Focus ST Gets New Shoes; My Experience With All-Season Radials

From the factory the 2013 Focus ST is equipped with Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric tires.  It's a great tire really, excellent grip on both dry and wet roads.  Tire Rack's test of Max performance Summer tires rated them #2, but as it says in the description of the tires, "the Eagle F1is not intended to be driven in near-freezing temperatures, through snow, or on ice." From my past experience with Summer Performance tires, I already know that these tires will be near useless when snow hits the ground. If you look at the picture of the F1 to the left, you can see why. 



Around where I live we never know what we're going to get when winter hits.  In the time I've lived here we've gone through winters where we've only had a couple days of light snow (and it would be melted off by the end of the day) and other winters where snow was on the ground for several months straight.  We've also had everything in between and one winter where it seemed like as soon as the plows cleared the roads it would snow again.  Because of the possibility of near snow-less winters, dedicated snow tires are not an option.  You would either be constantly swapping them with the Summer Tires or you would be replacing them because they would wear out rapidly driving on dry pavement.

That brings me to all-season tires.  The thing you have to be careful about when purchasing "all-seasons" is that not all of them are good snow tires.  While no all-season is going to be as good as dedicated snow tires in the snow (duh, that should be obvious), some all-seasons aren't much better than Summer performance tires in the white stuff.  You have to do your research when buying all-seasons.  I won't talk about tires I haven't owned, this is just my experience with the ones I've purchased in the past.  None of the tires I list below where terrible in the snow...just some where better than others.

Bridgestone Potenza RE970AS Pole Position.  In my younger days I cared about performance above all else. Experience made me learn that compromise is necessary. My first jump into all-seasons where these Potenzas.  I was still mostly about performance and these tested on Tire Rack as the best dry/wet all-season performers when I bought them. They lived up to that reputation, but the snow traction wasn't all that great. Don't get me wrong, the Potenzas will still get you around in the snow, but you won't exactly feel secure and you'll do some spinning trying to get going. 

Pirelli P Zero Nero All Season:  When you have kids you start to think about being safer. I still wanted tires that would handle and stop well (that's still thinking safety), but was willing to sacrifice maximum grip for some better snow traction.  At the time I bought these they were the top snow traction all-season tested by Tire Rack. These P Zero's fit the bill for a good all-season snow tire when you live in a place with unpredictable winters. In the Tire Rack test of these tires they mentioned that the wet traction wasn't that great, but I never had any issue with wet roads.

Kumho Ecsta 4X:  A couple years ago I was on a tight budget, but still needed to get some all-seasons.  The 4Xs (in the size I needed) were $24 dollars a tire cheaper than the P Zero's and $54 dollars cheaper than the Potenzas!  Tire Rack had done some dry/wet testing on the 4Xs, but not any snow tests.  My son was running some 4Xs on his car and had used them through a couple winters. He reported good results, so I got them for my car.  The 4Xs didn't disappoint. Although not as grippy in the dry/wet as the Pontenzas, they felt better than the P Zeros and felt equal in the snow to the P Zeros. 

So I needed some all-seasons for the ST and I was all set on buying the Kumho 4Xs, but thought I would do a little research first. That's when I saw the Continental ExtremeContact DWS (Dry, Wet, Snow). Tire Rack did a test on High Performance All-Season Tires asking the question, "Can High Performance All-Season tires really do it all?"  While the Pontenzas were still better in Dry/Wet conditions, the DWSs were close.  Where the DWSs shined was in the snow, where they graded much better than the others.

The one thing you give up with all-seasons is durability. They will last longer than a dedicated Performance Summer tire, but no where near as long as a standard passenger car tire. Tires are given Uniform Tire Quality Grades (UTQG) so you can estimate treadwear, traction, and temp capabilities (it's just an estimate, because a lot depends on the car too).  For comparison, the F1s have a treadwear rating of 240, the P Zeros and Potenzas 400, and the 4Xs 420 (higher the better).  On my cars,the P Zeros or Potenzas were on the wear indicators by 40,000 miles.  I didn't have the car with the 4Xs long enough to see how long they were going to last.  The DWSs have a treadwear rating of 540...we'll see.

 Here's a shot of my Focus ST with Andros Spec D wheels wrapped in new Conti DWSs. I also got some blue "ST" vinyls to cover the center caps. Sharp ST owners will also notice that the ST emblem on the grill is different from the stock ST...more on that in another post.

The wheels are 17x8 (vs the 18x8 stock wheels) and are each 7 lbs lighter that the stockers.  Always heard (and read articles, like Fast Ford Magazines Light wheel test) that lighter wheels helped performance. It has to do with the physics of accelerating an object (or decelerating for that matter)..the basic formula of force = mass x acceleration.  More mass or faster acceleration requires more force. While wheels aren't really that heavy (stockers are about 25 lbs), they rotate at high speed.  Acceleration is acceleration even if you're going in a circle.

I can tell you that the car is quicker and more responsive with these wheels than with the stock ones.  The DWSs also have more sidewall than the F1s (235/45x17 vs 235/40x18)...the increased sidewall is necessary so that the overall height of the tire remains the same.  The rides a little softer (easier over bumps).  With the width remaining the same, grip is still good, but the taller sidewall does cause a little more movement.  I notice it the most in transitions (quick left-right or right-left).

My little Focus ST now has 2145 miles...I'll post about the tires as I put more miles on them.