cwdonahue

Yesterday, I had my set of 18" ASA ST-4 wheels equipped with Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 (245/45) summer tires installed on my 2006 RL. The result is much improved handling, a firmer more stable feel, with little sacrifice, if any, in ride quality and noise. They look great, too.

When I bought my RL, the chassis felt every bit as capable as my Audi A6 4.2 with sports package, but I could tell the tires were holding it back. The Michelin HX MXM4s are a real compromise tire. Rides nice but on the soft side, handles OK when not pushed, and is a reasonable all-season tire. However, when pushed, initial turn-in is blunted by the soft sidewall of the tire flopping over creating the feeling of understeer. Coming out of the corner, you get the corresponding "snap back" feeling when the tire catches up to the driver and comes back to a straight line. Not a confidence inspiring experience if you like to drive hard and have some fun. I played around with tire inflation and found that 33 lbs. "all around" was about the best inflation to get a bit more response out of the tire, but the only real solution is a nice high performance summer tire.

My new setup is much better. Softness and float in the ride is reduced. The overall ride feels much more stable like the Lexus IS350 I test drove with 18" wheels and summer tires or like my good old A6 4.2 (17" wheels with 255/40 Contisports). Turn-in is crisp and immediate. No more turn, tire flex, and then turn some more to get around a corner. When exiting the corner, no more "snap back". The nice stiff sidewall on the Eagle F1s hold the line. I haven't harshness added to the ride. It's firmer, but just as compliant as before. Tire noise seems lower with these tires than the stock Michelins, but I've yet to travel my favorite piece of interstate highway (I-355) around here that should be used by all tire manufacturers for tire noise. I've started with 35 lbs. "all around" inflation and I think that may just be the optimal setting. I'll try some other inflations over the summer to keep myself entertained.

I know summer tires aren't everyone's cup of tea. I live where we have a real winter and have learned that if you want to stop or turn on snow/ice, then you need to get a snow tire. So, my stock 17" wheels will get a set of Dunlop Wintersport M3s put on then next November. In the meantime, I'm having fun!

If you are interested, go visit my friends at the Tire Rack.

And now, the pictures.....

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Rudeman60

How much did that cost you?

ASP

Very nice. I wish they made those in 19" for the RL.

bkw

They look considerably smaller than I had envisioned them to be. A definite improvement over the OEM's though.

Are you planning on lowering your car? You've got a bit too much wheel well gap there.

cwdonahue

Cost = a bit less than $2K including the Acura TPMS sensors, mounting, balance, shipping, etc.

As for lowering the car, I'm thinking about it. The A-spec suspension upgrade might lower things just enough. The wheels actually look to be the right scale for the car compared to the stock wheels, so while they may look small in the pictures, in the flesh they look just right -- to me. I didn't want to go to a 19" wheel and a very low aspect ratio tire due to -- our crappy roads here in IL and I had trouble finding a good wheel and tire size match vs. the stock 245/50R17 setup. 245/45R18 is basically a perfect fit. I also did not want to overshoot and end up with too firm a ride with low aspect ration tires --- due to those crappy roads around here, too.

I forgot to mention in my post that the slightly larger tire contact patch with my new setup does put a bit more heft into the steering, too.

bkw

Can you post a side shot and a shot of the rear? I'd like to see how the wheels look on a non-angled pic, and how flush the wheels are to the car with Tirerack's recommended offset.

thanks!

cwdonahue

I'll try and post some additional glamor shots this weekend.

As for how the wheels sit to the body of the car, I'd say they are 1/8" further out than the stock wheels. In other words, it's pretty much a wash, but they do stand a bit prouder relative to the fenders.

cwdonahue

Here's the profile and butt shots as requested.

Also, after playing around with tire inflation, it looks like "33 all around" offers the best ride and handling mix. I had the tires pumped to 35, but they followed the road contours a bit more than I liked and you could feel every ripple in the road. Felt like the road was fighting with the steering a bit. The RL is very communicative on road feel already, so the tires were adding to the effect more than I wanted.

These images imported rather small, so just click on them and you'll see them in a more useful size. Must have done something goofy when I posted these.


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cwdonahue

Drove around on 35 lbs. all around for a week and found it a bit too hard and seemed to grab the center rib in the tread.

Drove around on 33 lbs. for a week and fixed the grabbing and tramlining, but the tires seemed too soft. Lost some of the crisp cornering.

Went up one lb. to 34 and the grab/tramline is still gone and I got the crispness back in the handling. So, I'll stay here for awhile. I suspect extended tire break-in will change things some more.

stingerbtry

Nice! They seem to match your cars color perfectly. I'm not sure if they'd look that good on other colors though.

cwdonahue

The apparent close color match is due to the lighting. They really are a slightly different shade of silver paint, but the wheel lip is a machined silver metallic finish. I think they'd look good on just about any color!

Thanks for the compliments.