Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta High Performance Tires

When the time came for me to purchase new tires for my Acura RSX-S there were a number of things I was specifically looking for.  I wanted a high performance tire that had decent tread wear and wouldn’t break the bank.  The RSX is my daily driver, so I really needed a tire with at least a 250 tread wear so I’m not buying tires every 3-4 months.  Tire manufactures use tread wear ratings to give an approximate life of a given tire in miles.  Under normal driving conditions a tire with a 200 tread wear is designed to last roughly 20,000 miles and a tire with a 280 tread wear is designed to last roughly 28,000 miles.  My RSX comes stock with 215-45/17 Michelin All Season tires.  The stock wheel is wide enough to safely take a 225-45/17 which would give me a slightly larger contact patch and improve all aspects of tire performance (acceleration, handling, braking)
Here is a look at the stock Michelin tire:

Keeping my specifics in mind I had narrowed my potential tire choices to the Toyo Proxes-4, the Toyo T1-R and the Vredesten, Ultrac Sessanta.   The tread wear ratings were all 280, they were all high performance tires, and they were all relatively cheap when compared to the competition.  I have used the Proxes 4 tires in the past and wasn’t disappointed in them, but wasn’t exactly blown away with them either.  This was causing me to lean towards the more expensive Toyo T1-R.

I hadn’t heard much about the Vredesten Ultrac Sessanta tires but did come across an article from a European tire shootout where the Ultrac Sessanta was putting some big name tires to shame.  I did a google search and read a number of automotive forums where independent users were also raving about the tires performance in both wet and dry conditions.  These tires also had one of the most interesting and aggressive tread patterns I had seen.  I called up the guys at www.motorweb.com and got the low-down on these tires as well as pricing in the size I was looking for.  To my surprise these tires were roughly the same price as the Toyo Proxes 4 and from what I had read, were outperforming the Proxes 4 as well!  I had to give them a shot.   Follow the link below to see sizes and pricing from www.motorweb.com
http://www.sportcompactonly.com/Vredestein/Tires/Wheels-Tires/performance-parts_c-146_b-446.htm
Here is a look at an Un-Mounted Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta:

When the tires showed up I took my car to the experts at Group A Autotrend in Chandler, AZ where the tires were expertly mounted, balanced, and re-installed on my car.  The first thing I noticed is how much more aggressive and better looking the Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta tread pattern was when compared to the stock tires.  The initial test drive was quite exciting.  I immediately noticed an improvement in handling and responsiveness.  The car now went and did exactly what I wanted it to exactly when I wanted it to.  The improvement was so dramatic over the stock tires that the weaknesses of the stock suspension were finally revealed.  The tires have significantly stiffer sidewalls than the factory tires yet did not increase road noise at all.  I did a few hard launches and braking tests and the tires really blew me away.  There was little to no wandering on braking and the torque steer was significantly reduced under acceleration.
Here is my car in the air waiting for new rubber:
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Here is a short clip of the experts at Group A mounting my new Ultrac Sessanta Tires:


All in all I think the Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta tires are a fantastic upgrade and I highly recommend them to anyone looking for any kind of performance tire upgrade.  The performance per dollar upgrade has to be one of the best investments I’ve ever made on my car.  Any questions should be directed to the Tuner Pro’s of Motorweb at 888-766-0022 or via E-mail to sales@motorweb.com.
New tires mounted and looking good