This is not really a road review. I bought these tires to use on a road going GTi type car after the Tire Reviews assessment that they had great wear life compared to other tires when used on track. The car is used daily for "normal" car stuff, but does get occasional use on track because I am involved in running track events, so I wanted a tire that I could drive around daily, then go to track, do the occasional 5 or 6 laps, and drive home again, without stress.
Road driving, you can feel they have a stiff carcase and so you pick up far more of the high frequency bumps than some other tires. In normal, sensible, road driving they are not deficient in anything that is going to scare you. As I drive on a lot of B roads to go to work I was always aware that in wet conditions, the stiff carcase is not communicating to you about the limits as much as some would. On a wider road this may be less of a concern. It is not a tire I would chose to run through the winter, because there are better UHP options for that, but could if required. I never felt close to death!
On a dry track however, I thought they were very good. They do need a bit of heat, particularly the rear on a FWD car, which can give some hilarious oversteer if you try too hard too quickly. With some heat however, dry grip was impressively good and in my view would lose nothing of note to any of the budget road going semi slick tires like the NS-2R in the same sort of driving, and likely offer more road performance on the way home. Heat management also seemed good, but track driving length would have never been more than 15 minutes at most. While more focused track tires like Direzza or AO52 would offer more ultimate grip, on a standard road car, the extra grip giving extra stress on suspension, is not required. I can't comment on wet track driving because those circumstances never occurred, but I while potentially not the best option for the wet, I cannot see them being any worse than any of the dedicated or occasional track tires.
As these were on a second set of rims, they did not get a great deal of road use because the other choice was Cont SportContact 7, which I prefer as a road tire as they are more comfortable and have, in my view, better general all round performance. However the Conti, while capable of putting in a very respectable lap, will suffer from heat build up and degradation far quicker than the Goodyear. Driving three to 4 lap, repetitive stints, at a charity passenger ride track event at Croft circuit saw the tire able to generate enough consistent grip to burn the paint off the cars standard brake calipers (not standard brake pads) without the tire going off. The impressive part was wear rate was very good with no blistering, chunking or rapid wear.
I have now "retired" these tires as they are three years old. Being on a second set of rims, but preferring the Conti for most things, they were not getting used. When they did get used, first time in about 12 months, at Donington in July, I did think they were understeery and past their best, particularly in Redgate, even though there was 3mm tread left.
So, for me, I prefer the Conti, but, were I faced with a choice of new tires to have to use on a dry track event with repetitive lapping, it would be the Goodyear and if not the out right fastest of those two tires, it would be very close, but it would definitely be the most consistent and longest lasting by quite a way.
