BMW E38 7 Series Tyres

I am a professional driver, with over 1,7 Million Miles of driving experience primarily in heavy, powerful rear wheel drive vehicles, such as the Mercedes S430, BMW 740i Euro, BMW 540i, and most notably the BMW M5.
During my driving experience, I have learned several things about tires, which I could share with you.

a)I am a very, very demanding driver - I am able to discern a difference in ‘cut in’ during a high powered turn instantly
b)I can usually tell, knock on wood, exactly where the breaking point is when a tire is just about to lose grip from the asphalt during high powered activities
c)I can very well tell the difference between tires, and I don’t “forget” what tires feel like, I still to this day remember the characteristics of one of my favorite tires ever, the Potenza S03 which is now unfortunately out of production.

Recently I was faced, once again, with the “tire purchase dilemma” - last year I went through the same thing, and purchased the highly recommended “Dunlop Sport SP9000”, in 235/50/18 + 255/45/18 for my BMW 740i. I was extremely disappointed, as I had just removed a set of worn out Continental ContiSport Contacts (original), and the difference was absolutely shocking. On the same exact route I took to the tire shop, and back, I noticed that in order to turn the vehicle at speed, 2-3 degrees more of turn on the steering wheel were required to accomplish the same turn I did hours earlier. I initially chalked it up to break in period, but, it never got better. I ended up wearing the tires out, and most definitely it was an uninspiring, slow, and rather unpleasant driving “year” for me.
After this, having lost all memory of the car’s performance and handling capabilities, I reverted back to the 16” 235/60/16 16x8” wheels, and put a new set of Continental Premium Contact 2 tires on them. Review on this, 5/5, for a 235/60/16 tyre, you can’t get any better than this. This is a better tire by far than the previous top contender, the Michelin Pilot 235/60/16 100W, and it’s also much better than the Pirelli P6000 100W, which I might add is a horrible tire in the dry, way too much screeching and not enough grip. Shameful.
A few months later, summer comes around, and I was looking at my 18” wheels which are idle in the garage, and decided to get some tires on them to enjoy the 18” wheels over the summer. I was faced with the following choices:

*Michelin Pilot Sport - discontinued
*Michelin Pilot Sport A/S- horrible reviews
*Goodyear Eagle F1 - done that in the past, WAY too much noise, and MUCH too poor grip
*Bridgestone Potenza S03 - probably the best tire I’ve ever owned, unfortunately discontinued now, so this is out of the question
*Continental ContiSport Contact 2, sure a good choice, and probably would have been excellent due to it’s straight-line tread rather than these silly angled designs, but I skipped over this due to cost
*Dunlop - forget it - see above (if you want to have any semblance of straight tracking, forget about the SP9000)
*Nokian Z G2 - as soon as I saw this tire, I liked it - the straight tread pattern, the solid sidewall, and the high load capacity rating, not to mention the dozens of reviews of people using these tires on M5’s and other powerful cars - made me put this on the top list

A week later, after literally flipping a coin between the ContiSport Contact 2, and the Nokian - I chose the Nokian Z G2.

These are solid tires, with a very firm sidewall, and most definitely give a “solid” feel from the first glance.
Fast Forward:
*Tires mounted on car
*Car driven so far 5700KM
*I immediately realized what I had been missing all these years, with the horrible Dunlop and Goodyear “NAME BRAND” tires I’ve been running

Pros:
*Cut in during turns - EXCELLENT, BEST EVER, maybe even BETTER than the legendary S03 Potenza
*Stopping response while straight and/or turning - EXCELLENT 10/10
*Road Noise - 8/10 - you can definitely hear them - but it’s nothing like the roar of the Goodyear Eagle F1’s I had (asymmetric)
*Starting traction - my car is heavily modified with 340 RWHP - it’s very easy to break the tires loose especially on a 1st gear start, and during 1-2 shifts (3.15 LSD rear)
Guess what - these tires are the STICKIEST, tires I have __EVER__ used, even with 340 RWHP I can’t get more than a chirp out of the right rear tire, and the 1-2 shift / 2-3 shift rear-end-sliding-around is gone. (that was fun, but it’s unsafe esp. if it happens and you’re not expecting it)

THEREFORE:

If you’re one of those guys, like me, that likes to drive hard, solid, and you’re not one of these guys that “has to show off” that he got the EAGLE F1 or the PIRELLI ... give these tires a shot.

You absolutely can’t go wrong. After all, I love these tires so much that I spent the money to buy this domain, and the hosting, just to tell you and save you money and SUFFERING from buying some horrible Dunlop SP9000 like I did last year.

NOKIAN Z G2
My rating: 10/10
Cost: 70% of Dunlop cost
Performance: 300% better than everything else (except again, Potenza S03, but that’s discontinued ;)
235/50/18
255/45/18
BMW 2001 740i Sport 6 speed Euro spec

I currently drive a 740i Sport (RWD) with a body weight of about 4,300 pounds. I'm also a very very spirited driver. I often cross the 100 mph barrier on my daily commutes. That said, these tires are the best I've ever driven. They are rediculously amazing on dry roads. As for wet, what water??? These things provide so much confidence in wet and curves that you don't even want to slow down. In my opinion, these are also the quietest tires I've yet to experience. They are a premium tire with a premium cost, but they will not dissapoint! I highly encourage you to get a set if you're looing for the best of all worlds (wet/dry/confidence/wear). Be sure to have them road-force-balanced at install.

Running these on the front of an E38 BMW - a big heavy car - I found the dry grip to be excellent - nice bite on turn in and nice progressive feel. Wet grip on damp roads is generally good. However, on VERY wet roads I've had a few scary aquaplaning moments, but this may be the sheer weight of the car pushing the nose on. The big problem I've had with the KU31's is keeping them balanced. They seem to go out of shape when the car is parked up for a couple of days. I've put about 10000 miles on these tyres and hope to get about another 5000 before changing. Overall a decent tyre for relatively little money but I will probably go upmarket for the next set.

This tire came to me through a friend's recommendation. I have always avoided Falkens for quite some time because of their noise levels. Since then I have been using Michelin Pilot Preceda 2, Continental Sport 2 and Pirelli 6000 on my 2 cars (BMW 735 and Mercedes E320).
I simply bought them because of a friend who asked me to try out on his BMW 530 with this new Falken tire (replaced his older Michelin Pilot Preceda). I was really impressed. I was not so sure whether it was totally his new tires or just the combination of his BMW suspension setup that made the driving experience so pleasurable.
Anyway, once I got the the tyres replaced with the Falken 452 on my own car, I felt almost the same kind of driving pleasure. The roadholding and comfort is probably the best I ever had on my BMW 735. The only thing about this Falken 452 is you would need to break in for about 100km before the incredible feeling of grip comes in. This tire is definitely not noisy at all like some older Falkens. It approached the 80% of the performance of the Pirelli PZero and Michelin PS 2 at less than half their selling price!

Got them from e-bay brand new, and put them as rear wheels of my BMW 740i. The wear rate has been terrible, in just 200miles I have 2mm treading left.
I bought from e-bay also used partworn 7mm Goodyear F1 GDS3's on front wheels, and they are perfect with no wear at all.
I still cannot believe the wear rate. Could it be because the tire is made no more and could have expired? but then that particular brand of Goodyears are also not made anymore. I took my car to a garage and I have no problem with my rear axle or wheels, and the seller on e-bay cannot come up with explanation. I am definitely not using these or any bridgestones anymore. I am still in shock at the wear rate of my rear Bridgestone Potenza S02's compared to the Goodyear F1's in front, Can someone explain to me why the Bridgestones tires wore out so quickly. I need an answer!!!!

the tyre is quieter and more comfortable compared to the pirelli's i had before. the potholes are almost gone and the noise in city and motorway is noticeable better. price is very good for the size of the tyre.

will buy again just need to wait to see the wear of the tyre. for a BMW 7series the comfort is still there with cheaper tyres.

will buy again

Another contrary opinion: I didn't think these were any better than the Continentals that preceded them. I also had my most spectacular near-death experience with them as they completely let go in the wet without the slightest warning.

They might be better on a smaller car, I don't know. I'm disinclined to find out.

On our V12 BMW, these tyres are shocking, really bad indeed. Even in the dry the car is easy to unsettle with the accelerator, and in the dry they are lethal, thank god for traction control. They are also way too much money and wear out too fast. They also dont ride brilliantly and are fairly noisy. Replaced with Falken ZE512s, which are rubbish on my Fiat Punto, but strangely very very good on the 7 series, however not great in the wet, but way better than P6000s, which really suck bad!

I bought these for my e38. They talk a big game on their marketing, but I must say, these are the worst tires I've ever driven. I've also driven different Yokohamas on my 5 series that I loved, but these were bad. They slip/spin from a stop if you give it too much gas, they reached the wear beads for me in less than 10K miles. At higher speeds around turns, I have zero confidence. I replaced them with Goodyear F1 Assymetric and the difference is like night and day. Plus, they cost way too much for their life span alone. Don't buy unless you like learning things on your own instead learning from others mistakes.