Because the tires are the only things actually connecting the vehicle to the road, it would make sense that the entire mechanics of the car involved with any type of acceleration would depend heavily on the presence of a particular tire type/size/brand/etc....

It would seem that replacing the tires with something significantly different than stock, although not necessarily, would most likely have an effect on the vehicles handling dynamics; altering it from what the car was designed for. And, given the very good handling dynamics of the stock RX-8 which have received critical acclaim world wide from the most experienced of drivers, I am not sure it is a good idea to change the tires to something other than what came with the car. (other than a new set of the same of course). Mazda has a rich racing history with their rotary cars dating back to the sixties and seventies, so I trust them and the way they decided to release the car based on their professional devcopement of the chassis, based on the stock potenzas, or at least something very close.


More rubber does not always equate to better handling dynamics, and not even always more raw grip.


In fact, thinner tires can sometimes allow for a more forgiving driving experience at the limit. this does seem to go inline with the nature of the stock 8 anyway.



So, why have so many of you decided to alter the tires?

 

Mine came with BF Goodrich G FORCE 245/40/18's and i think it handles well. I don't know how well it handles on the stock tires.

 

Mazda may not always choose the best tire for the vehicle. They have other things to consider when choosing tires for their vehicles such as cost, Safety Standards, and predictibilty of the tires at the limit.

 

nice first post.

 

t1rs were way the hell better than the stock dunlop dz101s that it came with

 

mazda went with a certain stock tire to meet certain standards, and to keep the price of the car at a certain level...if mazda threw on better rubber they'd have to charge that much more

 

Been cruising this forum for almost a year, figured it was about time I posted something

 

many reasons to change the tire. Keep in mind, Mazda doesn't necessarily pick the "best" tire for a car, they have many other things to consider and need to make compromises along the way.
ride comfort, sound, tire wear, cost, just to name a few.

ever seen the episode of Top gear where they drive the RX-8? Remember what Clarkson said at the end?

 

This is the same company that tells us here in the US to use 5-20 in an effort to abide to certain EPA standards. This with the fact in mind that many rotary failures in the US was due to inadequate lubricity. Mazda is in Bed with BP which owns Castrol, the oil Mazda recommends. Mazda is also in bed with Japan's Bridgestone which purchased US based Firestone in 1988 and it's headquarters was moved to Tennessee. It is only my assumption the oils used in Bridgestone tires would come from BP, resulting in Mazda's choice of OEM for the RX8.

While there is corporate cronyism there must have been a lot of testing with these readily available tires in Japan. Mazda must have used these tires for the testing and also economy in mind of including them with thousands of cars destined for the US and other countries. Will other tires affect your performance, yes. But in a bad way, would seem a disadvantage to other tire manufacturers.

I like my Nitto NeoGen's they handle well are quiet and unfortunately I cannot compare them to the OEM's that were worn out at 6500 miles when I bought my 2004 GT. The question is a great topic for debate, to me it seems that you should have the choice to put whatever tires you want so long as it does not present a danger to others on the road.

EDIT: OEM's were Bridgestone Potenzas

 

I got my free Nitto rx-7 poster yesterday lol

 

me too! its soooo nice! :D

 

Yes I can see this interesting corporate politics. thanks for this info. I understand that the tires choses may not actually be the best, but I am saying that once they are chosen, the car is tuned off of that choice, so effectively, because of how the mechanics of the car are setup, it makes sense to me to assume that they are the best tires. this is what i am arguing.

 

yea ***** sick..i'm gonna get a frame for it here

 

yes the tires are the ONLY thing connecting the car to the ground.

But think about what it is a tire does.

Why are people running R-compounds run better times than on OEM tires?

Tires provide grip.

I wouldn't ever want to drive OEM tires in the middle of winter

 

I've found my OEM Dunlop 8090's (Summer ultra performance) to be very good; far better than expected. Still good at 20k and I project another 5k easy (spirited driving).

All sorts of factors as others have mentioned go into an OEM selection for a given model and year.

And as the OP cited, the right tires do make all the difference and bigger is not always better. In a world of engineering compromises there's always an ideal compromise.

 

Tuning may be with a variety of tires, for various weather conditions. It is tuned off of this with hopes of meeting the greatest audience in one swoop. You can bet they have a preference though, the lowest bidder LOL.

I would never knock Bridgestone, Mazda, BP, as they make damn good products. Competition is a beautiful thing though and I am grateful such a thing exists.

 

Well first of all, if you drive slow and carefully on oem tires, the car does fine in the wet. the snow and ice is different, but come on now, the rx8 is not supposed to be driven on snow or ice...ever. also, when you say better times, I wonder if you mean drag times or circuit times. also, yes i mean if you have tires that are ridiculously grippy you might be faster all around but they last like 500 miles.......

 

Both.

Stocks are Either Potenzas RE040 or Dunlop 8800. RE040 known to SUCK. Dunlop is barely ok.

Changing them to same size but better tires can give you MUCH IMPROVED handling/Acceleration

Depends on what your "goal" is. you might need wider tires, especially if you go FI.

 

the dealerships out here carry dunlop DZ101s , and thats what my car came with

 

hahahahahahaha ya the stock potenzas suck lol.

 

Stock bridgestones suck. They don't last very long, and they don't have much grip. They do start making noise long before they break loose though, making them nice and predictable I guess.

I feel that 225 is to narrow and easy to curb your wheels. Switched out to a 245/40/18 Falken RT-615.

I don't think they're going to last a whole lot longer then the OEM's, but they have so much better grip I don't care.

 

The term "best" is relative to some bean counter. When you replace the stock tires the bean counter is you and you determine what is "best" based on your needs.

 

but you are still using a tire which the rest of the car was not designed around.


you can't possibly determine what is best without taking multiple tires to multiple testing situations and having the data professionally analyzed.

Read this article about the pettit racing rx8. they tried to modd it but ended up making the overall handling dynamics significantly worse, despite adding wider tires.
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...ner/index.html


also, increasing the raw grip available from your tires will effectively **** up your stock suspension settings, by making it effectively softer. Then you owuld have to get aftermarket suspension, and then those parts aren't really designed for the steering mechenism or the chassis itself...so you can see where it never ends. stock oem tires makes the most sense to me.

 

This thread is relative to my interests. New tires may be in the works in the VERY near future.

 

what is your reasoning behind buying a set of new tires? Are the current ones worn out? (that's a pretty good reason). Or do you just want something different than stock?