Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 vs Hankook Ventus S1 noble2 — Compared

“Will I regret buying Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s? I have a stock '21 GT Premium convertible with the black appearance package. It came with the upgraded Pirelli P Zero 255/40-19 tires, but with 35,000 miles, they are really worn, and I need new tires. I live in North Florida. We don't have a lot of cold weather (I missed the snow last month), but I do get a lot of rain. I don't track the car, and mostly drive on country roads and the interstate. The Pirelli's have treated me well as far as traction, dry and wet. I like the aggressive look of the Firehawks, but I am concerned about wet weather traction. Will the Firehawks be at least comparable to the Pirelli's for wet weather and general handling? If not, it sounds like the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 4 is the way to go. Also, the car is all black, with black rims, and the tires look wimpy. I'm not up for new rims this go-round, and I won't lower it because I like the clearance for potholes, etc., that I see a lot of in my area. I'm hoping the tires will help the look a little bit. Read more”

“I just put Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's on my NC2 and I like them and would recommend them. I paid about $635 with installation at Costco but you might even be able to find them for less elsewhere.”

“I had them on wifes old MR2 spyder, drove great. deep tread and quiet, did not exhibit any bad behavior and held well at high speed on ramps, ect....great in wet weather and were by far the longest lasting tire I ever had on that car, yokohamas would burn down in 15-20k miles in rear and staggered so no rotates. different beast, I know but the tires on a miata should easily go 40-50k.”

“Quote: Originally Posted by Chaotic1,Feb 9 2009, 06:49 AM Price per tire? Fronts: $63.00 x 2 + shipping (214/45zr-17) = $152.16 Rears: $71.00 x 2 + shipping (245/40/zr-17) = $164.15 Originally, I was only going to replace the rears with OEM tires because my fronts were in such decent shape, but I was able to get all four wheels for cheaper than the two rears so I went that direction instead. As promised, I'd continue to report on these tires and with todays showers and mixture of oil/grime and left over sand from the sleet we recently had, the tires are doing as well as expected. Of course with the sand, it is easy to break the rear-end loose but it breaks when expected, no surprises.”

“Getting new tires I’m replacing my OEM tires (Hankook Ventus S1 Noble2 sized 235/50R19). They’ve got 80,000 miles on them. I’ve had a good experience with them. My tire guy has about 3 tires in the $200 (installed) range. Right now I’m leaning towards the Hercules Raptis ® R-T6X. Who has experience with these? Does that sound like a decent choice? I want to spend the money I need to on good tires, but don’t want to spend the most money just because. Read more”

“My car originally came with 225/40/19 and 245/40/19, I then went to the other OEMs 225/45/18 and 245/45/18. But the 225/50/18 an 245/50/18 is the best yet. Way better ride, fills up the wheel wells and corrected the speedo error.”