Re: Kumho Tires

["Michael & Carmen Keith" <mikeandcarmen@pdq.net>]

I don't know if you've made a decision on tires yet, but I thought I'd put
in my belated $0.02.  A good friend of mine as well as other racers I know
have switched from BFG R1's to Kumho race tires.  The Kumhos have proved to
perform every bit as good as the R1's, & they seem to last twice as long.
In the world of DOT racing tires, this is as close to nirvana as it gets.
I'll be making the switch as soon as my R1's wear out.

Kumho has made an excellent DOT race tire & backed it up with an excellent
contingency program because they want to make substantial inroads into the
US high performance street tire market.  Of course, just because a company
makes a good race tire does not mean that they make a good high performance
street tire.  For instance, I love my BFG R1's, but you couldn't give me a
set of BFG street tires.

However, I don't think that this will be the case with Kumho for two
reasons.  First, as I understand it, Kumho's street tire is very close in
design to its race tire.  The primary differences are the harder compound &
deeper tread expected in a street tire.  Second, Kumho's primary focus in
the US is on high performance street tires.  Their racing program is an
effort to gain name recognition.  Therefore, I don't think that they are
going to put out a substandard high performance tire in a market as
competitive as the US.

Therefore, I would at least consider Kumhos when you replace your tires.  I
know that I will buy Kumhos if I can't afford P-zeros (which will probably
be the case) when my GA's wear out.

By the way, Kumho is a huge corporation that makes a wide variety of
products (kind of like a Korean General Electric).  I doubt that Goodyear
(or any other tire company) owns them.

Michael Keith
Pasadena, TX
'98 Jetta GLX
'85 Golf SCCA ITB
-----Original Message-----
From: DESEOSA@aol.com <DESEOSA@aol.com>
To: jettaglx@igtc.com <jettaglx@igtc.com>
Date: Thursday, March 04, 1999 11:53 AM
Subject: Kumho Tires


>I know we just talked about tires but...I  just bought my car used and the
low
>profiles that are on it are made by "Kumho".  Has anyone heard of these?? I
>sure haven't and no one on the list brought them up during the tire
>discussion. When I get new tires I don't know if I should replace them with
>the same or change to a different brand.  I can't tell how well they
perform
>because I've only had the car 3 months and they already need to be replaced
>fairly soon.
>
>Angie
>'95 Red GLX 5spd.