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Falken ZE512 tyres - Any good?

1885 Views 12 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  STS2
Hi Guys, your expertise is needed please!

I am running a Hartge Cooper S and am needing to replace all 4 runflats. (205 17 R17)
I know that Falken are not the best but does anyone reccomend or are against them from personel experience. Will they perform better than the runflats in the handleing / gripping department that I am getting rid of?

Other option is Yokohama's but the price for 4 is very "Ouch".

Thanks,

James.
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I've been running the Falkens on my MCS for about a month now, there great! Had no problems with them. I got them from camskill.co.uk
I'm now running on Falken ZE512s and they seem to me very good! I did go from 15" to 17" so these are my first tyres of the 17" kind but seem good grip! I am tramlining a bit down rough roads but that could be due to the 17" anyway. I recommend them in the 3 days I have had them on!
How much mate? I've been quoted £70 per corner fitted and balanced.
I got them from Micheldever in Hampshire for £269.60 fitted balanced and VAT not bad I thought!
Well everything is so subjective but here goes.
Compared to Pirelli Euforia (presumably Italian for brick) they grip better especially in
the wet. They will give better ride comfort. Despite this turn in is about the same but I
had a period without Falken FK451's in between so it's difficult to be sure on this. In
addition I think they may well be quieter.
Here's the difficult bit. They do feel softer and you may or may not like this. As I find
the 2004 SS+ suspension quite stiff I'm happy to soften it a bit. There are plenty of
people on the forum who bemoan the fact the BMW softened the SS+ suspension by
2004 and think it is only fit for wimps like me. Now for these drivers the ZE512's are
probably too soft. So you may be better off with P-zero's which I think Hartge use on
their demonstrator. They are just as expensive as the Yoko's but both are cheaper
than runflats.
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Recent consumer magazine rating for 512s

A well known US consumer testing organization (name witheld) recently tested high performance all season tires and the Falken 512 came out on top. This includes some tires costing almost twice as much as the Falkens. Personally I am a Toyo fan so I am putting a set of the Proxes 4 on my 05 Cabrio as soon as I get home. That said, the Falkens are a heck of a tire at the price. You can find them in the US for around $70 per tire.
I love MINI said:
I'm now running on Falken ZE512s and they seem to me very good! I did go from 15" to 17" so these are my first tyres of the 17" kind but seem good grip! I am tramlining a bit down rough roads but that could be due to the 17" anyway. I recommend them in the 3 days I have had them on!
Hi,

On mytyres.co.uk they're offering
"ZE-512 205/45 ZR17 88W RF mit Felgenschutz". Presumably the RF means runflat, so do these tyres exist in a non-runflat variety? Any clues on where to get them from?

Thanks
- Ian
Flup said:
Hi,

On mytyres.co.uk they're offering
"ZE-512 205/45 ZR17 88W RF mit Felgenschutz". Presumably the RF means runflat, so do these tyres exist in a non-runflat variety? Any clues on where to get them from?

Thanks
- Ian

Falken don't make run flat tyre's. The RF you refer to is an abbreviation for Reinforced,
meaning the side wall of the tyre is stronger than normal. Hope this helps.
Falkens on my Fiat Coupe seemed to do the trick and were on offer at BlackCircle.co.uk last time I checked.
Hyper Active said:
Falken don't make run flat tyre's. The RF you refer to is an abbreviation for Reinforced,
meaning the side wall of the tyre is stronger than normal. Hope this helps.
Ahhh.. thanks for that. God this is confusing!

- Ian
Check out Hankook's new Ventus Z212 rubber, lots of good reviews from recent owners of these. They cost very little here in the US :).
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