Goodyear GSD3 - Optimized?

[eliminator]

Hello all,

This past weekend I recieved a pair of Goodyear GSD3's. I was pretty excited at first, but then noticed that the outside shoulders of the tires were tapered off pretty excessively. About half an inch over the outside tread blocks. It's enought that they resemble motorcycle tires. There's no way that the outside shoulders would even touch the ground, unless maybe the tire was flat. What's worse is when looking at the inside of the tires, the casing has a definite "step" where the tread changes from flat to angled.

I called the tire rack to express concern over this. The representative I spoke with immediately knew exactly what I was talking about. She informed me that Goodyear says the tires are "optimized". When I asked what they were "optimized" for, she said she didn't know. maybe for some specific car, or maybe for a race series, or maybe they were just defects. She then said DONT MOUNT THEM WE WILL SEND NEW ONES.

I recieved new ones today and they are exactly the same. Has anyone else seen this? What's the deal? There's no way I'm going to mount these tires, either. They are going back and I'm ordering Conti's, or Yokohamas.

-Steve

[Gary@Tirerack]

Rounded shoulders like this are common in very high performance tires. If you corner hard enough you will get into that part of the tread.

'optimizing' basixally refers shaving off excess moulding leftovers on very small areas of the shoulder and does not sound like what you're describing.

[LA525iT]

You will NOT be disappointed with this tire, trust me. They are the greatest single improvement you can make to your BMW. I love my F1-GSD3s!!!! :thumbup:

[eliminator]

Yeah, I know that the shoulders should be rounded off a little. But these aren't rounded they have almost a flat taper, with a definite angle point between the tread and the shoulder blocks. I have never seen another tire that looked even remotely similar to this. What's more, they do not look the same as the picture on the tire rack website. Those tires have normal looking profile. mine are tapered off on the shoulders 2-3 times more. If they looked like the picture, I would use them without hesitation.

BTW, customer service at Tire Rack has been excellent. Very efficient and courteous. :thumbup:

[vaio76109]

pics?

[eliminator]

See attached. It's no wonder there are posts on this and other boards with people complaining of high-speed stability issues.

[vaio76109]

See attached. It's no wonder there are posts on this and other boards with people complaining of high-speed stability issues.
Thats what mine looks like, well did look like.