Falken FK451 vs Falken Ziex 512

[Caithness]

Which one would you pick for a daily driven AWD? My friend is trying to decide between the two in a 215/55/16 to be mounted on his stock 1g rims.

The things that are important to him are good straight-line traction, decent wet traction, good high-speed stability. He doesn't autocross or corner carve on back roads but he wants the car to be stable doing 100 through a highway interchange. Both tires are about the same price so he'd like help picking the better tire for his needs.

 

[Strm Trpr]

The FK451's are a pretty awesome tire.
They are soft though.
I commuted mine 15k miles on my GST, and they were pretty shredded.
I recommend rotating them at least every 3 - 4k miles.
They are very stable, and they have killer wet traction.
Straight line accel with an AWD should be wicked.
He will be happy with them, just take it easy, get an alignment asap, and keep them rotated.

 

[andymoraitis]

I have the 451's as well and strongly recommened. They're a bit soft as mentioned, but they seem to do well, even in the rain (at least they do on an AWD).

Hope that helps,

Andy

 

[asian312]

I just recently picked up a set of Falken Ziex 512 last weekend. Since these are my daily tires I choose longevity. Can't compare them to the 451's, but they are every bit as good as my Toyo Proxes in wet and dry (even a little bit quieter). I'll be tracking on them this weekend around Texas World Speedway, I'll let cha know how they do =)

 

[asian312]

Well they survived the weekend and performed right about where an all season tire should have. They provided a fair amount of grip to be able to handle my rookie skills with a 3000+lb wrecking ball attacked to them. When I did loose traction and drifted to the outside it was predictable and the AWD was able to pull me out of corners decently. Overall I'm a happy camper if they continue to last me a year with more track days in mind.