flats and replaced them with the Michelin's must be feeling pretty bad about that decision.

I had real good luck with the OEM tires, but a handful of track days wore the outer shoulders off the front tires, so I'm going to replace them before I run a track day this year (and get a track alignment). I just ran my last Autocross on the original runflats. I got beat by another driver in an identical Camaro by only 0.1 seconds... so I was hoping my "New and improved" Firestone tires might get me that fraction of a second I would need to take him next time. I'll be very sad if I'm about to spend good money just to be LESS competitive. (and yes, I realize I probably lost over a whole second or more based purely on driver error, but it's always nice to have something else to blame when you lose... )

I don't really see another option out there, so I think I'll get a set of the Indy 500s and see how it goes. I'll just head into it with a little less optimism.

[BradfordCamaro]

Sky isn't falling based on one opinion.
Stick with what you have read and seen.
These are new here but have proved themselves in testing and overseas before they got here

My brief drive in cool and wet temps showed to me that traction was much improved over stock run flats. Where I used to spin making turns at intersections I no longer did. Better bite and feel with these 500's.
....put the hammer down on any cold tire and it will spin and squeal in protest of sharp cornering on roads.
Maybe that is why there are no 90 degree turns or intersections on a track.

[Evil-Bee-NH]

Originally Posted by BradfordCamaro

Sky isn't falling based on one opinion.
Stick with what you have read and seen.
These are new here but have proved themselves in testing and overseas before they got here

My brief drive in cool and wet temps showed to me that traction was much improved over stock run flats. Where I used to spin making turns at intersections I no longer did. Better bite and feel with these 500's.
....put the hammer down on any cold tire and it will spin and squeal in protest of sharp cornering on roads.
Maybe that is why there are no 90 degree turns or intersections on a track.

I got them because I've always had a lot of good luck and good experiences with Firestone from the Firehawk Wide Oval A/S to the Winterforce they've been great. I get shit from my own club about not going Hankook or Bridgestone but why pay 2-3x as much for the same result when i'm happy and haven't had issues with Firestone.

[Gunmetalmissle]

Thanks for the review. Will definitely not be looking into these any further. Makes me wonder about all the reviews on tirerack saying they were comparable to Michelin super sports. Fake reviews?