[Bobfly]

Thanks for the review. I was considering these. They sound about like the Sumitomo HTR Z3's. Good enough traction for 90% of your driving but overwhelmed by the engine at anything over half throttle in 1st and 2nd gears. Fine at their price point but no where near as good as the Goodyears.

[Evil-Bee-NH]

Originally Posted by 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?

I don't think they were fake reviews for the price and your driving conditions they aren't bad tires by a long shot. I've been using them for a few weeks now and i'm much happier and my car feels much more planted then the stock Goodyear Runflats. Maybe if you live in 80+ degree year round temps the Goodyears are a great tire but up here in the northeast I found they stay way to hard and make the car lose traction to easy on the road. Haven't had that issue with the Firestones outside of throwing the rear end out on wet roads yet.

[Redlinez]

I know this for a fact, these Goodyears with 1000 miles on them hydroplane like no other tire I've been on. I may call Chevy customer assistance and see if they're willing to do anything. I expect I already know that answer as I don't think there's another runflat tire in these sizes. I'm pretty sure they would only replace with another runflat since they don't provide a spare or inflator kit. I would say the Firestones are one step down from the new Continentals and Michelin Pilot Sports, but they are almost half the money. I imagine the crazy stiff sidewalls on these Goodyears really help the turn in feel and bite.

[DetCam]

I finally got my Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s.

After only a few days, my initial thoughts: I agree with the OP and his assessment of these tires. A noticeable decrease in traction and corning, but still not bad. General road noise is moderately improved, but that obnoxious thump the run flats make over every bump is significantly reduced, providing a quieter and smoother/softer ride. I run 18” wheels with Blizzaks in the winter, and they give a quiet cushy ride, I love those things… (Until you throw it into a turn and you are reminded that they are just for commuting to work safely, not for playing). The Indy’s are like a decent compromise between the F1’s and the snow tires, you get a softer quieter ride, but you still get sufficient traction and can throw it into the corners. They tramline less than the worn out F1’s did. It’s probably just the reduced traction, but I prefer the rear ends behavior in corning with the Indy’s during spirited driving. Before I could feel the limited slip diff engaging causing the rear to dance about a bit. Now it just goes around a corner without drama. Granted, I’m pretty sure that just means I’m spinning the inside tire when the diff engages, but it holds the road well and continues on its way.

Some might say they are “numb” when compared to the F1’s, I like to think they are doing a better job of isolating me from the torture that is a Michigan road after too many winters.

For Daily Driving: Love em so far.

For AutoCross and Track days: Haven’t done either yet, but I’m pretty confident I just became a little less competitive in the autocross series. I’ll report back if they turn out to be better than my current expectations.

Considering I drove out of the tire store for less than $700: If they survive more than 3 or 4 track days, these are an incredible deal.

If your goal is to be the fastest guy on the block, you’ll have to pay (more) to play.

[KenH.]

-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.

[BradfordCamaro]

Originally Posted by KenH.

-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.

?? Alot of tires don;t

[KenH.]

True, but I can't speak for those because I haven't used them.

After a few thousand miles on the new tires I have spots on my wheels that actually look flattened like the wheel made some contact with the road.

I keep my tires at 35 front and rear.

This is just a PSA with my experience. As with all things ymmv.

[DetCam]

Since we're updating our impressions of the indy 500's: I got my first two days of autocross use on these. One short day of a Test and Tune, and good day of autocross with 5 runs that "counted" and 3 "fun runs".

First impression: oh crap, what did I just waste my money on. I was 1.5 seconds slower around a 52 second course than the cars I normally am close to, and the abs was kicking in way sooner so I knew I was sliding more.

BUT: these were still new tires (less than 150 miles on them), and it was cold out. (40's to low 50's). Things got better as they got broken in and warmed up, (and I learned how to drive the new tires). Near the end of the 2nd day, the sun came out and it was upper 50's. In my last "fun run", which unfortunately didn't count for the competition, I shaved of a full second from my earlier best time and ran a latp that was only 0.3 seconds slower than the guys I usually battle with. (They run a 2003 BMW M5 running the autocross favorites: RE-71R, and I will admit, they are both better drivers than me).

So, I have not given up hope, they may be "fairly" competetive in Autocross and track days yet.

[Sub]

Thanks for the candid reviews. Can you guys comment on sidewall stiffness - that is - cornering feel and quickness to turn in? Tirerack comments mostly say the sidewall is stiff but your opinions seem to vary here.

[Chevy71]

OP thanks for posting. I was on the fence about these aBout a month ago. I actually pulled the trigger and was buying them based on tire racks reviews and putting these tires in the same group as PSS and that level of tire. I actually went to the Firestone store here in Monroeville to buy them and the manager of the store told me not to put them on my car. He put them on his Mustang and they were terrible so he was switching to a Bridgestone these were designed after but with cost cutting measures. Because of that, I paid the extra money for the Conti's. While I hate that you're stuck with a tire that doesn't hook well, I'm glad to see I made the right call to spend more money on the tire to ensure Imgot performance. One thing I can note, when I wanted to buy these there were 63 reviews compared to the PSS' 1230 reviews. Most of the people rating the Indy 500's were in lighter tuner type cars. This could be why the reviews came in so well.

[KenH.]

Originally Posted by Sub

Thanks for the candid reviews. Can you guys comment on sidewall stiffness - that is - cornering feel and quickness to turn in? Tirerack comments mostly say the sidewall is stiff but your opinions seem to vary here.

They turn in very well until they don't and just push out. It's at the upper end when you push them hard, but if you get them to reach that point it can kind of be an oh shit moment.

I consider these to be about the same as the pilot powers I used to use on my sport bikes before I switched to super corsas. Great turn in, but lacking feel and then when you push them just a bit too hard you get some quick oh shit moments.

Still though performance wise they are worth what you pay for them. Really not happy about how your rims get treated with them on though.

[DetCam]

I can only compare the the stock tires. I was actually quite impressed with how stiff the sidewall is... I was afraid I'd roll them and ran higher pressures at first (which was NOT good for traction) but as the day got warmer I kept letting air down, keeping it around 35 PSI and I wasn't driving on the sidewall. With that, I'll say turn in was pretty good actually.

I did not get very much "squealing" like one reviewer mentioned... maybe it was the driving surface differences, but noise and feedback was fair to decent with enough noise to know what was going on. They do warn you before to loose it... but as it was mentioend, push it a bit more and you'll shove your way right through the corner. I overdrive the corners multiple times (totally driver error) but never had an oh-crap moment. I'm looking forward to a track day next month to see how they do in high speed situations.

I would say their "handling" performance is better than their straight line performance (not a drag radial). We've just got so much power, it's going to take a special tire to hook all that up.