If you want you can skip the blabber and just look at these tires and let me know what you think of them

They look awesome and seem awesome. Very nice tread pattern.
225/50/ZR16 s They were old stock at a tire shop. Then put in storage for a bit so they need to be cleaned up.

Can anyone recognize the tread pattern and or style of the tire, what I should expect out of it on the back of the 4.9. I usually don't take risks on tires, but the price was very reasonable. They are basically a new tire. If nothing else they just look cool and a great size for the back of the car, the 245s were just too much for me to find enjoyable.

Here is a link to a punch of pics. In thumbnail view you can click the pics to make them larger or create a member ship and just post on that forum.












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85GT 5spd ,93 Eldorado 4.9 Dual O2 Custom Chip, Archie Clutch. Custom Exhaust. MSD Everything 245/50/16's Not Your Average 4.9 Capt Fiero Com --- My Over View Cadero Pics Yellow 88GT 5spd Stock.

Treadwear Ratings

Ok please correct me if I am wrong, a lower number usually means a softer tire. In exact terms a treadwear rating refers to the rate at which a tire wears out. It is not a measure if the actual hardness or softness of the rubber. Now my question is, if you have a 245 tire with a treadwear of say 220 would a tire of the same compound actually have a lower number if it was a narrower tire. My guessing is that a smaller tire with a smaller contact patch would wear out faster than a larger tire if made from the same compound tire. Does anyone follow my logic on this? More rubber on the road under the exact same conditions should last longer due simply to the amount of rubber it would take to wear it down.



Now we get to the root of my question. My current tires on the rear of my car are 245/50/16 with a 220 treadwear rating. I managed to eat them up in 6 months of street driving with zero track use. The new tires I just bought and have yet to take down to the tire store are 225/50/16 with a treadwear rating of 420. They are both Traction A, Temp A rated. It kinda worries me that they are both a narrower tire and have a higher treadwear rating. I was prepared for a loss of traction due to the smaller size of the tire and effective gear ratio change. However now I am really worried after seeing my current numbers vs the numbers on the new tires. The only good thing about the whole situation is my transaxles might last a bit longer and I won’t break as many mounts. (3 Isuzu’s in 2 years and engine is now held in by 2 solid mounts, 1 poly mount and 2 stock trans mounts, which will be upgraded to Rodney Dickmans poly trans mounts.





So anyone want to chime in with input regarding traction vs treadwear vs tire size?

 :The Install and Impressions both mine and Tom:

Well I went down to my fav tire shop. "Tom The Tire Guy" which is a privately owned and operated single tire store. Not a big chain store. I showed him the tires and he looked at my old bald 245's on the back that he had sold me last spring, he kinda shook his head that I ate them up that quick. He checked the tires over that I brought in and showed me the DOT number on them to make sure they were not some of the junk re manufactured tires that are being sold around here. He checked the ratings on the tires and told me they are very similar to some Yokohama tires he gets for customers. The end result of it, he said they are a really decent tire. They should probably do my car fine.He ended up doing the mounting and balancing on the house, which was really nice. I guess being a long time customer he still tries to take care of car guys.

So I got them on the car, and left. The snow was starting to thin and the ground was only wet. (yes it snowed this morning) First thing I noticed is the sidewall is much firmer with these tires. The back end felt more planted. I did a rolling start in 2nd and punched it, with my old tires the back end would have been all over the place in the rain, however they seemed to hunch down had a bit of controllable wheel spin and then grabbed and took off. I am very impressed. For the record they are "Fierce" brand 225/50/ZR16's I posted a pic of the tread pattern when I first got them. I will see if I can find the pic and repost it.

Thank You everybody that posted info about the treadwear stuff. He confirmed what you all said. The treadware is only a guidline and is not even close to an exact spec for a tire. Every brand seems to have a diffrent way of justifying what they feel is the rating and it can vary widly. I guess it is kinda like jeans. A 34 waist Levi won't be the same as a 34 waist Wrangler. Best to try it out and see how it fits.

Edit to add pics