When you are a pro in any industry, you have certain views that can be hard to sway. One of those for me is off brand tires. The P5’s summer boots were pretty much finished, so I started making some calls. The first (and only really) was to Gord Cullen at Tire Depot.
Gord is a long time tire industry guy, with an equally long history in road racing. In other words, this guy knows his way around rubbers. Ok, so he knows his way around tires too. The Protege5 comes fitted with a slightly odd size, 195/50R16 which is not all that common. Of 3 sizes, one was the original Dunlop which we weren’t all that happy with to begin with. It’s not that it was a bad tire, it just didn’t really do anything all that well. To make matters worse, it’s expensive as hell.
Cullen suggested the Taiwanese made Nankang EX500. I’ll be honest, the thought of a Taiwanese tire on my wife’s car made me shudder. I did a bit of a search online and couldn’t find any negative reviews. The tire is fully half the price of the Dunlop and two thirds the price of a Kumho. Upon inspection, it looks like a quality product, so I figured it was worth a try. Besides, Tire Depot’s rep is riding on this recommendation!
The sidewalls are quite stiff, making them a bit tough to mount, but beyond that they balanced up with no problems. On the road, they feel smooth and are quite quiet with very little noise over rough pavement. I haven’t had a chance to get them into the twisties yet, so we’ll have to reserve judgement on the performance feel. So far though, I’m pretty happy with the decision.
Good choice Gord.
25 comments ↓
Any furthercomments on the Nankang EX500. I am considering puttting a set on my 2000 MR2 Spyder. O.E. size185.55.15 front and 205.50.15 rear.
Comfort of ride important. handling and cornering important. I would be happy with 35K plus in wear.
Any advice, imput would be appreciated.
John
So far, they are wearing evenly. On the road, I have nothing but good things to say about them. At the limit, they have so far proven to be predictable, with lots of feedback to the driver. The only strange thing is that they are super quiet at the limit, I haven’t heard a squeel yet. This would lead me to believe the rubber is super soft and might not last too long, but I too will be happy with 30-40k as we use snows during the winter.
Gary, Thanks for your feed-back. Sounds like the tire might work well for me as I am a “sporty” driver but not an agressive driver nor will I be racing the MR2.
Can you comment yet on the tires braking in an aggressive situation both on dry pavement as well as wet breaking. Have you noticed any heat build up with straight ahead driving at high speeds. Have you been able to yet, put the tires throught some hard cornering.
While price isn’t the biggest concern to me, I am comparing these tires to the Toyo T1R.
As always thank you for taking the time to imput your thoughts.
John
Braking they have been pretty consistent and seem to modulate pretty well. That said, I haven’t had to lock them up.
I haven’t had them down a windy road yet, but I’ve been pretty impressed on a couple of fun on ramps.
I haven’t driven on the T1R, so I can’t give much of a comparison.
Gary, Thanks for all your feedback. It seems that the tires are meeting or exceeding your needs. That’s good to hear.
I still haven’t decided on the two brands but, I am strongly considering the EX500, in part due to your fine comments.
Thanks again.
John
Gary, Hope you got my last comments. Thanks again. Sometime next week, I will change out my tires with either EX500 or Toyo T1R.
I give you feedback. Again, thanks so much for your help.
John
I think I got your last comments!
I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the tire.
I have these on a 99 Miata in 195/50-15. I drive fairly aggressively in mostly mountain roads. I have been quite pleased with the tires. I will have to check miles, but I have almost 10 months of use. They have pretty stiff sidewalls, so they actually handle better than some of the summer ultra-performance tires I have purchased in the past. In the wet, they have been pretty good. Not as sticky feeling as the Bridgestone Pole position, as I have felt some slipping around turns. No complaints about the performance in wet highway conditions. I have not noticed any hydroplaning at highway speeds.
Hope this helps,
Gregg
Very good to know! Until just this afternoon, I’d never even heard of these tires!
I was just warming up to the idea of trying a set of Kumho ASX’s on my ‘01 7-Series (no way will I be affording a set of the stock Michelins Pilot Sport A/S’) when they became back-ordered. Same thing happened with the “new” General Exclaim UHP.
I guess some of the tires coming out of the Pacific Rim and China have gotten a bad rap (deservedly so in some cases), so I totally understand some folks’ concern over the idea of trying a little-known (at least here in the States anyway) tire manufacturer.
Thanks for your comments, guys….
Tim G.
I bought a set of NANKANG ULTRA SPORT NS-I Have had them for about 3 months. Put around 4k miles on them, nothing had mostly highway travel. I noticed the other day that the tread is peeling off my left front tire. I have contacted the dealer to let them know and I have yet to hear anything back.
Stay on them & let us know how it pans out.
An update from my last post. I still have not heard back from the dealer as of yet. What makes this a bad deal is that it was an on-line dealer. Not going to put the name of the dealer out there just yet. All my other tires seem to be okay. Its just the front passenger tire that is showing signs of the tread coming off of the tire. Like you would see from retreaded tires. I am at the point where I need to make a choice either buy another matching tire and risk the same thing happening. So its a rock and a hard place.
I replaced my original tires on my 94 Mustang GT about 2 years ago with the Nankang NS1, and so far I have had no issues. For a soft tire, there seems to be verty little wear, they handle great on the highway and they are super quiet. When these wear out I will buy another set.
Hello everyone I just bought some Nankand EX-500 205/50/15’s for my 96 Integra GSR. Looking forward to mounting them on my Volk Racing rims, just wondering if anyone else has any input on sudden turns? (Not drifting just quick movements).
Thanks
I’m not sure what you consider “sudden” turns. Generally I try to avoid anything sudden behind the wheel. A couple of weeks ago I finally had the car on some real twisties and I found them predictable at the limit.
I bought a used set to get me thru the next couple of months until I can purchase a new set. Its December & snow is here. Do anyone know how they perform in the snow? I’ve read all the previous comments & no one said anything about how they perform in the snow.
Please let me know.
Thanks
Atwan, these are summer tires.
We just got the P5 back from the body shop yesterday, so I had to drive it yesterday to get it to the shop and install our snows. The slightest hint of throttle caused wheelspin and just a bit of brake brought the abs on.
Do not try to drive in snow with them.
Hi, i use a couple of jeeps for offroad driving and came across the mudterrian tires @ an exhibition.the dealer claims they will give a life of over 100000km.the size i am looking at is 31×10.5 R15.have any of you tried this tire and what is your experience with them.cheers
Nankang EX 500 bought 4 ..one blew out on the freeway-replaced it Jan have less than 15,000.00 on them and they are wearing out from the inside! Now told that will not warrant them I am just out of luck>>>not sure if just a bad lot or what—
If the tire is wearing on the inner edge, you may want to get your alignment checked out.
sorry to disagree but nankang tyres are crap!!! Mine still had great tread after 60,000km but the walls went on them and the distributors refused to do anything about them!!!
Dont waste you money on them!!!!
That’s a shame Jo. I don’t think ours have reach 20k yet, as here in Ontario we switch to snow tires for half the year. I wonder if the higher ambient temps you have in Oz have something to do with it, or if ours will do the same.
I bought a pair of the Nankang NS-1 tires for the rear of my 95 Nissan 240sx (Nissan 200sx for those of you in Europe), in a size which is generally pretty expensive, 245/45/R17. They ran me about $125 a piece after mounting and balancing, taxes, etc. (66.99 GBP, 85.10 EUR).
So far I have nothing but good things to say after my first few hundred miles on them. They ride much better than the Falken Ziex tires that were on the rear before, and are very quiet. My front tires (BF-Goodrich G-Force T/A) are noisy and ride very rough. The Nankangs work well in the rain, which is a good thing considering I live in Louisiana.
I’ll keep you guys posted.
Hey, just bought a MX-3 Precidia w/coilovers/slammed, and is sporting a set of NS-1’s on the front. I’m an aggressive driver, and have lots of twisties i my area, and found in super tight turns,at 60km/h, 90 degree turn; I accelled hard to test their limits, and found them to break away softly while feathering the gas. Handle excellent in the dry, don’t know about wet yet.
The alignment on the car was out severely 5 half turns in on the drivers side (toe out), and 7 turns in on the pass side(toe out), which caused excessive wear on the insides to the belts. My friend said over only 3 weeks ago he put them on used with 50% even wear on them, and now they’re down to the belts with him driving 110kmh or 70mph down the twisties twice a day or 30km/day along the St. Lawrence river, on a level of 5 being tight; most turns are a 3 to a 4, the odd 5, no square 90degree turns.
So these are very soft tires in my opinion, and if you have uneven wear, get an alignment immediately or you will ruin your tire in only three weeks!
Hey, since my tires have become life threatening, i’m looking maybe at another set of NS-1’s but may opt-in for higher quality because I like to drive up to 240 kmh on occasion, and don’t want a blow-out from possible de-lamination of the tread, great tire for the sporty, or weekend track driver, but not likely for excessive speeds.
I looked at some reviews and come up with tires that fit my purpose of dry/wet/wear and heat resilience when heavy cornering consistently, and they are rated as follows.
Grippiest street tires: Yoko ES 100, Kumho MX
All around tires Kumho 712 firm sides, wet/dry good, med. tread Lf.
Rain/dry: Kumho SPT good dry/staggering wet!
FK 451, ES 100, Parada Spec2, Proxes4, good high/perf. traction, rain all around daily use, reasonable tread life, but not as high as Falken Azenis RT-615
Seperate review: Falkens grip well cold, but don’t handle heat very well.
Toyo T1-R, Soft sidewall, delayed steer, progressive break-away, easy to control, very comfortable.
Rated: Dry 4/ Wet 5/ Tread wear 4
Separate review:dry3/wet4/handlg.2/comft.4/noise3/tread4
Hope this helps anyone with the budget to make an informed decision.
I’m thinking of going with the
Yoko ES 100’s or Kumho MX, depends on performance for price. I’m leaving this morning for them.
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