I just bought a set of Cooper tires for the rear of my C6. I had Goodyear Eagle F1 GS and they were great. These coopers are like driving on water balloons . I've never experienced such a drastic difference in handling in any car simply from a tire change. Just doing 70 on the freeway and a straightening from a gentle curve is so violent I'm afraid the car is going to swap ends. Scary stuff.

Stopped by discount tire expecting to exchange these for the Eagle F1's, the salesmen talked me into Michelin Pilot Sport.

Any thoughts?

 

did you mix runflats with nonrunflats?

 

Negative. If it was mixed it was before I changed the rears. I say that cuz I don't remember if the rears were runflats. I don't think they were but the Goodyear eagle is available in both.

The fronts are currently BFG Comp2 AS, extra load. Not runflat.

 

Couple of thoughts......first, I have never thought it a good idea to mix tires on a high performance vehicle. The traction & handling characteristics are different between different tire brands & even between different tires from the same manufacturer. Mixing tires may work with a DD, as long as not exposed to "spirited" driving, but not on a Corvette. Second, not sure how you got to the Cooper tires (whatever they are), but I'm not aware of Cooper being a recognized name for the type of Ultra High Performance tires typically mounted on Corvettes. Lastly, I would suggest you go to the Tire Rack site & search all the tires recommended, choose what you think best for your style of driving & pocket book....& then replace all four tires plus a good alignment.

 

If you have different grip front / rear, you can experience a massive handling change. Esepcially if you have used tires on the fronts and new, grippy tires on the rear. Or vise versa.

 

Nitto NT05's - AWESOME tires!

 

Google "Cooper tires suck"...

Michelin's shouldn't even be in the same category as Cooper when discussion tires. I'd take the Michelin over GY, but even GY's are leaps and bounds ahead of Cooper...especially when we're talking corvettes.

 

Thanks all. I'll let you know outcome.

 

OK, So here's my take on all of this and how it came out. First of all, the statement about not mixing treads is kinda BS. The car already has mismatched sizes so I don't think the tread from front to rear makes that much difference. Besides, there are a lot of drivers/racers who prefer different tires front and rear. I have other cars with asymetrical setup and I have run both matched and mismatched tires front to back. Not much difference.

However, the problem in this situation was COOPER TIRES SUCK! (Well, mostly) This model is only available in a standard load side wall. That's too mushy for this car and when you mix load ratings then you definitely have a problem. My fronts were extra load making them much stiffer so the rear end was bouncing around like a couple of water balloons while the front end stayed planted. Scary scary stuff.

Now, the outcome. I was just about to pay for new Goodyear Eagles when the Discount tire guy told me about his recent experience at a demonstration of tires at a track in Vegas. He said that Chevy was there with the C7 and they said that the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S is the only tire they have put on the C7 that can truly translate the capabilities of that car into usable performance. I now understand why. The Michelins were actually a few bucks cheaper than the Eagles but the performance is the best I've ever experienced in a tire. The car feels completely planted, and stable in corners and the transitions from corner to straight are a non-event. Exactly opposite from the Coopers.

I will probably never purchase another model performance tire again unless Michelin says they made something better than this.

Let the differing opinions fly....

 

Dead on Sir.

 

No BS on the statement regarding mixing tire brands/types/styles on a high performance car if you are going to drive it for more than just to the grocery store. The car may handle unpredictably above 4/10's, but you don't know for sure unless you've done some testing.

I don't know what it is with Cooper, I've had them on luxury cars in the past and they just plain suck even on a grocery getter, and they were GM OEM.

Good choice on the Michelin's, I run their PSS's on a race track and they held up well. They were able to generate 1.15g's on sweepers which I thought was pretty good for a 300 rated tire. The GoodYear EMT's I had would hit 1.05 once heated up of course. I had not problems running either the GY's or Mich's at 7/10 - 8/10's. It would be interesting to try the 4S. Sounds like you made a good choice.

 

replaced my runflat goodyear for pirelli pzero car hooks and rides soo much better