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Originally Posted by DarkSunrise
Mounted a new set of tires. These are Federal SS 595 in 235/40/17. The SS apparently stands for Super Steel, but they should be “Super Steal” since these were only $55/tire. 
I’m not too concerned about grip since these are just my daily/canyon tire, but road manners are great so far. Not sure why people complain about noise. Probably helps that my track tires are Hankook RS3’s so these are actually slightly quieter in comparison on the highway.
As people have noted, these run a bit wide for their size. I’ll update with some more impressions after taking them to the canyons this weekend. As mentioned I’m not expecting huge levels of grip (actually less grip would be more fun to me), but hoping for good tread life and decent consistency across a wide temperature band. |
Took the Federal SS 595 to the canyons today and enjoyed them quite a bit. Grip levels are not super sticky, but the fun part is when you’re approaching the limit, you can get them to lightly sing in all phases of the corner without going into track corner speeds. If you’ve ever driven a max performance summer tire like the Sumitomo HTR Z3, these are somewhat comparable, maybe a half step down in grip. These also feel pretty consistent once they come up to temperature, which is a nice bonus.
Where these tires show their cheapness is sidewall construction. The sidewalls seem to be very soft. Turn-in and steering feel suffer as a result. There is a slight delay after turning the steering wheel, and then the nose digs in and the car turns. This is even with tire pressures at 36 psi cold, which is much higher than I’d normally use. Tread squirm may be contributing since the tread pattern has large voids between the blocks.
Overall I’m very happy with these tires, especially for the price. They are pretty much what I was looking for, minus the soft sidewalls/tread blocks. Fun, cheap, consistent tire that can take hard canyon driving. They don’t have a ton of grip, nor did i expect them to since I have a separate set of track wheels. I haven’t had any problems with road noise, even at 75-80 mph. I’ll update again if anything changes with these.