I have had Indy 500's on my Fusion since last June (go ahead, laugh now) and have been very pleased with them for daily driving rain or shine (they came off for winter so no snow). I was happy with their performance auto-crossing (only car mod is a big rear bar to keep the car from understeering) and they did well on a road course at a TNIA event (held their own in the corners, the straights were another issue). Overall I like them a lot and they seem to be wearing quite well.
Hats off to ya fellas. Thanks for weighing in on this.
Matt B said:In reply to spacecadet & rslifkin :
I may have to do some couch cushion digging.
The conclusion Seth and I came to ahead of OLOA was this, we're already slow in the accord.
The ECS doesn't really hurt that fact compared ot the PS4S. we'd be slow on either one, so we saved the $$ and went ECS.
I've only driven the ECS on the street and my set is under a 4100 lb car. I'd say they've got quite a lot of grip (more than I expected), they just reward smooth driving to get the most of that grip.
pimpm3 said:I will be autocrossing my NX2000 with the 500's this weekend as long as the weather cooperates. I will let you know how they fair.
I'm interested in your comments.
I have Indy 500's on my daily driven 996 and they will be replaced with another set. I have done everything from a 10k mile road trip to autocross and they are an incredible do it all tire.
That said, they are not perfect. It seems to me the sidewall of the Indy 500 is much stiffer than most street tires. The steering feedback is great and they are very predictable at the limit, but the ride suffers.
Just to add to my Indy 500 impressions, I do want to say that I really liked them. The lack of autocross performance relative to 200TW tires is only apparent on the stopwatch. Behind the wheel, you really feel like a hero. They're not that great as a rain tire, on the road it is fine, but they're slippery at the limit in the rain.
On the street, they have pretty good manners. The ride is pretty firm, but they don't have a whole lot of tread noise. They go through water just fine, no aquaplaning to speak of.
This is after a season of autocross on a GTI, one HPDE day, and about 10k street miles. They were at about 4/32" above the wear bars still.
I just want to say that I love my Indy 500s. I've run them for a couple thousand kilometres on a mid-power 3300-lb RWD car and I've noticed they have sharp turn-in bite, really progressive breakaway characteristics, solid street wet traction and a decent freeway ride quality over broken Ontario pavement. They aren't as sticky as a 200TW tire by any means but they're awesome as a tire for both highway commuting and spirited driving.
How do the BFG Sport Comp 2s compare to the Indy 500s? I assume the 500s are faster and the Sport Comps are more civilized?
I've had both sport comps and indy 500s on my fiesta. IIRC the sport comps were a little louder on the street, though the fiesta is somewhat sensitive to that and has a resonance point right around 50mph so it's noticeable. I remember the sport comps being "just okay" in the rain where the indy 500s seem very good (though they're still basically brand new and full tread depth which helps). I can't comment on speed comparison but they're certainly in the same ballpark. I was fast enough to win our local combined "stock fwd" class on the sport comps, but I also roasted the outer tread blocks off of them in two events which was disappointing. Everything I've seen and experienced says that the indy 500s should wear better but I haven't autocrossed them on the fiesta yet to know for sure.
I just had my set of Indy 500s installed on my Fiesta ST, and came from BFG Sport Comp 2s. I've only had a hundred or so street mile so far but initial impressions are very good compared to the Sport Comp 2. At the same price, I would lean towards the Indy 500 over the Sport Comp 2 for a cheap street summer tire.
Dry performance on the street is great, initial turn-in feel is not as sharp as the Sport Comp 2 but the grip feels similar.
We just got a ton of rain, and the Indy 500 seem to be about on par for street wet driving if not slightly better than the Sport Comp 2. Hydroplaning seems OK, did seem to want to pull a bit in standing water but felt a little more progressive and not as erratic as the Sport Comp 2 in very wet conditions.
Overall the ride is much better than the Sport Comp 2, they seem to take expansion joints and bumps much better on impact at low and high speed. At highway cruising speed the noise is improved over all surfaces
I don't plan to track or AutoX the tires at all, when I did with the Sport Comp 2 I wasn't super impressed. They got very "greasy" quickly at AutoX, and tended to push quite a bit. On the track they felt much better with slower transitions and smoother driving.
They do seem to "flat spot" much more than the Sport Comp 2, but I have a feeling one of the wheels didn't balance out right, need to take it back for a re-do.
For the rain comments, the ECS is almost scary good in the rain. Plowing through a half-inch of standing water at 60 mph wasn't sketchy when I did it. I've yet to feel more than a slight pull from hitting puddles, etc. They've never gotten sketchy. And they still have good grip at 40 degrees and wet too.
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