You won't come unstuck with this tyre (Goodyear)

Member Name: markos9

Product:	Goodyear
Date:	08/03/09 (336 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fantastic grip at a very reasonable price

Disadvantages: Don't drive them on ice or snow!

When I bought my MX-5, it had covered about 18000 miles and the rear tyres had worn out (the MX-5 is rear wheel drive). The dealer had kindly replaced then, but not so kindly had done so with cheap South American no name treads.

With the no name tyres on, my new car was a real handful to drive. There appeared to be almost no grip in the dry, and in the wet it was nightmarish. On a couple of occasions, the car went sideways as I applied power when going round a corner. Nice on a track but not what I needed on the wet A56 at night!

I'd researched the car before buying it and knew that tyre choice was important to this lightweight, rear wheel drive car to ensure good road holding, particularly in the wet. The most recommended tyre was the Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3. I bought a pair from E-tyres at a very reasonable £105 fitted, at home.

The difference in the handling was immediately apparent. Once I'd let the tyres run in for a couple of hundred miles, I started to test their capabilities. The grip, in the dry, was amazing. The car seemed to be glued to the road and it was difficult to make it come unstuck when cornering. It was still possible to cause wheel spin when taking off, but this was much harder to do than with the old tyres due to the extra traction.

The biggest improvement was in the wet, however. Goodyear Eagle GSD3's have a unique tread pattern ('V' shaped with the sharp part of the 'V' at the centre of the tyre) that channels water from the centre of the tyre, out to the edge and away. This allows the tyre to cut through standing water without 'aquaplaning' (where the tyre is riding on the water rather than on the road surface, a very dangerous situation).

The Goodyear tyres' grip was amazing. There was obviously less traction than when in dry conditions, but the road holding gave confidence that the car would continue to stay in contact around the corner (the South American crap tyres did not give this confidence, even in a straight line). Even in a torrential downpour, I was able to drive at normal speeds without worrying about driving off the road.

As well as holding the road, the tyres gave good feedback on when they were about to lose traction. I could feel what the tyres were about to do through the seat of my pants. This allowed me to drive near the car's limit, without worrying about passing it and losing control. With the recommended pressure of 26psi, the ride comfort was better than the no name tyres too. Road noise was also acceptable.

With such fantastic road holding, I half expected that the tyres would wear quickly (my thinking being that in order to grip, the tyres would have a soft compound which would wear away easily). I was wrong. After 18,000 miles of not entirely gentle driving (grins!), the GSD3's still had enough tread left to pass an MOT. This is an impressive performance.

The only area where the GSD3's did not perform well was in winter conditions and on ice/snow. My research had shown that, below 5 degrees centigrade, the performance degrades significantly. I experienced this during both winters I had the car. When conditions were cold, grip was significantly reduced.

On ice or snow, it was much worse! Basically, there was no grip whatsoever. I found myself skidding easily on ice or snow even with an imaginary egg under my accelerator foot, scary! Fortunately, the days of snow and ice were few and far between.

Overall, this is an incredible tyre. It's reasonably hardwearing, has fantastic grip both in the wet and dry, and is reasonably priced. My new car is due for tyres soon and I'm considering getting these. Highly recommended.

Summary: If you're looking for a reasonably priced performance tyre, this might be it.

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