Just put a pair of 225/45-R17 Goodyear F1As on the front at 24k miles (Exclusiv CDTi 150 facelift) - rear 215/50-R17 NCT5s still about 4mm left, so maybe the whole set will need replacing next time round.
Now before I get going about these, in my experience just about any new tyre on the front will feel lighter and give better grip because of the sudden switch from 1.6mm to 7mm of tread depth. I'd add to that 'sound quieter' but would undoubtedly get someone who fitted mud/snow/studded tyres correcting me...
However, here are a few things of note comparing F1A to NCT5 on my car, in no particular order (but roughly pro then con):--
- A lot less noticeable road noise from front - road/tyre noise now much more pronounced at rear due to drop in front 'drone' (apparently there's a much better pitching sequence for the tread blocks)
- More direct feel to steering ('Active Cornergrip Technology')
- Much better wet grip - I remember spinning the NCT5s at 60/3rd on a wet slip-road when a couple of months from new (mind you, that was on the northbound Chester-le-Street/A1 junction, and the run-off from the road there makes it like driving through a ford at places) - wet grip is so much better in reviews than other brands (Bridgestone 50's tend to pip them slightly in the dry, but hey, this is Britain and I'm shortly moving to Durham so it's definitely 'wellies on' time!)
- No loss of comfort despite reinforced sidewalls (NCT5 are 91W, F1A are 94Y) - standard springs/dampers on Exclusiv model
- Despite this, they actually ride potholes better too
- If anything, better protection for alloys than with NCT5 - there's a good 5mm offset in from sidewall to rim (NCT5 sidewall is more rounded, so it's difficult to tell without getting silly with callipers and straight edges)
- Better look to tyre when fitted - more square-shouldered
- Looks more 'Q' than GSD-3 - does the non-V tread pattern suit a sensible, untricked, non-sports cruiser? It's horses for courses and definitely a personal choice!
- Slightly lower (okay, so that's stretching the point - who notices <5mm drop?!)
HTH guys - get back to me with any Q's!
- More tendency to tramline - trade-off for better directional feel
- likely to last less miles (two reasons: OEM tyres tend to last better anyway, but the Traction is 'AA' on F1A, cf. 'A' on NCT5 = softer compound: Treadware and Temperature match at '240' and 'A') - trade-off for much better grip
- speedo is about 1.5mph higher for same road speed (as measured by satnav). As a general note, most accurate speedo I've experienced on a stock out-of-showroom car was a Citroen Xantia - my wife's 206 is also v.close at 70mph (reads 71mph) on the same satnav that now reads my Vec at 10% high, but used to read it about 8% high on NCT5. This is still legal, but only just!
- Until the rears are done, my car is now slightly nose-down which is most noticeable when driving at night - lights cannot raise enough to compensate using the electric adjusters!
- The gap to the arch is more noticeable, but isn't like those cross-over sports/off-road motorcycles or anything that's been lifted like a 4x4 Transit...
BTW, anyone know what I should ask for when talking to dealers regarding recalibrating speedo? IIRC it's a TECH2 trick - telling the car it rolls on 17s instead of 16s is a start (Plus Pack fitted from new - why isn't this done at factory??). I presume it's something like entering the tyre size and letting the computers do the sums.
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