Rubberization: Tire Choices

Tires are one of the most important things to choose when building any type of modified car. Many factors must be considered when choosing a performance tire. For my purposes (as well as most of you, our readers) it comes down to a few factors. Grip, life, fitment, and price. If you are like me, then you could give a shit about tire noise, wet traction, gas mileage, all that Car and Drive hoopla. I am lucky if I can hear my music over my straight piped NA engine and have pretty much little to no hope in the rain. Gas mileage? Huh?

Grip, life, fitment, price. Not necessarily in that order. The first tire I am going to review on these three factors is one of my go-to drift tires; the Federal 595SS. These tires are by far some of the cheapest performance tires on the market making them perfect for the drift crowd. The price is on point aka CHEAP as dirt. The grip is mediocre at best. These things are pretty slick compared to many other tires, but again the price is so on point that these are a great option. The life is great, being a harder tire that wears really well. Fitment is straight fat kid status, these run huge. Like a full size huge, so order accordingly.




The next tire that I really like is the good ol’ Falken RT615. These are definitely a lot more dollars than the Feddys so they aren’t for the faint of heart. The run a little wide and square, I would guess about a half size wider than similar performance tires. The sidewalls are meaty, stiff, and square so they don’t stretch really well at all. My god do they grip. They have tremendous traction but do get somewhat slick when they get super hot. Definitely a great tire for the front of any drift car.