Dunlop Direzza Review

I've bought the Dunlop Direzza DZ101 in 205/45R16 a few weeks ago,
initially the contenders are:
Goodyear F1 GS-D3: no size not until later this year
Bridgestone GIII: relatively touring tyres according to most feedback,
RE711 still rules if they're still around :headbang:
BF Goodrich Profiler G: after the disappointment from the Michelin Pilot
Precedas in the wet I wouldn't go back to Michelin unless I can get
Pilot Sport/2

The Direzzas became my choice after some shopping that most places
pushed me to get Michelin Precedas and not very welcomed on the GIII.
The price is also decent at $208 per corner.

It has a new silica compound which is the softest I've driven so far
comparing to the OEM F1 and Michelin. This is the major reason I get
these tyres as I prefer to have some 'insurance' in the wet. I have had
too many scary moments driving in the wet even very slowly, my
girlfriend agreed and simply told me don't ever buy Michelins.

This tyre has a directional tread like all other popular sport tyres in
the market.

On the road

This tyre is pretty grippy like the Michelins, take off is pretty easy
without spinning and you can have good feel on the acceleration. I can
go around corners much quicker and now I can notice a lot of body roll
as a result. The only thing I want more is the road feel on straight
roads, you can certainly get a lot of feedback from them but not as much
as the Michelins, I think I'm spoiled !!

Around corners the feel increases as you go along, so that's not bad at all.

In the wet they are just - nice. They kick away water on the road very
well without much hydroplaning as I drive through the dips on the road
where water tends to build up. I noticed on the road the tyres left two
very prominent dry tracks on the road when I look into the mirror,
just like replay on WRC2 on the PS2.

The tyres can take around 4000rpm in the wet before they completely
spin. It is very progressive as you will notice they half spin, unlike
the Michelins which has no signs of warning !!!! I have been doing
u-turns slowly without braking, which is impossible on Michelins - you
have to pretty much stop the car and crawl around the corner.
High speed overtaking is very stable both in the dry and wet on the freeway.

In terms of road noise, unfortunately it is not as good as the
Michelins, but not by a huge gap.

Handling, good, but again, I wish to have more road feel. They don't
tramline at all so far and feedback is good. I am running on 36psi, so
more than that would really kill my tyres. BUT they do absorb bumps
pretty well.

I hope these tyres will last as long as the rest I've used, if I can get
30000kms on them I'd be very happy. I've heard silica compound should
have better tread wear but that's yet to be proven.

Well, I guess that's all for this time.

Cheers,
Jason

Thanks for the in-depth review Jason. As you know I'm about to look for new 205/45-R16's .. will see what I can get the Direzzas for out west.

- XTC206 -

Thanks Jason! I think you'll find that you'll get 30K out of them without too much trouble. The FM901s give life at around that level.

Michelin do have a reputation as making tyres with great "feel". It's a common comment by the journalists. But wet performance is a known shortfall of Michelin in general. Although, in most of other states in Australia, it's drier and we don't tend to do U-turns as often. Melbourne's weather would ensure that ther are many days where it is quite greasy on the road. No amount of tread design will pull that kind of moisture away from the road, but instead you are relying on compound there. So, this is where the Dunlops and Goodyears (same company you know) will come to the fore.

Dunlop do tend to have good progressive feel, though. I'm sure in the next couple weeks you'll completely forget how the Michelins felt! I know with the FM901s and Sumitomo HTRZ IIs, there is a level of predictability to these tyres. You can place them on the road so easily, makes for some very swift driving.

BTW, every ultra high performance tyre on the market would have silica in it nowadays. The Michelin would have, too.

GTI124 said:

Although, in most of other states in Australia, it's drier and we don't tend to do U-turns as often. Melbourne's weather would ensure that ther are many days where it is quite greasy on the road.

No amount of tread design will pull that kind of moisture away from the road, but instead you are relying on compound there.

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Yeah, I live on the 'wrong' side of the road so every morning I have to do a u turn to go to work.

The most scary one was one day in the city I was turning right at the light no more than 20km/h and the car just loose traction totally just after the rain stopped, without any warning, I almost went to the opposite side of the traffic light and hit the oncoming traffic, which thankfully they're all stopped for the red light.

So, this is where the Dunlops and Goodyears (same company you know) will come to the fore.

Click to expand...

Myth or fact ? I know Pacific Tyres distributes both Goodyears and Dunlops, but do they come out from the same factory ????

Jason

I don't know if they are from the same factory, just that Goodyear own Dunlop.

Direzza vs Preceda? Jason or anyone please help

Hi,

I'm actually using the FM901 and is currently looking for a replacement tyre. I kinda got fixed with the Preceda until a tyre store owner told me they are really noisy tires. I do not really believe it but he claims he used it and send it back to michelin after 2000km on them because of the noise level. Anyway. how true is this? It seems that one of the main point of these tyres is that they are quiet. Hmmmm... (Recommended me Pirelli P7, any good?)

Jason:
Besides that, looking at ur review...does it imply that you felt the Preceda was quite unpredicatable in the wet and the Direzza is alot better? How unpredicatable was the preceda? Oh yea, does the Direzza come with Rim Guard? the website don't seem to say..

Anyone:
I'm actually driving a honda integra type-r and not a peugeot like most of you and the tyre spec is also 195/55/R15..However, I'm thinking of putting 205/55/R15 on them as a mean of trying to reduce wheelspin on take off as this is a FWD car and the grunt jus doesn't work well with 195 ( Japanese spec version of my car runs with 16" rims at 205/45/R16) Is there any reason why this is not a good idea?

Edit: by increasing the tyre width to 205, would i need to decrease the profile to 50? I cannot afford to have my car go any lower than it currently is. Please advice.

What is sidewall flex? and how is this affected?

WHere's the cheapest Direzza's in melbourne?

Thanks heaps for your prompt respond.
Eric

I wonder how the store owner drives his car and what kind of car he has, coz the Precedas you have to really spin it very very hard to get some noise out, so don't even bother to try get some noise on the street....the Precedas are the most quiet tyres I've used so far.

You have to be careful in this kind of situation - salesman talk.
a) the guy might not sell the product so he'll try to talk you down and get something else from his store.
b) hisprofit margin isn't as good as selling other stuff he pushes
c) some shops are commissioned to sell certain brands

As for the wet grip, you have to be really careful coz there's no sign of when the grip will let go on them. They do have a rim guard.

But I'm not sure how heavy your Honda is, since wet grip is related to how much pressure you put on your tyres on the road to drive out water on the road, at 1050kg on my GTI it's not very ideal in this case. That's one of the reason you DON'T want to get wider tyres. And this is one of the problem of owning a small car but you want peformance out of it - most cars weight 1300kg+, so grip is reduced as a result

If you like the FM901, then go for the DZ101, otherwise I think your best choice is goodyear F1 GS-D3.

Jason

Hi Eric, welcome to :afplak:

First thing is if you go to 205/50 from 195/55, there would be very minimal difference to your ride height. The second number is a percentage of the first number, so there wouldn't be a difference in rolling cicrumference. I don't know enough about Hondas, but with Peugeots we found that they are quite sensitive to alignment, tyre size and tyre pressure. I'd suggest asking some other Type R owners what they think, there are a few over on www.performanceforums.com

I wouldn't see a huge issue in running 205s on the Integra, but I'm a purest and prefer to run the manufacturer recommendations.

Sidewall flex is where you can feel that the sidewall of the tyre is letting go first, before the compound grip of the tyre. It's something that can happen quite suddenly and is unnerving on a car that handles well. An enthusiast would prefer that the main part of the tyre remains in contact with the road as long as possible, and that we are relying on compound grip, rather than the structure of the tyre letting go and therefore, slipping out. Hope that makes sense.

Direzzas in 195/55R15 should be around $180.

GTI124 said:

First thing is if you go to 205/50 from 195/55, there would be very minimal difference to your ride height. The second number is a percentage of the first number, so there wouldn't be a difference in rolling cicrumference.

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Bugger all ....

A 10mm decrease in tyre height and a 1.6% decrease in indicated speed.

- XTC206 -