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REVIEW: Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric

I-S

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Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric, 225/45 R17 94W

I'm sure many of you have seen the myriad of magazine tyre tests that put this as one of, if not in most cases the, best tyres on sale today.

So, with all of that, and struggling at the time (there's much more choice now) to find anything else with the 94 load rating, I bought a set. Initially I bought two and used them on the back for about 2-3 thousand miles. Then they came off while I was reconditioning wheels, then went back on with a new pair (the old pair on the front).

Initial impressions were mixed to good. With all four fitted the grip level was nothing short of phenominal, the car feeling as though it had a wider stance and wider tyres on - grip out of T-junctions was superb. The mixed part was that they were noticeably noisier, firmer side-walled (with the attendant increase in tramlining) and less easy-rolling than the Michelin Pilot Primacy tyres I had on the car before - these things are not a huge criticism though, because that is what comes of a more sporting tyre (the Eagle) compared to a GT tyre (the Primacy). Over time, the next thing to show up was wear rate - they wear FAST. I don't drive hard compared to many people, but found the fronts wearing at a pretty high rate. I swapped the fronts and rears to compensate for this.

So, so far they have excellent grip with the expected compromises of a very high performance tyre.

Unfortunately there is a much more significant downside. Summer tyres are bad in the snow - everyone knows and expects that. Many people know that summer tyres aren't great in cold conditions. However, the Eagles suffer from a spectacular loss of performance in the cold - temperatures around 4C have the feel of the car gone from sure-footed and secure to donkey-on-rollerskates. I have NEVER experienced this level of change with temperature - yes, all summer tyres are worse in the cold but this is such a huge change that the tyres go from being among the very best to being among the very worst (the only comparable tyre I have any experience of is the Linglong 688 on a colleague's car - look up car and driver's review of that tyre to get the idea). With the Eagle's tread pattern being mainly longitudinal, with little in the way of lateral sipes I am absolutely dreading the onset of snow with these on the car.

Ultimately, I'm forced to conclude that the Eagle F1 Asymmetric is a great tyre in its performance envelope, but that envelope is simply too narrow. For UK use it is fine for April-October, but it's not a year round tyre and since few people change tyres for winter here it's just not suitable.

I won't be buying them again.
 
Good impartial review Isaac. Our company car policy was to fit only Dunlop Sport or GY Eagle F1's so I've been through quite a few on various cars. I always found they had a bit more road noise than the Dunlop's, but the grip was always better.

Can't really comment on the cold weather performance.. as I don't recall it ever being that bad.
 
Hello
I had Good Eagle F1's on my epsilons all round and found they were excellent in rain and dry but absolutely shocking in the snow. The car got stuck pretty much everywhere. Also ride was harsher and noise was horrible. It was that bad I almost thought my rear bearings had gone lol. I remember when I changed my alloys to my Current Storms they had Michelin Pilot sports and the ride was so quite.
I wouldn't buy them again at all to be honest.
My advice is try not to use the car in the snow with them, the pattern is just not designed to grip in snow.
 
Interesting ..:D Was that purely for a vendor fixed pricing deal or on safety grounds ?

Probably a commercial deal mate, they operate the largest fleet in Europe. And Dunlop/GY are the same parent company anyway.. but to be honest, they make damn good tyres, I never had any issues.
 
Isaac, great in depth review. I'm so glad I've got Michelin Pilot Primacy now...!
 
Hello
I had Good Eagle F1's on my epsilons all round and found they were excellent in rain and dry but absolutely shocking in the snow. The car got stuck pretty much everywhere. Also ride was harsher and noise was horrible. It was that bad I almost thought my rear bearings had gone lol. I remember when I changed my alloys to my Current Storms they had Michelin Pilot sports and the ride was so quite.
I wouldn't buy them again at all to be honest.
My advice is try not to use the car in the snow with them, the pattern is just not designed to grip in snow.
The Eagle F1's were directional tyres and were renowned for noise I-S is talking about the newer Asymmetric tyres which are a far better tyre.

We also use Goodyear/Dunlop for our fleet off cars and whislt being a softer compound and wear fairly quick compared to a hard Michelin they are good tyres and never have any complaints summer or winter
 
Good review and well balanced Issac, Im sure it will help a few peeps out considering these tyres.
 
The magazine tests are done in warm conditions, in which they really are superb tyres. Perhaps I didn't emphasise that enough... They are outstandingly grippy in warmer conditions, and superb in the wet too.

It's been very noticeable this week - monday and tuesday had temperatures between 2 and 4 degrees C and the tyres were not performing at all well, especially combined with the rain at those temperatures. This morning it was raining very heavily, but the temperature was 8C and the tyres were much better. No other tyre I have used has had such a sudden and severe temperature variation.

I think my next set will be Hankook Optimo 4S.
 
No I understand. The magazine tests are only done under a limited set of conditions, thats why your feedback over a greater ranges of conditions shows up this issue :)
 
An update, given the snowy conditions we've had.

The tyres are not good in cold/wet conditions as I previously described. They're not good in ice either, but no summer tyre is.

Snow, however, has been a surprise to me. They're actually surprisingly capable in the snow - rather better than the michelin pilot primacy. Again, they won't match an all-season or a winter tyre in snow (and no one would expect them to), but they've been better than I was afraid they would be.

Final summary is proof is in the pudding. If I ran two sets of tyres (winter and summer) or had two cars one of which was a summer plaything then I wouldn't hesitate to have these as a sporty summer choice. However, as I said before they're not great for all-year use, especially since I live up in the pennines and encounter snow and ice more than most in this country (our scottish members excluded). As with most people, I want a year-round choice and I'm prepared to compromise on the summer performance to get better winter performance.

Great tyre, but ultimately not for me.
 
Excellent review, pretty much sums up my experience of these tyres as well. My snow experience in them sounds worse than yours, i had much better traction using some Toyo Proxes CF1 that were almost on limit.

Pros

Excellent in the dry and wet (in summer)

Cons

Superfast wear rate
Rubbish in snow
Poor performance at lower temperatures <6 degrees
 
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric, 225/45 R17 91Y

Just had two of them fitted to the front. My Sessantas were losing grip. So far the Goodyear is quieter on rougher roads and feels very grippy, but then they are new. :)
Having another two fitted to the back, plus 4 wheel tracking. The wheel alignment is WAY OFF.

Will let you know how I get on.
 
Got two Asymmetric 2 in the rear wheels a few weeks ago and will probably change the two at the front this week. Curious to see how they behave in relation with the previous Michelin Pilot Sport 3. I expect them to be quite similar. For now, the Goodyear seem to have harder side walls.
 
I upgraded from 16 to 17 inch alloys last summer. my old tyres were budget tyres. new alloys came with good year f1 tyres. this has trasformed the car re ride and handling. Way more grip with reduced bodyroll. Agree with above though re the road noise this has increased. But very happy to live with it considering the perfromance increase. Cant say I noticed a deterioration in perfromance this winter though. Will take more note of grip levels as we come into the summer. The author maybe right.
 
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