Some good some bad, mostly excellent.
I was sick of putting extremely expensive German tyres on my CL600 Benz and getting around 15,000k from them. Someone suggested trying ku31 s and I thought, nothing to lose. The first 3 sets I put on were to put it bluntly, fantastic. I run 275/30/19 ...
I was sick of putting extremely expensive German tyres on my CL600 Benz and getting around 15,000k from them. Someone suggested trying ku31 s and I thought, nothing to lose. The first 3 sets I put on were to put it bluntly, fantastic. I run 275/30/19 s on rear and 255 s on front and have to run 34ps in the back tyres to get even wear without taking the center out. The rest of the tyre wears great, they don t scrub corners off and protect the rims fairly well. The fronts are fairly stiff with 37ps in them, but arent noisy and always turn in precisely even on wet bitumen. The grip levels are fantastic, wet or dry.
Some of the other comments are interesting, the guy with the big heavy powerful Senator, well, I have a big heavy car , on the same size rims and tyres, it s got a 6 litre V12 with 370 kw at the wheels and more torque than an Enzo Ferrari. The Enzo makes 657nm @5500rpm and the Benz makes 800@4100. Yes, the later versions of this motor are electronically limited to 1000nm, otherwise they make 1400 and blow up gearboxes and diffs. just imagine how it should rip these tyres up if they were as rubbish as some reviewers seem to think. I can t make the traction control light up on dry bitumen, these tyres just grip and slingshot me up the road (different story in the wet). The same stopping. This car has brake assist, so if it thinks you aren t pushing the brakes hard enough in an emergency stop, it just puts them on full for you. Yes, I had to play with it when I first got these grippy tyres on, and I always like to see where the limits are before I need them in the real world. The brake pedal sucks out from under your foot and the car stops like the hand of god just grabbed you. I have never had a tyre so stable under extreme braking, or accelerating other than a slick, or semi slick. The lateral handling limits are excellent, so I can only think you must have had the tyres very underinflated. It does happen sometimes when tyres are fitted to the car makers spec. Often car manufacturers spec a much lower pressure than is optimum for the tyre because it makes the car ride very comfortably and most people don t notice the degraded tyre performance, or just blame the tyres. These tyres seem to work better with more pressure in them.
The other comment I saw on rotating the tyres. These tyres are directional in the tread pattern. They can t be swapped left to right, as that reverses the rotation on a tyre that has already taken a wear set , plus they would be rotating in the wrong direction to what they were designed for. This would cause anything from extremely noisy operation, to quick, or uneven wear. I think I noticed a couple of people complaining about that. I can t swap front to rear as the size is different, so they stay put till they wear out. It doesn t seem to bother them.These really are excellent tyres, regardless of price, or any other tyre you compare them too, they are stable in tight low speed corners and and at speeds over 250 (if we were allowed to do that of course), the unbroken centre tread block/ strip and longitudinal grooving probably is what makes them track so well.. I really am annoyed Kumho has ceased production of them( I have been told), maybe they were just too good at the price they were.
A warning; My first 3 sets were bought through a reputable dealer that I know and have bought tyres from for years, in fact it was him that recommended them, despite being a Bridgestone dealer. I got roughly 35,000 a set, or 3 sets over 100,000kms. I ran out of the last set during the summer break and he was closed, so I bought a set online. Great service, great price, saved nearly 100 bucks a tyre. The tyres were marked as the same, ie, ku31 s, but the tread was slightly different. I put it down to possibly an update. The tyres had similar levels of grip and handling, so I was unpleasantly surprised when I noticed they were nearly half worn at just over 5,000 km?? What the!! Buyer beware if you shop on line. They don t take them back, and god knows where they get them from, or what they really are.
ps. I was lucky enough to take the 450kw /1000nm monster for a quick (pun intended) test drive. As good as the trick traction and stability control is in the CL 65AMG (twin turbo V12) it struggles for traction everywhere. Unfortunately it suffers from undersize rear tyres, having to make do with a 275 when it really needs a 335, but it has no-where to put a tyre that large. Even ku31 don t help, my guess is slicks might just about be enough, maybe. Still it was fun, just not sure why the sales guys face went a funny grey shade.
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Would buy this tyre again.
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