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

[Regie]

well they are installed and ive been driving on them for the last 2 days.

Im comparing these new tyres to my 2 week old Falken FK452. both in the same size 205 45 R17.

The Achillies are great for the price. It took a few hard cornering sessions to get the little knobs off the surface and get the tyres up to temperature, but after that they stuck to the road like glue. The sidewalls seem to be a bit stiffer then the Falkens also.

Now to the wet roads. Well its been raining most of the day here in Sydney. So i thought i would put them through their paces. I was impressed with the amount of wet weather grip they had, even with so little grooves on the tyre itself. They still dont have as much grip as the Falkens in the wet so the right foot has to treat that pedal with care. Its still quite easy to light them up at the lights, coming out of a corner. but the turn in on a wet road is tops!, just gotta watch out for the rear end. With the LSD its quite fun

The only downside to the tyres is the amount of road noise you get in the cabin with the roof up. They sound like 4x4 tyres pretty much. If you were doing a lot of freeway/high speed driving i would think this would get annoying after a while. With the roof down you can still hear them but not as bad. Just turn the tunes up a few notches on the stereo

I bought these tyres mainly for track days as i have my other set of rims with normal road tyres on them.

But all in all i give them 2 thumbs up. I dont think you can get any cheaper for a semi slick kind of tyre. at $180 per corner (plus fitting) you cant go wrong.

Any more questions just ask

Cheers

[StanTheMan]

sounds like they are just like the RT215......If thats the case.....I'm sold

[zorak]

Picked up a set of these today to use as a daily road tyre. I am yet to test them out properly but from initial impressions they seem very good indeed - loads of dry weather grip. They are noisy though - but thats easily drowned out by any aftermarket exhaust .

[Regie]

well i did a track day on them last monday.

they are rather grippy one i got the pressures right.

ive shaved 2.2 secs off my PB...but ive also had a Torsen and Koni's installed

[Regie]

hows everyones tyres looking after daily road use?

im thinking weather or not to throw them back on my car for a while

[zorak]

done about 1k km on mine and they havent shown any wear - just the rubber knobs have worn off evenly. I am keeping an eye on the rears though as I have -2.5 camber.

[Steampunk]

The 195/50R15 wear rating is 200.
Had a 25km suburban & highway run, with another 25km of mountain twisties and these were fantastic.
Set at 31psi front and 30psi rear (warm) which is probably a couple psi too high all around as the sidewalls are very stiff.

Didn't come close to their limit of adhesion.

No excessive tyre noise when cruising, and very responsive due to the stiff sidewalls.

Now for the track...

[Luke]

Lol, since this thread I created years ago was revived, I may as well give my extra long 2c from further experience to help people with their purchasing decision.

The tyres I replaced the Achilles(wear rating 220) with were 215/45/16 Kumho KU36's with a wear rating of 180.
Cost me $1000 with 4 16x7 Advanti Apollo Rims, with standard MX-5 +40 Offset in 2010.
At the time I saw the tyres alone for ~$125 a corner so they would have only been $500 for the set.
These days you can still get them for ~$600-$700 in that size if you wait for specials to come up at places like Tempe Tyres.

The Kumho KU36's had these major advantages:
Was a much better road tyre, especially in the wet.
Were much quieter since they are built to be a road tyre with harmonic uneven spacing in the grooves. Infact they are more quiet than the KU31's I have on the 17's now which are supposed to be much less performance oriented.
They were much better on the track. Flat out on Turn 7 and 9 at Wakefield. Had to back off with the Achilles in those spots.
2 seconds faster at Wakefield Park overall, only extra addition to the car was an Intercooler change, which made bugger all power difference.
I was 0.7s quicker on my first time out on the Kumho's and 1.9s quicker on the second time, compared to my fastest ever on the Achilles, so it wasn't any extra seat time either just to make that clear.

One of the Positives the Achilles had over the Kumho's is that once they were on their tread markers the grip was not too much different to when they were new.
The Kumho's had less grip at the end of their tread life, but probably still more then the Achilles had when new.
This new vs old grip difference may be more of a tyre age issue though, as my Achilles were only ~ 2-2.5 years old at end of life, vs ~ 3-3.5 years for my Kumho's based on Purchase dates and approx remembered date codes. I used the Kumhos as road tyres for more than a year while I still had the Achilles for the track.

The second thing the Achilles had over the Kumho's is on hot Days (30c +) in Summer, they still worked well on the track. The Kumho's hated the heat, since they were pretty much a road tyre with less grooves. Would be good for the 1st 2 laps, then just over heat.

The only thing between the 2 that was about the same would have been the amount of track days I put on them.

The final point I have which can be seen as a positive or negative to either, Symmetrical vs Asymmetrical tread pattern.
I could wear the Achilles down more evenly by getting tyres flipped on rims.
The downside to this is that costs money.
The Kumhos are stuck having an inside/outside, so I really wore the tyres on a slope to the outside edges.
But I could put them on what ever corner I liked and it cost me nothing to do so.


So in summary for the same money which they pretty much are, if I were to pick between the 2, I would pick the Kumho KU36 every time.

[Steampunk]

Your last paragraph should state directional vs non-directional, not symmetrical vs asymmetrical when stating the disadvantage of not being able to rotate wheels/tyres to all four corners.

[Luke]

Your last paragraph should state directional vs non-directional, not symmetrical vs asymmetrical when stating the disadvantage of not being able to rotate wheels/tyres to all four corners.

I agree the Achilles is a Directional tyre, not Symmetrical(would edit that but cannot), but the KU36 is definitely an Asymmetric Tyre. Asymmetric tyres are non-directional except for a few rare cases where there are left and right directional asymmetrical tyres.

[Steampunk]

I agree the Achilles is a Directional and Symmetrical tyre ...

[M1474]

Interestingly the WA MX5 club have classed these as an "R Compound" for those running in the Autotest Championship.

[Steampunk]

Just did a track day and they are a SUPERB track tyre. Temperature and pressure control was excellent and consistent. On a 20deg C dry day, cold pressure of 28 = hot pressure of 33. Max Temperature between 45-48deg C

Don't know how much of a legitimate R compound these are, as IMHO they are just a stickier compound than a true "performance road" tyre.

Feedback/feel is awesome, very tactile in any situation: Squirming under brakes, slight understeer on fast, wide-radius corners, and oversteer can all be felt the instant they occur.

IMO better than KU36 at the track.

[M1474]

Three of the five fastest cars at Kwinana on Sunday ran on Achilles 123.

[deviant]

Three of the five fastest cars at Kwinana on Sunday ran on Achilles 123.

Interesting...I thought the quickest guys in the club were all on proper semi slicks?!