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Goodyear will soon introduce, a new, ultra-performance, non-runflat tire to fit C5s except Z06. It's called the "Eagle F1 All Season" and it's the first time Goodyear has had all-season product in its. F1, ultra-performance line.

The last great American tire company will come to market in July with the first 22 sizes and will have another 16 sizes by October 1st. These 38 sizes fit a large number of sports cars, performance sedans and sports coupes. The C5 front (245/45ZR17) will be available in july and the rear (275/40ZR18) will come by 10/1.

The F1 All Season is the debut of carbon fiber technology in an ultra-performance tire application. "CF" is familiar to Corvetters as the material used for the '04 Z06/Z16 hood and the '06/'07 Z06 front fenders, wheel wells and floor. In this tire, CF is in a different form, carbon fiber-reinforced inner and outer sidewalls. It stiffens the sides of the tire to improve steering response. This new tire, also, brings DuPont Kevlar into ultra-performance tires after Goodyear introduced it a few years ago in a broad-market replacement tire called "Assurance Triple-Tred." In the F1 AS, a layer of Kevlar stiffens the tire's structure just below the tread.

I talked to Bob Toth, Goodyear's Marketing Manager for Auto Tires, the guy who developed the "Eagle" branding concept back in the early '80s and is one of Corvette's biggest supporters inside Goodyear. “Our Eagle F1 line has always been synonymous with great dry traction, precise control and crisp handling," Bob told me at a preview event last week at Daytona International Speedway. "Our award-winning F1 GS-D3 brought those attributes to wet roads. The new, Eagle F1 All Season extends that envelope by offering traction on dry, wet and snow-covered roads. These new, Eagle 'Carbonfibers' enable enthusiasts in places which experience occasional subfreezing weather to drive their Vettes all year long, if they choose." (our italics)

Using "tread zone" idea Goodyear introduced in the Assurance Triple-Tred, an F1 AS has a directional, "dual-zone" tread. For wet traction, there is the "All Season Zone", comprised of famed "Aquachutes", which channel water from under the tread and away, "micro grooves" each of which has a "biting edge" to enhance traction on snow or ice, along with a silica tread compound unique to this tire and designed for improved traction in subfreezing conditions. The All Season Zone enhances traction on snow and ice to the point that this tire is a "soft" all-season tire. it's certainly not for frequent and regular use in deep snow and ice conditions but, if you drive your Corvette or other performance car every day, do so in a place were, in the winter, you might start home from work and get caught in a modest snow fall or find the roads a a little icy from a sudden temperature drop; this tire will help you get there...and get there in a far more safe manner than will either stock EMTs or other non-run-flat tires will allow.

The Eagle F1 AS's dry traction is comparable to competing products and builds on the F1 brand's reputation for tires that stick. It does this its "Ultra High-Performance Zone", having aggressive, shoulder blocks and a stiff, continuous center rib. Additionally, the All Season Zone has Goodyear's (yet another buz word...sorry) "Treadlock Technology" which is a system interlocking micro-grooves which lock together when the tire is generating significant lateral acceleration. This locking stiffens the tread across both zones and improves traction in turns. All this tread technology, coupled with carbon fiber in the sidewalls and Kevlar in under the tread, makes for a noticeable improvement in steering response.

Two of this Goodyear's competitors are the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S and the Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position. The executive summary of test data Goodyear supplied is that the Eagle Carbonfiber is comparable to both in dry traction. Has better lateral grip and much better acceleration and braking performance in the wet.

At Daytona last week, I had a chance to test those three tires against each other. Admittedly, this testing was not done with a Corvette, because the C5 rear size is not available, yet. My brief comparison was done with a few rear-drive, performance coupes, a Mazda RX-8 and an Infinity G35, along with a Pontiac Solstice. While sometimes inconsistent weather from one run to the next made some of the testing difficult, in autocross and running on a short road race course, on wet courses (and this was in actual rain not on a watered-down course) I found the new Goodyear had better steering response and lateral grip than both the Bridgestone and the Michelin and the improvement over the Pilot Sport A/S was significant.

In the near future, I'm going to test this tire for a longer period on one of the cars in my test fleet and a little bit later, once the C5 rear is available, I'm going to put a set on a Corvette and do some testing.

I'll let you know what I find-out.

 

For Goodyear..An American Manufacturer Right Here In My Backyard! Great to see this with the recent surrender of Hoover Vacuums' to Chinese Ownership. Local talk is that Goodyears Brand New World Headquarters will remain right here in Northern Ohio

 

Good for Goodyear/America/ and Ohio

 

Great writeup, Hib!. Leave it to Goodyear to once again trounce the competition!

 

American Cars should have American Tires. I love my Goodyear GS-D3s so much I can't imagine anything better???

 

There isn't anything better!

 

I'll keep my eye out for them... they sound very interesting.

 

YEa all u Goodyears in Ohio are staying open because we goodyear folks down here have the only profitable plant period. That being said, What about those F1's

 

Any idea on the pricing? Sounds interesting, but if they cost as much as a PS2, they better test/compare to that not the regular PS.

I'm hopeful though they won't be priced out too bad, sounds good!

 

I've got about 3,000 miles on my F1 GS D3's, and they are a real improvement over the stock tires, especially after three years and 28,000 miles. These new tires sound even better. I keep my Vette in the garage fronm Thanksgiving until Easter, so I'm not sure I would do much snow driving.

 

I've been away from Goodyear for a while, but we recently put
a set of Assurance Triple-Treds on my wife's daily driver, and
I have to say I'm impressed.

I'll be watching closely to see how these new tires are received...

 

This is the second forum site on which I've seen comments on the Assurance Triple-Tred. Getting into that is a little off-topic, here obviously, but I have to agree about that tire. I put a set of them on a 96 Camry, owned by my fiance (the Fairest Sandra the Red) and at this point, several years out with the tires about 75% worn, those Assurance Triple-Treds have been outstanding in tread life, noise and traction in the wet.

While I'm going to replace the Camry (it's got 180,000 miles on it) with a Chevy HHR which does not use a tire like Assurance, if I had a car appropriate for them, I'd use the Assurance Triple-Treds, again. It's a great broad-market, replacement tire for the typical family sedan.

With the new, HHR---we're going to try this new Eagle F1 AS discussed above.

 

Well, rules me out since I have a couple of sets of Z06 wheels that I use... Pretty cool though otherwise.

 

Hib, thanks for sharing the info on the new GY's being released. I'd still prefer the added security the EMT's provide and was wondering if any of your contacts at GY know if, or when they will be releasing the GY Eagle F1 GS-2 EMT's (the C6 runflat) in stock C5 sizes? Any insight on this is appreciated.

 

And you thought Daytona was just a redneck town in the south...

 

I actually have a set of these on order. I will post after having them a while and let ya'all know how they are. I should have em in about a week. Can't wait!!!

 

My tire guy tells me that these just went into production today. So I hope I will have them before Eureka springs. I should get them at the end of this month maybe around the 30th.

 

I just wish they made the F1 GS D-3 in larger sizes. 315-30x19s would be nice, but I'd settle for 305s.

 

all season = non performance

 

Amen to that brother.