Tyres - Achilles 123S - 205/40/ZR17 Review
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 10:38 pm
Hey guys
Thought I may review my tyres I purchased in June now that I have used them for a couple of months and a track day.
Never bothered asking any opinions on them here since I knew I'd be sort of a test dummy with this tyre.
Link to tyres the 123 has one groove in the middle and the 123s has 2.
http://www.wheeldemon.com.au/tyres?id=5 ... l&tyre=123
http://new.multistrada.co.id/id/product ... les/123-s/
Brand - Achilles
Model - 123S
Size - 205/40/ZR 17 84W
Traction AA, Temperature A, Wear 220
Car - 2004 SE with exhaust upgrade, everything else stock.
Price paid - $700 including full 4 wheel, wheel allignment.
They are supposively a semi slick, but I reckon they are an intermediate tyre. Considering they used them for endurance racing overseas as a control tyre for wet and dry, they would have to be an intermediate tyre.
2 other sizes are availble, 195/50R15 and 205/45R16.
For normal driving the tyres are pretty well normal.
However they are noiser than the orignal Toyo's the car had on it when I got the car.
Because they are an extra load tyres the sidewalls are quite stiff giving a hard ride. This is with the pressure set at 35psi all round.
Wet weather performance seems good. Only dríven 3 times in the wet since June so its a bit hard to Judge. But they feel much more secure in the wet than the original Toyos.
Wear - only did 2200km before my trackday, but no funny wearing or anything like that.
Track performance at OranPArk south 19/09/2009.
Best time - 56.99s top down, with hood cover on and wind deflector up.
Temp was it around 30 today, felt like it.
Stints were 4-8 laps each.
I found the tyres to be very conistent. I could constantly do 58's in the morning while it was cooler. I was just getting into a groove getting used to the track and car so wasnt pusing it. Probably should have though because this was before Drift Australia went on, so the track was still clean.
Later on about 10am to 11am in my 3rd and 4th sessions I constantly did 57's lap after lap. And this is straight after Drift Australia practice so there was dirt and big junks of rubber all over the track.
As it got hotter at lunch time I dropped back into 58's, but to be honest I was not pushing as hard. Was trying to heel and toe so was loosing a bit of time.
Did a final run at around 1:30pm. This run was just after one of the drifters had a decent hit at the first corner braking spot spilling oil all over the road. So there was some sort of sandy orange oil absorbive substance put on top of it. Managed to do the 56.99s in this run, while pushing to keep up with an Audi TT and Audi S3 through out the run. Eventaully lost it on the 6th lap so called it quits for the day.
Tyres still have decent tread on them after about 30 - 35 laps, sorry wasnt keeping an exact tab but its around that.
The only tyre with heavy wear is the front right which is to be expected. Wear would have been much less if the camber was set properly for a track day. It only has -0.5 degrees from memory at the front. So yeah its more like scuffing on the outside edge of that tyre. The rest of the tyre has heaps of tread left.
Only problem is I have nothing to compare to except 5 year old Toyos that were on the car when I bough it, and it aint fair comparing 5 year old tyres to new tyres. So I won't.
So has anybody else tried them???
Overal review = happy for the price.
Cheap tyres that can take a pounding, look good and are consistent.
Edit:
Just noticed they are soon to be sold at MX-5 Mania, so I hope the review helps in your purchasing decisiion.
Thought I may review my tyres I purchased in June now that I have used them for a couple of months and a track day.
Never bothered asking any opinions on them here since I knew I'd be sort of a test dummy with this tyre.
Link to tyres the 123 has one groove in the middle and the 123s has 2.
http://www.wheeldemon.com.au/tyres?id=5 ... l&tyre=123
http://new.multistrada.co.id/id/product ... les/123-s/
Brand - Achilles
Model - 123S
Size - 205/40/ZR 17 84W
Traction AA, Temperature A, Wear 220
Car - 2004 SE with exhaust upgrade, everything else stock.
Price paid - $700 including full 4 wheel, wheel allignment.
They are supposively a semi slick, but I reckon they are an intermediate tyre. Considering they used them for endurance racing overseas as a control tyre for wet and dry, they would have to be an intermediate tyre.
2 other sizes are availble, 195/50R15 and 205/45R16.
For normal driving the tyres are pretty well normal.
However they are noiser than the orignal Toyo's the car had on it when I got the car.
Because they are an extra load tyres the sidewalls are quite stiff giving a hard ride. This is with the pressure set at 35psi all round.
Wet weather performance seems good. Only dríven 3 times in the wet since June so its a bit hard to Judge. But they feel much more secure in the wet than the original Toyos.
Wear - only did 2200km before my trackday, but no funny wearing or anything like that.
Track performance at OranPArk south 19/09/2009.
Best time - 56.99s top down, with hood cover on and wind deflector up.
Temp was it around 30 today, felt like it.
Stints were 4-8 laps each.
I found the tyres to be very conistent. I could constantly do 58's in the morning while it was cooler. I was just getting into a groove getting used to the track and car so wasnt pusing it. Probably should have though because this was before Drift Australia went on, so the track was still clean.
Later on about 10am to 11am in my 3rd and 4th sessions I constantly did 57's lap after lap. And this is straight after Drift Australia practice so there was dirt and big junks of rubber all over the track.
As it got hotter at lunch time I dropped back into 58's, but to be honest I was not pushing as hard. Was trying to heel and toe so was loosing a bit of time.
Did a final run at around 1:30pm. This run was just after one of the drifters had a decent hit at the first corner braking spot spilling oil all over the road. So there was some sort of sandy orange oil absorbive substance put on top of it. Managed to do the 56.99s in this run, while pushing to keep up with an Audi TT and Audi S3 through out the run. Eventaully lost it on the 6th lap so called it quits for the day.
Tyres still have decent tread on them after about 30 - 35 laps, sorry wasnt keeping an exact tab but its around that.
The only tyre with heavy wear is the front right which is to be expected. Wear would have been much less if the camber was set properly for a track day. It only has -0.5 degrees from memory at the front. So yeah its more like scuffing on the outside edge of that tyre. The rest of the tyre has heaps of tread left.
Only problem is I have nothing to compare to except 5 year old Toyos that were on the car when I bough it, and it aint fair comparing 5 year old tyres to new tyres. So I won't.
So has anybody else tried them???
Overal review = happy for the price.
Cheap tyres that can take a pounding, look good and are consistent.
Edit:
Just noticed they are soon to be sold at MX-5 Mania, so I hope the review helps in your purchasing decisiion.
), they grip well once they're warmed up, predictable in the dry, and communicate nicely when they are approaching their limit (which I only did once on 2nd and only just)... I don't think I would have had nearly as much fun doing Putty Rd on my previous crappy tyres... I had a chance to move up the group, once I built a bit of confidence with them, and noticed how much more braking many of the other cars were doing (I used to ride the brakes ALL THE TIME on the previous run)...
