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So I bought my RCF two years ago and it came with Lionhart LH-5 tires. They are classified as all season tires and definitely not the type of tires to have in So Cal. My previous ISF had MPSS and eventually switched to MPS4S. I've bought a range of tires for various cars from Yokohama S. Drive (discontinued) to Nitro NT-05s. The MPS4S still stands out as the best as far as durability, grip in wet and dry, and even looks (which is probably a bizarre thing to say...who cares about side wall tire looks and tread pattern?...i apparently do lol).
So for two years I've been cruising about on horrible tires that didn't grip like I was accustomed to and didn't feel right due to the softer sidewalls. My RCF ownership has been good overall but I feel the tires really dampened the experience with the almost 9,000 miles I've had it. The last few months I have been looking at summer tires and during these weird times it's hard to get the tire you want. MPS4S' and even Continental Extreme Contact were either backordered or hard to find. So I looked into the Yokohama Advan Sports. It's been popping up in various car forums such as porsche, corvette, BMW, etc. It looks to be a "competitor" in the summer tire category so I decided to pull the trigger on a full set for $950 OTD. In comparison, if I was able to get a hold of MPS4S' it would have been around $1,550 OTD.
This weekend I'll be going on a 590 mile round trip drive along the California Coast so I can give these a shot and offer some feedback.
I drove it about 2 miles from the tire shop to my place and I can only comment that the tread pattern looks much better than my previous tire. I'm getting an alignment tomorrow and after my road trip I can give better impressions.
Here are the reviews I've found so far online (mostly favorable....except for the tire rack test where is gets demolished by the MPS4S...but that's expected?):
Glad to see you finally got rid of those cr*ppy tires the car came with. I always call tires as one of the most important maintenance item especially in terms of driving experience since it is the only contact point between the ground and the car so it is the very last link in a chain of things that make up the driving experience. Hopefully, these tires would really give a proper feel of how the car was supposed to feel like. Also, remember the tires take a little while to break-in so in your 590 miles trip, you still would be breaking the tires in. My own experience is, around 1000 miles you start to really see how the tires are supposed to feel like. Still, looking forward to reading your review after your 590 mile trip.
Glad to see you finally got rid of those cr*ppy tires the car came with. I always call tires as one of the most important maintenance item especially in terms of driving experience since it is the only contact point between the ground and the car so it is the very last link in a chain of things that make up the driving experience. Hopefully, these tires would really give a proper feel of how the car was supposed to feel like. Also, remember the tires take a little while to break-in so in your 590 miles trip, you still would be breaking the tires in. My own experience is, around 1000 miles you start to really see how the tires are supposed to feel like. Still, looking forward to reading your review after your 590 mile trip.
Yeah I should have dumped the tires that came with the car two years ago....but they were brand new and I was always taught to finish all my food on my plate and not be wasteful. LOL
I'm trying to be mindful not to give this too much of a glowing review. Like stated above, I was coming off of some horrible all seasons and have installed performance summer tires so the delta is huge in terms of feel and grip. A summer tire is just going to be better in SoCal than an all season...it is what it is. So I'll try to compare it to the MPSS, the Continental Extreme Sports, and the MP4S that I had on the ISF.
PSI set 37, AVG MPG 26 HWY...down 2MPG HWY from the all seasons
Pros: Good overall grip. They are cheap so if you auto-x or track you can go through more sets in lieu of 1the MP4S if money is a factor. They are unsettlingly quiet for a grippy summer tire. I'm used to hearing tire noise...a rumble..etc. Turn in is great, better than the MP4S even. The car feels "darty" (is that a word?). I like the tread pattern....can you tell which is the MPSS and which is the Yoko Apex?
Cons: Not as grippy as the MP4S, MPSS, and Conti Extreme. If I had to rate grip for a non track tire....and if the MP4S is a 10, the MPSS and Conti is a 9.5, then the Yoko Advan is a 9.2...it's just a shade lower. The side walls are much stiffer but almost too stiff that it translates a lot of vibration. Great if you want more road feel but i've been tackling sunroof noises and it's now more apparent with these tires. I feel the Michelins do a better job of having stiff sidewalls but more compliant to vibration. The tire life warranty on the Yokos is only 12,500 miles for a staggered set up. Both Michelins and the Conti Extreme Sport are warrantied up to 15,000 miles.
There seems to be a few negatives but I'm putting it against some really good tires. I hope I am not giving anyone the wrong idea because I DO LIKE THESE TIRES. They are basically 90-92% of MP4S performance at almost 40% less. They are quiet....and grippy enough to scare you on the streets (in a good way). The problem is that the Contis are better at everything in comparison to the Yokohamas....and the MP4S is the standard. I would fail a "blind" test on the street as all tires I listed are very capable but I'm sure if pushed to 10/10ths things would start to unravel (but who does that on street driving?). If you want that kind of data then I pasted a link to the tire rack review comparing it to the MP4S on my first post of this thread. Another thing to consider is that the Yoko front tires for our cars are 3lbs heavier than the MP4S and the rears are 1lbs more. Take that for what it is. It was a great road trip and got to do some good accelerations and some high g turns off of some exits. The Yokos are very capable...just not the best.
I'll review this weekend when i take her out for a jaunt in the canyons...
Last edited by cvt; 03-28-22 at 10:40 PM.
Reason: adjusted photo
Good review and insight. Glad you are really liking these new tires. They will get a bit more aggressive as they break-in more. BTW, I can tell by just looking at the picture that left ones are MPSS and right ones are Yoko. There is a distinct feature that is not in the MPSS, which is how I determined that.
Originally Posted by cvt
So 600 miles later....
I'm trying to be mindful not to give this too much of a glowing review. Like stated above, I was coming off of some horrible all seasons and have installed performance summer tires so the delta is huge in terms of feel and grip. A summer tire is just going to be better in SoCal than an all season...it is what it is. So I'll try to compare it to the MPSS, the Continental Extreme Sports, and the MP4S that I had on the ISF.
PSI set 37, AVG MPG 26 HWY...down 2MPG HWY from the all seasons
Pros: Good overall grip. They are cheap so if you auto-x or track you can go through more sets in lieu of 1the MP4S if money is a factor. They are unsettlingly quiet for a grippy summer tire. I'm used to hearing tire noise...a rumble..etc. Turn in is great, better than the MP4S even. The car feels "darty" (is that a word?). I like the tread pattern....can you tell which is the MPSS and which is the Yoko Apex?
Cons: Not as grippy as the MP4S, MPSS, and Conti Extreme. If I had to rate grip for a non track tire....and if the MP4S is a 10, the MPSS and Conti is a 9.5, then the Yoko Advan is a 9.2...it's just a shade lower. The side walls are much stiffer but almost too stiff that it translates a lot of vibration. Great if you want more road feel but i've been tackling sunroof noises and it's now more apparent with these tires. I feel the Michelins do a better job of having stiff sidewalls but more compliant to vibration. The tire life warranty on the Yokos is only 12,500 miles for a staggered set up. Both Michelins and the Conti Extreme Sport are warrantied up to 15,000 miles.
There seems to be a few negatives but I'm putting it against some really good tires. I hope I am not giving anyone the wrong idea because I DO LIKE THESE TIRES. They are basically 90-92% of MP4S performance at almost 40% less. They are quiet....and grippy enough to scare you on the streets (in a good way). The problem is that the Contis are better at everything in comparison to the Yokohamas....and the MP4S is the standard. I would fail a "blind" test on the street as all tires I listed are very capable but I'm sure if pushed to 10/10ths things would start to unravel (but who does that on street driving?). If you want that kind of data then I pasted a link to the tire rack review comparing it to the MP4S on my first post of this thread. Another thing to consider is that the Yoko front tires for our cars are 3lbs heavier than the MP4S and the rears are 1lbs more. Take that for what it is. It was a great road trip and got to do some good accelerations and some high g turns off of some exits. The Yokos are very capable...just not the best.
I'll review this weekend when i take her out for a jaunt in the canyons...
So I took her on a little canyon run where I used to take my ISF with MPS4S (along with other cars with various tires)...I'm impressed. It's amazing how much a tire can change the overall experience of driving. Before the tire change the car felt unwilling. Lots of slip lights...tire screeching....lots of "oh ****!" moments (in a bad way). Now the car feels very planted...and moves like it's on it's tippy toes . Turn in on these tires are so good (better than the MPS4S'). The slalom like roads was a good test of the car (and the tire's) capability of handling speed with constant weight transfer. The car stuck like glue and without so much of a squeal or a slip light. The car felt a few hundred pounds lighter. Absolutely pleasantly surprised. I'll need to update the grip score of these tires to 9.4 (the Contis, MPSS, and MPS4S are still ahead). The side walls are stiff and it gives it great feed back. But I have a notorious gremlin rattle in my sunroof area I have yet to find and the stiff sidewalls have made it worse...more my problem than the tires...but it's not enough to overshadow the performance. On other note....I had some rattles on my ISF but when I changed to the MPS4S from MPSS...they were gone. Take that for what it's worth.
I'm looking forward to more great summer days coming up with these...I'll update my review once things get colder and we get into a rainy season in SoCal. The Continental Extreme Sports and the MPS4S did great in the wet (the Contis especially). So we'll see....so far these tires have been great. I feel silly it took me 2 years to start falling in love with my RCF LOL.
Very nice. Good to hear you are finally enjoying your RCF the way it was intended to be. I agree with the analogy of 'car feels several hundreds pound lighter'. I felt that way when I switched from MPSS to MPS4S (XL) tires with a 96Y front load rating and 100Y load rating on the rear. It felt like the tires were meant to handle about 400 - 500 lbs heavier load transfer (which they are) so the RCF weight is actually "lightweight" for them to handle under cornering load. The magic of Michelin tires is, despite having such stiff sidewalls, they don't feel harsh on normal roads. That is where Michelin has the 'magic' where they make such high performance and aggressive tires, but still remain reasonably comfortable over normal pavement.
Originally Posted by cvt
So I took her on a little canyon run where I used to take my ISF with MPS4S (along with other cars with various tires)...I'm impressed. It's amazing how much a tire can change the overall experience of driving. Before the tire change the car felt unwilling. Lots of slip lights...tire screeching....lots of "oh ****!" moments (in a bad way). Now the car feels very planted...and moves like it's on it's tippy toes . Turn in on these tires are so good (better than the MPS4S'). The slalom like roads was a good test of the car (and the tire's) capability of handling speed with constant weight transfer. The car stuck like glue and without so much of a squeal or a slip light. The car felt a few hundred pounds lighter. Absolutely pleasantly surprised. I'll need to update the grip score of these tires to 9.4 (the Contis, MPSS, and MPS4S are still ahead). The side walls are stiff and it gives it great feed back. But I have a notorious gremlin rattle in my sunroof area I have yet to find and the stiff sidewalls have made it worse...more my problem than the tires...but it's not enough to overshadow the performance. On other note....I had some rattles on my ISF but when I changed to the MPS4S from MPSS...they were gone. Take that for what it's worth.
I'm looking forward to more great summer days coming up with these...I'll update my review once things get colder and we get into a rainy season in SoCal. The Continental Extreme Sports and the MPS4S did great in the wet (the Contis especially). So we'll see....so far these tires have been great. I feel silly it took me 2 years to start falling in love with my RCF LOL.
The magic of Michelin tires is, despite having such stiff sidewalls, they don't feel harsh on normal roads. That is where Michelin has the 'magic' where they make such high performance and aggressive tires, but still remain reasonably comfortable over normal pavement.
I agree, the MPS4S had a very premium quality about it...right down to the side wall design (i loved washing the car and putting tire shine on those Michelins). This is of course in addition to the performance and ride quality.
Anyone has an opinion on the Bridgestone - POTENZA RE050A RFT, they are run flat
I feel this would take care of the problem of no spare tire. They are sold at Costco for $436 for the rear ones.
I have the Bridgestone Potenza S001 and I'm dying for them to wear out so I can change them. I hate the road noise on them. Haven't had an issue with traction yet though.
I have the Bridgestone Potenza RE980 AS from Costco, and they're just okay. Wish I went Michelin PS4S, definitely giving up some performance not going best summer tire and just haven't heard anything great about the feel and performance of hard run flat tires.
Anyone has an opinion on the Bridgestone - POTENZA RE050A RFT, they are run flat
I feel this would take care of the problem of no spare tire. They are sold at Costco for $436 for the rear ones.
I would stay away from run-flats. They are excessively noisy and also way too rough due to the construction to make them run even with a puncture Those RE050 were OEM on 2011+ Lexus ISFs (though, non run-flat versions) and from what I read the ISF guys preferred the Pilot PS2 tires that were OEM on 2008 - 2010 ISFs as they handled better, but were not as comfortable as the RE050. The PS4S tires are the successor to the PS2 tires.
03-22-22, 10:41 PM
Yokohama Advan Apex Tire Review
