Firestone Firehawk Indy 500

[WeTheNorth]

I recently put over 3000 miles on a new set touring SE, lots of mountains, one day at VIR. These tires are superior to OEM and various sizes BFG (SC-2 and Rival S) I have run on street and good enough on track (first time at VIR, hands full learning a new track) to avoid being a limiting factor.

This tire is definitely better than the Sc-2’s and the OEM variant, but to say they’re better than the Rival S is laughable.

Rival S>I500>Sc2


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[neeqness]

He posted pics of the actual, new, Indy 500s mounted on his factory FiST wheels further back in this thread.

Ah my mistake for missing it. Sometimes my updates start where they left off and sometimes they skip ahead and I miss a few posts.

..but I did also have an "or" in there too that you omitted...

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[M-Sport fan]

Ah my mistake for missing it. Sometimes my updates start where they left off and sometimes they skip ahead and I miss a few posts.

..but I did also have an "or" in there too that you omitted...

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It's ALL OK, I was just pointing out that it would be your second option (of him not breaking them in properly), and not that he had the Wide Ovals on his FiST.

 

[DaveG99]

I had almost 1000 miles on them before the trip. Its a couple hundred miles from Dallas to the mountains in Arkansas as well. They were plenty broken in. And I'll say it again......they are great tires and have decent grip. Probably a perfect daily driven car option. But they don't have the same grip as 200 or less tread wear tires. And i wont get them again because I dont daily my car. They feel good as far as turn in feel and stiffness though.

 

[A FISTer]

I had almost 1000 miles on them before the trip. Its a couple hundred miles from Dallas to the mountains in Arkansas as well. They were plenty broken in. And I'll say it again......they are great tires and have decent grip. Probably a perfect daily driven car option. But they don't have the same grip as 200 or less tread wear tires. And i wont get them again because I dont daily my car. They feel good as far as turn in feel and stiffness though.

I wouldn't consider the Indy 500 for a weekend canyon carver either. I'd definitely be leaning towards something like the Bridgestone RE71R or Dunlop Direzza Star Spec Z2 if I were you.

For me, the FIST IS a DD so I need a tire that can last a reasonable amount of time and offer some wet traction. From what I've seen the Indy 500 would be great value for the money in this application!

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[DaveG99]

I wouldn't consider the Indy 500 for a weekend canyon carver either. I'd definitely be leaning towards something like the Bridgestone RE71R or Dunlop Direzza Star Spec Z2 if I were you.

For me, the FIST IS a DD so I need a tire that can last a reasonable amount of time and offer some wet traction. From what I've seen the Indy 500 would be great value for the money in this application!

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Agreed. Its fantastic around town and in the rain

 

[M-Sport fan]

I had almost 1000 miles on them before the trip. Its a couple hundred miles from Dallas to the mountains in Arkansas as well. They were plenty broken in. And I'll say it again......they are great tires and have decent grip. Probably a perfect daily driven car option. But they don't have the same grip as 200 or less tread wear tires. And i wont get them again because I dont daily my car. They feel good as far as turn in feel and stiffness though.

AGREED.
It would be difficult for me to now go to even a VERY sticky 300+ tread wear tire, like the Pilot Super Sport, as a summer tire, since I have the (200 tread wear) RS-RRs on my summer wheels.

IF anything, I will go to <200 tread wear gumballs (Toyo 100 tread wear stickies, Yoko AD08Rs, etc.) when the Federals wear out (and I have an aftermarket suspension on the car up to the capability of those grippers), since I only put ~6K miles on the car this past year since delivered new, and the summers will only be on the car for 5-6 months of that time/mileage at most.

 

[CSM]

Just got these Indy 500s in 205/40/17 and broke them in with 1100 mile road trip this past week. For reference I have also had the OEM Bridgestones, and also a set of 205/50/16 Direzza ZII on my car before.

For the price ($75/tire) I am a fan of the Firehawks. Turn in is probably on par with OEM Bridgestones, but nowhere near the level my Dunlops had. I think the level of grip is better than the OEM Bridgestones but the car doesn't rotate as much (PSI set to 39/36). Tire noise is definitely worse than OEM but not nearly what the Dunlops were. I do like them for the price...they will probably be my daily tire. I want to get a set of 16x8 with RE71R for events at some point next year.

I think for someone wanting to replace the factory tires with a non competition tire, these are tough to beat for the price.

 

[DaveG99]

Just got these Indy 500s in 205/40/17 and broke them in with 1100 mile road trip this past week. For reference I have also had the OEM Bridgestones, and also a set of 205/50/16 Direzza ZII on my car before.

For the price ($75/tire) I am a fan of the Firehawks. Turn in is probably on par with OEM Bridgestones, but nowhere near the level my Dunlops had. I think the level of grip is better than the OEM Bridgestones but the car doesn't rotate as much (PSI set to 39/36). Tire noise is definitely worse than OEM but not nearly what the Dunlops were. I do like them for the price...they will probably be my daily tire. I want to get a set of 16x8 with RE71R for events at some point next year.

I think for someone wanting to replace the factory tires with a non competition tire, these are tough to beat for the price.

What wheel size did you have the dunlop 205/50/16's on? Thats a tall tire.

Have you pushed the indys hard yet? When I had them up in the mountains for my bi annual 1000 mile North Texas ST cruise I noticed I was sliding around a lot more compared to the stock potenzas. But thats expected when comparing 340TW to the stock 140TW rated tire.

 

[foodtruck]

Interesting to read everyone's feedback... With 205/45r16, I thought the grip level during braking and turning was very similar to stocks or better, but the tire definitely has a narrower contact patch and I think i feel it the most when trying to put down power coming out of the corner. And you can't really deflate it too much because then it goes onto the sidewall pretty easily. Overall, I managed to put down similar auto-x times with 500s as with stock Potenzas. I will definitely try to go for something wider next time, either 215s or just wider 205s like Comp-2s.

I think the level of grip is better than the OEM Bridgestones but the car doesn't rotate as much (PSI set to 39/36)

For me, it only starts rotating when rears are getting close to fronts. Try 39/39.

 

[CSM]

What wheel size did you have the dunlop 205/50/16's on? Thats a tall tire.

Have you pushed the indys hard yet? When I had them up in the mountains for my bi annual 1000 mile North Texas ST cruise I noticed I was sliding around a lot more compared to the stock potenzas. But thats expected when comparing 340TW to the stock 140TW rated tire.

I had the ZIIs on 16x7 Sparcos. They will be for sale soon. I would have preferred a 45 sidewall, but they were a forum find from a few years ago so I just dealt with the taller sidewall. They were great, I just wanted to go back to 17s for aesthetics.

I have pushed the Indy 500s pretty hard, though nothing like auto crossing. I've noticed the car understeered more vs. the stock tires, but I can probably dial that out with tire pressures. I don't think they are quite as easily to drive at the limit as the stock tires, but for the price I'll deal with it. I'm happy for the $300 I spent on the set.

 

[DaveG99]

Yeah they are good for the price. Even got my $60 card from the rebate yesterday. I'll keep mine as a daily driver tire but I do plan on getting some new wheels and super sticky tires before April (the spring cruise is then)

 

[CSM]

Yeah they are good for the price. Even got my $60 card from the rebate yesterday. I'll keep mine as a daily driver tire but I do plan on getting some new wheels and super sticky tires before April (the spring cruise is then)

Awesome! I'm hoping to get my rebate card soon. I too will keep these as Daily driver, but I'm hoping to get a 16x8 in the spring with super stickies as well for autocross and track use. I may hold out for the Direzza ZIII Star Specs which should be here sometime in the next few months

 

[CSM]

Ive got over 3500 miles on my Indy 500s so far and I still like them a lot. They are somewhat noisy but not unbearable (my Direzza ZIIs were 10x worse). I do think the sidewall isn't really stiff so the turn in isn't as good as other tires, but the level of grip is very good. For the $75/tire I paid I'm pretty happy

 

[shelbydave]

I'm ordering these in a 16

 

[BiigMe]

What pressures are you guys using for these? I have 205/50-16 (Went with the bigger sidewall for a few reasons; closer to OEM Diameter, wider contact path, and the roads I take to work everyday make Pennsylvania look like the shining example of road quality) I'm using the OEM tire pressures for now because I haven't had time to push these tires yet and try different pressures.

So what do you guys run? or think is optimal?

 

[M-Sport fan]

^^^LOL

What exactly chews up the roads in Cali, since very few areas there have anywhere near the freeze-thaw cycles which we in the salt soup belts see sometimes within the same WEEK, and we get just as much HEAVY 18 wheeler traffic, without DOT upkeep, as you do there?

 

[BiigMe]

That was more a joke, PA wins the shit road contest hands down. I mean some roads have grooves from years of trucks driving on them and that can pull your car around the lane, some are corrugated concrete thats been cracked from years of neglect, anytime theres concrete you can guarantee that youll get a jolt from the transitions. I saw more DOT upkeep when I lived in upstate NY than I have here, when youre in the canyons the roads are lovely, but commuting on a highway to get to work in LA/OC....the roads are terrible.

 

[neeqness]

^^^LOL

What exactly chews up the roads in Cali, since very few areas there have anywhere near the freeze-thaw cycles which we in the salt soup belts see sometimes within the same WEEK, and we get just as much HEAVY 18 wheeler traffic, without DOT upkeep, as you do there?

Los Angeles alone holds THREE of the top ten worst highway intersections in the country. Certain parts of LA have likely the worst traffic in the country. Placement of a major sports center right in the middle of downtown isn't helping any. I can name a group of other reasons why...

But in my true opinion the reason our roads are so bad is poor maintenance. Traffic may be part of the problem still in a way because its hard to maintain a road without adding more traffic and so city officials may feel they are in a "catch 22", but still...poor maintenance is the problem, imho.

I remember growing up here that you could tell how affluent a neighborhood is by looking at the roads, but nowadays even many affluent neighborhoods have bad roads. Only those areas that are somewhat exclusive in values AND municipality jurisdictions have nice roads now but only locals would likely know these areas (Some of us may cruise through them on occassion for the views). They aren't the well known ones like Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica etc.





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[M-Sport fan]

^^^GIVEN.

But in THIS area we have ONE SINGLE major road (RT. 202) going through, which EVERY 18 wheeler MUST take to get to their delivery points in the slightly more populated towns.

SAME scenario when it comes to repairs since traffic will back up for MANY MANY MILES when PennDOT closes down even ONE lane at a time for repaving/fixes.
At times they are FORCED to do this since the CRATERS formed are so huge and destructive that traffic stops, and backs up for miles anyway just trying to drive around the slightly better/shallower parts of these 'wells' in the roadway from shoulder to shoulder.