icemang17

Mordeth

Well, it is certainly possible that they have hardened. This depends on alot of factors, including how they were stored and how they have been used. The rubber does harden naturally over time as the molecular bonds break down and then reform inside the rubber. The tire loses elasticity and ultimately grip. Cracks will start to appear in sidewalls and even the tread blocks and the tire will appear dry (inspect for this), but sometimes degradation occurs on the inside of the tire and cannot be seen, yet still significantly impacts tire performance. So yes it is possible they have dried and hardened. This is a normal (but not good) part of the aging process of a tire. But you should also ensure the following:

1) Your car has been aligned and you know the alignment settings
2) Your tires are/were properly inflated
3) You understand the road conditions and road surface (slick, wet, contaminated, crown, cold etc etc)
4) The tires had enough time to heat up (a cold tire is a slippery tire).
5) You understand that the throttle is not an "on-off" switch. You should progressively apply throttle as you feel out the available traction (which is dynamic) and you know how to correct an oversteer condition and why it happens, which is almost always user error unless intentionally induced
6) You have no mechanical issues with your suspension, including the rear shocks, hubs, axle nuts, lug nuts and rear sway (all very easy to inspect)

Additionally, they don't call them "Goodyear Runcraps" because they are a good tire. You couldn't give me a brand new set of them. If you did, I'd use one to swing off a rope in my backyard, roll another down a big hill for fun and ditch the last two in the lake for the fish to swim around. That's a better use of this tire than on a C6 Z06.

keeso6z

You gotta love that opinion and use for those crappy tires. I had them on my 2006 Z and there were 11 years old when I replaced them and downright scary. They had gotten close to brick hard and had lousy traction even though they only had 2,600 miles on them.

73DBG

mkitt27

Under normal circumstances 2015 tires will still be pretty fresh. As Mordeth mentions, certain conditions can accelerate aging.

that all said yea the Goodyears not the greatest tire. Have them on mine yet (only owned it for 1 year so far) but when I get new wheels someday I will not get Goodyear.

psp6158

It's almost unanimous on here they are horrible, go with Michelin's (majority) and get more grip and much much quieter. More expensive, yes, worth it, yes..

stew1100

Goodyear run craps are scary at best. Hard and loud not matter how old.

Get the Michelin's you won't be sorry.

icemang17

dmuellenberg

I ditched the GoodYear run flats a long time ago. I don't track my car, so I was looking for more of a general purpose tire. I am now using a Continental brand tire and am very happy with them. I have a 2006 Z06 that I've owned since new and currently have 141k miles on it. The GoodYear run flats would tramline as you have found out where there is none with the Continental's. The Continental's are also much cheaper (less than $1,000 for a set), last much longer (I am getting 40-50k out of a set), are quieter and handle much better in the rain. They also have decent traction although not as good as new GoodYear's but good enough for me. The only down side is that they aren't run flats but I just carry a patch kit and portable tire compressor even though I have never needed to use them since I switched to non run flats (about 8 years ago). If you have a blow out, you are going to need to flat bed it anyway. If you pick up a nail or screw, it is usually just a slow leak and you can still drive on them to get to a repair shop or at least put more air in it. Maybe the run flats have improved over the years but I will never go back to them.

73DBG