Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Wheels & Tires Fuzion ZRi review - Update

Well, I just put 500 highway miles and a lot of auto-x time on my Fuzions. I drove all over in the rain and dry, and Saturday I took an auto-x school, with about an hour of seat time, all in the rain. Sunday was 5 auto-x runs (45 sec each) on the same lot, but it was pretty dry by then. So far:


At the limits:
Awesome, awesome, awesome in the wet. I was gripping at least as well as the Azenis on Saturday. I ran a skidpad (left-turn only!!!) and pulled 0.8G! (30mph, 165ft pad). I didn't have a chance to try them in the dry. Slaloms were good, but the sidewalls could be a little stiffer. I ran 45/40psi f/r, but they still rolled a little too much. Part of that may have been me over-cooking too many turns. They let go a little more abruptly than an all-season or less sticky summer tire, but it's welcome. Oversteer was easy to induce with mild-moderate trail braking. All together; more forgiving, but not quite as fast as a real auto-x tire, but still a good comprimise for STS when you need a great rain tire. The new Azenis will probably be my next set, as the problems with that tire are supposed to be helped, especially wet traction. Note: as the pavement dried out, I got marginally faster, but others saw a bigger improvement. the Kuhmo MX seems to really lose out in the wet, but people on that tire were a lot better Sunday than Saturday. I was pretty consistent, so you do give up soemthing in the dry for the extra wet traction. Hopefeully I'll have a dry race soon to see how they do.

On the road:
Highways are nice. Quieter than most comparable tires, especially 712s. I'll see how this changes with treadwear. Hyrdo resistance is great. I hit deep water at 70 mph with better perfoprmance than my all seasons, by a long shot. The high-end goodyears are better, from what I've heard, but I haven't tried them to really know. The Avon M500 is supossed to be good for hyro too. The ride is decent, very good for a 205/50. They are stiffer than the 205/55 goodyears I had on before, but the difference really shows up in the corners.

All over, a good tire if you want cheap, grippy, and lots of wet traction. I would say that this is a wet-conditions compliment to the Kuhmo MX. It's a step above the 712s, but not a real race tire. The tire is a bit narrow, and the edges are very rounded. I think I'd like to give them neg. camber if I could. I think about .5-1 deg would really sharpen up stock 'tour suspension with these. Oh, obviously, crap in the snow. I managed to get around back home for one weekend, but it was rough. I almost considered throwing the snows back on just for a short trip. I think they were only passable because they had a ton of tread.

I had been looking into those tires, and now they seem much beeter looking, thanks for that update.

~Alex

I pick mine up tomorrow

Well, they have a few thousand miles on them now, and a ton of auto-x. They're wearing pretty badly after all of my smoking-tire understeering at the last auto-x.

So far:

Still pretty quiet. Still great in the wet, with 2/3 tread left. Sidewalls are not near stiff enough. 52 psi and still rolling the edge too much! (some of that is my bad driving).

I'd still reccommend them for a summer tire if you want something like the KDWs but don't want to shell out the money. they are a lot cheaper, and probably 95% of the tire. They're fantastic in the rain, and just about perfect ride/handling balance for agressive road driving. Treadwear is pretty good, despite all my abuse. I will go with Azenis or Z212s next summer for a more race-oriented tire, and would recommend the Toyo Proxes T1-S, Bridgestone Potenza S-03 or BFG KDWs to someone looking for a higer-end street tire. However, anyone considering the Kuhmo 712s, Yoko AVS ES100s, or the like would probably be very happy with the Fuzions.

Hey Shawn - I'm broke! So no dice on the wheels, right now. Are they 7.5 wide? That is interesting. Are there tires on them? - I forget. you should have seen the course I raced on sunday. It was 9/10 mile! I redlined second in three places. FTD was a Z06 with 55, just ahead of a 914 with a 305 V-8. STS was won by an SVT Focus at 62.2xx, I got 64.0xx. Civics were 65-70. Bloody fast.

I'm glad after all my endless ranting about these tires some of you are picking up on their quality.. There is not a better bang for the buck tire out there when it comes to performance.

I bought them on your review, remember? Thanks for that one!

Okay, they are REALLY narrow in 205/50. I'd go with the 225/50R16 on SVT wheels (or 16x7). They're SVT stock diameter, and should fit well enough to not lose crispness from the .4" taller sidewall. I thought they just had a round shoulder, since there's no visible balooning, but I saw much wider ones on an Altima today, and they were much squarer. I think bigger is better with these. It gets a lot more rubber down! They also look better. I still like the low gearing of mine, so I wish they made a 225/45. If I get them again, it'll be for a street-only tire, and I'd go 225/50.

Well, they're toast after about 5k road miles and a LOT of sliding around (and into) cones. The tread is nearly shot on front, and about 2/32" on the rear, so I'll rotate them and finish the auto-x season, but they are slow now. After this many heat cycles they have gone off completely, and are very hard. The last 2-3 events they've dropped significantly in grip, but they seem to be done now. They're still pretty quiet and have a good ride, and seem to do well in the rain with 3/32" left. Overall, I'll reccommend them over the AVS ES100s and the Kuhmo 712s for street use, but the Hankooks seem to be the new bargain tire for semi-serious autocrossing.

Final review:
Fuzion ZRi

Price ....... *****
Dry Grip ... ***
Wet Grip .. ****
Handling ... **
Life ......... ***
Noise ....... ****
Ride ........ ****

This is on a scale encompassing summer/track tires only.