Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Wheels & Tires Dayton Daytona ZR

I finally needed to replace my tires. They were Dayton Daytona ZR tires. They lasted 60,000 miles even though they started life when the car had excessive negative front camber causing some mild cupping and inside edge wear.

At about 25,000 miles I had the tires "flipped" to help even out the wear. The tire shop told me I was crazy to do so and I told them they were crazy if they thought I didn't know what I was doing.

Probably around 35,000 miles (I don't remember off the top of my head), I installed camber kits along with some younger 99 SVT front and rear struts.

I have rotated them consistantly at 5,000 to 6,000 miles.

Late last week I came out of the dentists office to see I had a low left front tire. Low enough to see it needed attention, but not low enough to keep from driving on it. The tire shop was nearby so I drove right over. They found a nail that was too close to the sidewall to repair.

There was still enough tread left that I probably could have gone another 5,000 miles or more before hitting the wear bars, but with one tire gone, it was just time to replace the set.

Since the Daytons had done so well, that is what I wanted to replace them with.

Dayton is a Bridgestone brand, along with Firestone and Fuzion. Both the old set and the new set have "made in Japan" molded into the sidewall. When the Bridgestone rep would call on me at the dealerships, I asked about Dayton tires. His response is that Bridgestone tightly controlled the Dayton brand, that it was more similar in engineering and production to Bridgestone than it is to Firestone.

The new set has been reengineered. It more resembles the Bridgestone RE750 and looks to have an identical tread pattern to the Fuzion ZRi. Although the sales rep said that it is identical to the RE750 except for a slightly revised tread pattern, a study of the specs shows that isn't quite the case. The RE750 has a little longer treadwaer rating (340 compared to 320) and a traction rating af AA instead of A. I suspect that it may use the same carcus, but have a slightly different tread compound and maybe some other subtle differences. He claimed that the Fuzion was identical except for the name.

Anyway, with about 200 miles on them so far, they feel great. They are also very quiet compared to the old ones with some light chop wear and near the end of the tread life.

Based on the results I had with the last set as well as my knowledge of Bridgestone and Dayton, I would most certainly recommed them. I have 225/50R16 Z rated (W) tires on my 98 E0 SVT.

One last comment. They may not be the best tire for track use, but they certainly are an underrated (misunderstood) great street tire. I'm not an easy driver when I carve canyon roads, and I never found the limits on the old set.

I have repaired many tires as well as been a a position responsible for the quality of the repairs performed in a shop.

If you try to patch a tire that has a nail where part of the patch gets sidewall flex, it is likely to fail. Anyway, although the nail was in the tread area, it was within a half inch of the sidewall, and too close for comfort for me. It was a large nail as well.

I'm sure that part of the long treadwear came from finally installing the campber kits, but they were doing very well even before. The longest I got before was 40,000 miles. Less than that on the BFG KDWS pieces of crap that had tread seperation. Three out of four of the original tires had tread seperation before the tire was anywhere near worn out. The original Goodyear Eagle GS-C wore like butter.

I forgot to mention that the new tires have a better rim guard than the old ones.

There are two ways a tire can be treaded that restrict mounting. One is a directional tire. Directional tires are made that way to evict water better. The Goodyear Aquatred was a big commercial hit that familiarized people with the concept.


These tires can be mounted on the rim either way: but you need two each way. Once mounted, they only rotate the correct direction on one side of the car. To even out wear across the tread on directional (or plain-jane) tires, you have to "flip" them on the rims, so they can run on the other side of the car. That's what Jim was doing, and it maintains directionality.



The other kind is an asymmetric tire. These usually have less void on one side, to give more rubber on the highly-loaded outer edge. The very popular (for ST solo) Azenis 615 is one of these.



These must be mounted one way on the wheel, so that the outside is, well, outside. They may then be rotated freely around the car: unless they are also directional!

Some tires are both asymmetric and directional. This means you have to get left and right tires, and they're stuck on that side of the car. You can rotate them, but then you have the tire running with the tread "backwards" from it's design: not in rotation, (there's no reason to do that) but in cornering.

I think I figured out what Big Jim did now even if it were unidirectional tires. Remove tire (not rim) from Passenger side and install on Driver side rim (with arrow pointing in the forward direction) and remove tire (not rim) from Driver side and install in Passenger side rim (once gain with arrow pointing in the forward direction). The brand name/markings will not be visible now as it will be on the inside edge of the rim. Tires will still be rolling forward with the arrows and the water will still be "pushed" out correctly. Thanks for the Aquatred picture .

Thanks, I appreciate that. This is a helpful group. Let's just say that I don't want a questionable tire repair just in case I feel like I have an opportunity and desire to exceede tripple digits.

To flip the tires, I had them dismounted and remounted so that the tires that were on the left side of the car went to the right side of the car and visa versa while still continuing with the same rotational orientation. The picture of the aquatred tire is a good example as the tread does resemble the Dayton Daytona ZR, more so the old design. The new design has more shoulder and less center.