Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymetric 2 & Directional 5 Tyre Launch

Recently Car Throttle was invited to one of the programs held in conjunction with the launch of the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymetric 2 and the Goodyear Eagle F1 Directional 5 in Malaysia. The event, held on the 30^th of July 2011 was part of the Malaysian launch for the above mentioned tyres and it was a whole day event with participation from various Malaysian car clubs (the BMW, Honda, Porsche, VW-Audi to name a few). It was a basically a blast.

This launch event is actually something a little different as most of the time an automotive manufacturer will usually introduce a new product to the media and to its various sales representatives but never directly to the consumer. This time Goodyear's public relations think-tank must have been thinking out of the box, and they decided to invite members of the car clubs, which are basically the people who will eventually purchase these Goodyear Eagle F1 tires.

The event started off at about 9 o'clock in the morning at the Proton Automobile Test Track over in Shah Alam, Malaysia. The participants were divided into four groups and things got moving with the introduction of the Goodyear Eagle F1 Directional 5 (pictured above). This tyre supposedly takes over the mantel of the extremely good looking Eagle GS-D3. I suppose it does but it isn't as sexy looking as the GS-D3 as it is made up of a less aggressive directional pattern.

Goodyear say that they have improved on the basic performance of the tyre with less noise, less rolling resistance, more grip and better water dispersion. According to various independent tyre tests, the Directional 5 would on average stop 3 meters earlier in the wet than any other comparable tyre out there on the market. We have to take their word for it as there weren't any competitor tyres out there that day.

All of us had a go in some Directional 5 shod Honda Civic 1.8 and 2.0 sedans through the wet slalom and the dry slalom. They then took us through a product talk and also a high speed taxi ride with the same Hondas through the high speed oval. What Goodyear did was put the Honda Civics (with its passengers) through the high banked curved section and then through two chicanes to test the tyres at their limits (or close to the limit). Driven by proper test drivers, the Civics lapped the track in an average speed of 150km/h and showed that the Directional 5 tires are quite predictable during high speed cornering and high speed emergency lane changes. It also told me that the stock Civic suspension is actually pretty decent and you'd be a total duffer to actually lose it.

I also found out first hand during the time attack event that all of those attended participated in. The Honda Civic was used then and I found the 215/45/17 inch tyre shod Honda Civic 1.8 to be very predictable doing various tight turns throughout the course. The time attack event was conducted on a slightly dusty skidpad area and you could feel the Civic's front end going slightly wide if you were brutal on the throttle but with larger steering input, you could feel the rear obediently following through the bends. It is still nose led, but the car felt predictable. I cannot actually tell whether this was basically down to the tyres as I have driven the Malaysian Honda Civic 1.8 on its standard 205/55/16 tyres and it performed well then as it did during the event.

Unfortunately, yours truly did a 'James May' during the time attack course and got slightly lost and did extra rounds around some of the cones. But come to think of it I should have done more rounds to actually test out the tyres as there was no way a fat man with slightly bad memory would win the time attack event. Anyway, the Goodyear Eagle F1 Directional 5 seems to be a good enough tyre event without comparable tyres to try out on that day. I however have personal experience from memory and notes that the Directional 5 seems to be better overall than the mid range Yokohama A-drive R1s and most probably on par with the dry grip found in the Nexen N6000 (which I am now trying out). Too bad I couldn't try out high speed steering feel as the wet and dry slalom as well as the time attack event happened at speeds lower than 100km/h. Of course, this was a meet and greet session with the car clubs. It would be virtually risky to allow members of the public to lap the test track at high speeds.

Anyway, the event continued after lunch with the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymetric 2 (pictured above). This tire replaces the Eagle F1 Asymetric and can now be found as standard equipment on some Ferrari and Porsches out there. The Asymetric 2 is priced higher than the Directional 5 and is Goodyear's premium all weather ultra high performance tyre. Competitors would be Bridgestone's A001/002 Adrenalin series of tyres, Michelin Pilot Sport 2, Nexen N8000 (good affordable tyres) and Continental CSC3. Tyres like the Advan AD08, Neova, Toyo R888 and the Federal 595RSRs are one up, track day oriented tyres and should not be compared to the Asymetric 2.

We had the wet slalom and the dry slalom events with Asymetric 2 shod BMW 320i cars. The control cars are basically control cars. They are slightly underpowered so that participants do not kill themselves driving it. Nonetheless the rear wheel drive BMWs felt so much better through the slalom events compared to the Hondas. There was basically very little understeer to fight with and the rear basically helps out the front wheels through the course. Most loved driving them even though the 320i is actually as powerful as the Civic 2.0 that we drove earlier. It was down to driving pleasure. Again, none of us could actually tell whether the tires were brilliant performers as we didn't have any other tyre to benchmark the Asymetric 2 with.

Anyway, the high speed taxi ride showed that the 320i could actually lap a good 10km/h faster round the high speed oval on the Asymetric 2 tires. A BMW 525i that was also used was even faster through the curved ends of the oval and through the chicanes. This basically tells me that the tyres are predictable at even higher speeds than the earlier Eagle F1 Directional 5 tyres.

The event continued with the winners of the time attack event getting a taxi ride around the banked oval track in a modified Porsche Cayman (carbon fiber boot and bonnet, plexiglass rear screen as well as a tweaked engine). The Asymetric 2 tyres held on well as the Cayman lapped the track in speeds in excess of 200km/h. Tyre wear was minimal after a good fifteen or so high speed laps round the track (but give them to some drifters and these tyres only last two short sessions as you will see below).

The event was then concluded with the Malaysian Goodyear Drift Team showing all of us what they could do using both the Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres featured on that day. Pretty amazing I must say as the drivers and the cars were very consistent. The wear from the tyres was actually amazing when utilized by these drifters. They performed the same drift exhibition the day earlier for the tyre vendors and then for a short, less than 5 minute run per car on the Eagle F1 tires.

By the end of their exhibition run, the ty5res were basically gone. Strips of rubber were peeling off, some had chunks missing from the threads but the fronts were basically like new. Such is the rear wheel wear of these purpose build drift cars – An AE86 Toyota coupe, a Nissan 200SX, a Nissan Sylvia and a total bastard of a Nissan Cefiro, front and rear ends from a R34 Nissan Skyline GTS and its innards reveal a 2JZ engine from a Toyota Supra.

It was a worthwhile effort by Goodyear trying out new avenues to reach the consumers. I hope Goodyear would continue being different, even if their tyres are actually quite premium priced here in this region. I hope other tyre manufacturers take note too. This could be the new way to market products. But I also hope that the next time they hold such an event, they should bring us some different tyres (or at the very least, their predessors) for us to gauge better.

(With thanks to Quick-Save Auto Boutique, USJ 7 Subang Jaya, Malaysia)