Tyres - Achilles 123S - 205/40/ZR17 Review

Luke · Postby **Luke** » 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.

Regie · Postby **Regie** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 5:51 pm

sweet thanks for that info. Just outta curiousoty where did you get them from? Im planning on making a trip to mania next week to pick up my set

Fuzzlet · Postby **Fuzzlet** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:43 pm

Would be interested to see how they go for ya adam...and if they dont go too well, as you use em for a few burnouts :wink:

hamx5ter · Postby **hamx5ter** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:24 pm

Thanks for writing this up Luke... Glad to know they work ok.

I'm going to ring around to see if I can get the KU36s tomorrow, otherwise I'm going to mania and picking these up (hope they are in stock and they can put them on the same day). Cheap enough to give it a go, I think.

Postby **MX5 MANIA** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 1:08 pm

David did about 90 laps at Wakefield at the last meeting and was doing 1:11.7 in Goldy the Naturally Aspirated NB that has 90 kw. They were only 2 seconds slower than the previous times on slicks...

Tyres still look almost new new apart from 1 flat spot from locking up

hamx5ter · Postby **hamx5ter** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:59 pm

Just thought I'd put it down here that I thought the Achilles tyres I had put on yesterday worked very, very well at the club run up Putty Road today.

While they're a bit noisy (cheap supercharger whine!!

), 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)...

I'm going to get rid of the 'test dummy' bit in my sig... LOL...

Can't wait to get them out again, and even perhaps out to the track!! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, and for that price, you can afford to drive them hard!

Yayy... hamx5ter's finally coming together...

hamx5ter wrote:Thanks for writing this up Luke... Glad to know they work ok.

I'm going to ring around to see if I can get the KU36s tomorrow, otherwise I'm going to mania and picking these up (hope they are in stock and they can put them on the same day). Cheap enough to give it a go, I think.

Luke · Postby **Luke** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 1:02 pm

Regie wrote:sweet thanks for that info. Just outta curiousoty where did you get them from? Im planning on making a trip to mania next week to pick up my set

Hey Regie

I got them at Jax Quick Fit Smithfield.

The reason they were cheap is because they got a bunch of them as promotional tyres. I don't know if you would get them at the price I got them anymore.

It was $700 for all 4 + the 4 wheel allighment.

So it was about ~ $150 a tyre.
Not many tyre outlets even know what they are so if you do try ringing around, I wish you lots of luck.

Then again $180 at Mania in 17's is still pretty good.

Regie · Postby **Regie** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:56 pm

it sure is.. im hoping to be at Mania on Thursday.. Save me a set Mania!!!

Postby **MX5 MANIA** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:08 am

will do!

Ajay

d-mag · Postby **d-mag** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:03 pm

Tread wear rating is 220? All R spec tyres I've used in the past were less than 80. The Kumho's I've got at the moment are 50. 220 is the same as my old Adrenalins.
Are they real R spec semis?

StanTheMan · Postby **StanTheMan** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 3:15 pm

they are not R spec semislick. Thery are comparable to Rt615, Kuhmo K36, & so on . A very agressive street tyre. with a semi slick tread pattern. It even says that in the add Luke has linked to.

2 sconds slower than real semis sounds about right. I've had 3.75 sec differerence between real old crappy hard street tyres compared to a DO1's in good shape.
they sound like a great tyre though. & would certainly suit the occasional track day.

matt9111 · Postby **matt9111** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:08 pm

So just wondering? How many km's would they do on the street with Medium pace driving and the occasional track day (if I have the time, damn you busy life)

Cheers