MF Review: Kumho ECSTA SPT

Sections: Reviews Sep 25th, 2006 26 Comments

After a year and almost 6500 miles on my OEM Dunlop SP Sport 01 DSST, I was ready for a change. It’s not that I was completely unhappy with the Dunlops. They performed better than any runflat tire had a right to. And at only 21lbs, they’re on par with most non-runflats in terms of weight. They performed well in rain, were relatively quiet on the highway, and even had generally acceptable wear. But at the track and during aggressive driving they painfully just average. So when I decided to switch over to 16.8lbs 18″ O.Z. Ultraleggera wheels, I decided the time was right to make a move to a more aggressive tire as well. Enter the Kumho ECSTA SPT’s.

In many circles Kumho is known for being a great tire at an unusually low price. At almost half the price of comparable tires from Bridgestone, the ECSTA’s made an easy case for themselves – especially if they’re going to be regularly turned into black goo at the track. And with rating from Tirerack and others that put them up there with the best, it was almost a no brainer to at least give them a try and see what all the fuss was about.

From my experience of moderately aggressive to aggressive road use, I would give dry grip a solid 4 out of 5 so far. The grip level is higher that the SP Sport 01s that they replaced but not quite at the level of Bridgestone Potenza RE750. But then again considering the price, it’s easy to forgive having only 95% of the grip.

Another nice attribute is that they also seem to reach their limit in a very gradual manner allowing for easy modulation of the throttle in corners. This works very well with the optional LSD to create smooth exits out of corners.

Here’s what Kumho has to say about the ECSTA’s tread design and how it relates to wet grip:

The ECSTA SPT is the latest in Kumho’s ultra high performance line and features high dispersion silica that is meant to give superior wet grip and better treadwear. The lateral groove design is meant to optimize water evacuation and the triple tread radius optimizes footprint shape for even pressure distribution.

Call it what you will but wet Grip has been excellent so far. I’ve had the opportunity to properly test the car in several hard rains with the ECSTAs and found them to be stable and moderately sticky (if that’s possible in wet conditions). Like with dry grip, the ECSTAs seem to break away in a gradual manner and allow for a driver to easily correct mistakes mid corner.

Road noise on the highway is on the low side and it’s not much different than the more narrow OEM 18″ Dunlops I’ve known for the past year. In fact the ECSTA’s shoulder blocks are tilted into the direction of travel to improve grip and reduce unwanted noise while cruising.

Kumho lists the following as typical competition for the ECSTA SPT as the Michelin Pilot Sport, Bridgestone RE750, Eagle F1 GS, Yokohama Advan AD07, Pirelli P-0 Nero, and Dunlop SP8000. Good company and certainly a tall order for any $100 tire to compete with. But to Kumho’s credit the ECSTA holds its own in both wet and aggressive dry grip. It may not produce the ultimate grip that the RE750s or even the P-O Nero’s have, but at almost half the price, it’s a deficiency most drivers won’t mind and fewer would even notice. In fact you could call the Kumho ECSTA is a great compromise that’s almost not a compromise at all.

MotoringFile Rating: 4.0 (out of five)

Where to Buy:

You can find the KUMHO ECSTA SPT at The Tire Rack.

Testing set-up:

The tires tested were 215/35/18s and were used on O.Z. Ultraleggeras.

Written By: Gabe

26 Comments

Yegor H. Sep 25th, 2006 Link

I have the same set thanks to you, Gabe. It’s been a little more than 1000 miles on mine and I like them very much. Good grip, better handling, affordable.

Lucas Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Nice review. I have the exact same tires installed after my runflats got quite low. With fairly low price compared to tires in its class, I’m surprised at how well it did. Mine has about 8000 miles on it.

They have above average (pretty good) grip, and I agree completely with the assessment that it gradually ease into the limits of the tires — and it gives you fair warning before that limit is reached, allowing you to correct your driving before something really bad happens. :-)

Ric Stofer Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Great review. Thanks Gabe. I have also had excellent results with the Kumo MX as a street/ track day tire. Not as good in the wet as the SPT but better in the dry.

Jac Sep 25th, 2006 Link

great review – i am planning on the SPT’s as well once i swtich off my runflats.

It may be a help for others to list to list the eaxct rim & tire specs in the review.

thanks!

lTZMTOR Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Thanks for the review Gabe I’ll be interested to hear about the mileage.

I had the Dunlop SP Sport 9000 DSST Run Flats and thought they were a nice intermediate tire. They had 28,000 on them so I thought it was time to change. I went to Tire Rack and read the reviews on the options for my MCS. I bought the Dunlop Sport Maxx. Half the price of the RF’s at $140 ea. ALL reviewers said the tire was superb so I thought I Had a winner replacement for the RF. NOPE! DON’T BUY!

On quick corners it is great, very sticky. Here’s the rub… on long sweepers it feels like you have a flat! Even during full acceleration in a straight line it feels like Jello Car. Also there is a lot of tramming on Freeways with water grooving or whatever it’s called.

Anyone with a diff experience with these? I reviewed them at my site.

FrankInMiami Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Are these tires available in 16″ rim sizes?

Pete Aykroyd Sep 25th, 2006 Link

I’ve also made the switch to the SPTs. I was very happy with them on my Integra before the MINI and have been relatively happy with them over the past 2000 miles or so on the MINI. The one element of them that I find dissappointing is the steering response. The all season good year’s that it came with apparently have tremendous steering response (rated better than Potenzas on tire rack) and so the switch to the kumhos caused me to loose some of the go-cart-fast steering response that I love about the car.

In terms of price and grip though, they are tough to beat. But I won’t be buying them again for this car. I should note that I’m running them on 17″s, so I wonder if having less sidewall on the 18″s would result in better steering response.

Rob Saunders Sep 25th, 2006 Link

What perfect timig! The Kumho STA’s are on my short list of upgrades. THANKS!

lasersailor Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Since the Kumho’s are not run-flats, what do all you all recommend to carry in the car in case of a puncture (besides my AAA card and associated towing service?) Does anyone have experience with the “fix-a-flat-in-a-can” stuff?

lasersailor Sep 25th, 2006 Link

To FranklnMiami, yes the Kumho Ecsta SPT’s are available in 205/50WR16 size. I assume that’s the appropriate non-run-flat size to replace the 195/55HR16 that come standard?

MillieTheMini Sep 25th, 2006 Link

lasersailor,

Up here in Canada, many of us MINI owners have gotten our hands on the Airman Tire Repair Station, which is a all-in-one tire air compressor/repair sealant unit:

http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/pw/airman.htm

The manufacturer also makes a variety of air inflation products – http://www.activeproducts.com

Great looking product, it looks very OEM designwise, like something that MINI themselves would have designed. The fact that the sealant is made by Dunlop doesn’t hurt credibility-wise.

Don’t know if you can get it in the US though, I believe that the Airman is exclusive to Canadian Tire stores up here.

mightydread Sep 25th, 2006 Link

i have the ECSTA Supra 712 and very happy with them also. pick up a set in the spring . have done 25000 kms and one wet track day on them and there still holding up very well. they are 215/50/16.

cheers mikie

MINIAK Sep 25th, 2006 Link

The fix-a-flat stuff works well enough to get you to the tire repair shop – make sure you tell them you put the FAF in your tire, otherwise it can be a nasty surprise for them.

I have never tried the SPT’s, but I love the MX’s and swear by them in the wet and dry.

As you wear your tires (especially the aggressive drivers) you may wear out the shoulders first. This will contribute to the wandering and additional road noise. It is important to rotate your tires.

Note – safety standards say that the best tires should be on the rear of the car, as it is safer to understeer than oversteer. This is why cars are typically set up from the factory with understeer.

If you are especially frugal, you can swap your tires on the rims. If you do that, beware that running the tires counter-direction works fine on dry, but could actually channel water to the center of the tire in the wet and be somewhat hazardous. Due to that reason, I cannot recommend doing this. However, I have been known to do it on my track-only tires to get more life from them.

Happy and Safe Motoring. :)

Bilbo Baggins Sep 25th, 2006 Link

lasersailor Sep 25th, 2006 Link Since the KumhoÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s are not run-flats, what do all you all recommend to carry in the car in case of a puncture (besides my AAA card and associated towing service?) Does anyone have experience with the Ã¢â‚¬Å“fix-a-flat-in-a-canÃ¢â‚¬Â stuff?

I have been running non-runflats every winter on my MCS and carry a bottle of “Slime” and a small compressor. I also carry a tire plugging kit.

“Slime” does not use flamable compressed gasses, like some of the “fix-a-flat-in-a-can” products. Which is why some garages refuse to work on tires that have “fix-a-flat” installed. Instead you use a small 12VDC compressor to inflate the tire. All very safe for the next poor sap that has to remove the tire from the rim.

So far I have never had to use the “Slime” in over 47,000 smiles. But I have had to install 2 plugs in the rf tires after I got nailed in the middle of the tread.

Plugs held just fine, even thru 7 days of Auto-X driving.

Hope this helps.

Nathan Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Haven’t had a chance to use the Kumhos, but I’ll toss in my two cents for one of their listed competitors. Those Eagle F1 GS’s are great. Wet and dry I give ‘em 5 out of 5. Traction for days and very predictable when it comes to slip. Decent tread wear so far. Reasonably light weight. And also under $100 if you look in the right places. They are the first tire that ever got me compliments while parked.

Paddy Sep 25th, 2006 Link

215/35-18?

Paul Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Thanks for the review Gabe, I’ve been considering these for some time to replace my factory summer Dunlops. Sure can’t beat the price!

DonÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t know if you can get it in the US though, I believe that the Airman is exclusive to Canadian Tire stores up here.

Looks like the $50 CAD Airman is the same as Continental Tire’s ContiComfortKit available from the Rack.

http://www.tirerack.com/accessories/conticomfortkit/index.jsp

JP Sep 25th, 2006 Link

To those proponents of fix-a-flat or Slime, let me recount my own experience. While driving in Northern California on Highway 101, I experienced a blowout with a non-runflat. With no spare, I had no choice but to call a tow truck who arrived after a fifty mile drive. He towed me to the nearest town and I had a replacement tire bused in from Sacramento. It was a full day before I was on the road again. Positives, runflats are hard to find almost anywhere. Non runflat replacements are cheaper. Negatives, fix-a-flat is worthless with a blowout. Run flats would have allowed me to reach the nearest town, however a run flat would have had to be bused in from L.A. or San Francisco. Conclusion. There is no free lunch.

am0eba Sep 25th, 2006 Link

I’ve had Kumho Ecsta SPTs on my ‘05 MCSc for about 13,000 miles, including a DE event at Laguna Seca, and “lunch laps” at Las Vegas Speedway (very abrasive track surface). Most of the miles were recreational in nature, with plenty of “spirited” driving on twisties. I’m running 205/50WR16’s on 16×7 Konig “holes” with a 42 mm offset. I never rotated front to rear, and while my fronts are in desperate need of replacement – very little tread depth left, and uneven wear at that – the rears look almost new. I’m running the stock Cabrio “sport” suspension, and keep the tires inflated to somewhere around 37 psi front / 35 psi rear when cold.

The SPTs were recommended to me by Phil Wicks as having good grip that would last, and since I had owned and been happy with a set of Kumho Ecsta Supra 712’s on my previous car (Subaru 2.5 RS) I decided to go with them.

In general, I found the SPTs to be fairly sticky and predictable for the first 7 or 8 thousand miles, but the extra durability that has been engineered into them was dissappointing. After the outer layer wears down, the predictable stickiness started feeling occasionally “greasy” during dry cornering, with a few instances of “hey it never did that before” when the grip gave ‘way without the usual warning. Also very odd: I started noticing that the SPTs were making sounds like sneakers on a a basketball court when passing over rubber lane markings during cornering. (No apparent change in grip – just the unusual noises.)

Turn-in crispness was never as sharp as with the Original Equipment 17″ Dunlop SP9000 performance runflats, but I expected that to be the case, as I switched to 16″ rims and tires in order to gain some extra sidewall height – to absorb some of the very harsh expansion joints on California’s freeways.

I expect that if I had managed to swap the tires front to rear before the fronts really started wearing, that I could have extended the “good” performance substantially.

The SPT’s were better in the wet than the old SUPRA ECSTA 712’s, which basically “went away” on wet pavement.

Overall, a decent tire for the price, but you’ll need to rotate end to end to really get extended life from them. I wasn’t thrilled with the look in the size I got, so I will probably not replace them with another set of SPTs. I’m currently looking at Goodyear Eagle F1 GS D3’s (if I decide to go with the same size tire: 205/50-16), and Falken Azenis 615’s, which come in my ideal size of 215/45-16.

Just thought some relatively long-term perspective might be useful.

Dave

Robert Sep 26th, 2006 Link

Nice review, but I have a question about this statement:

“Road noise on the highway is on the low side and itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s much greater than the more narrow OEM 18Ã¢â‚¬Â³ Dunlops IÃ¢â‚¬â„¢ve known for the past year. In fact the ECSTAÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s shoulder blocks are tilted into the direction of travel to improve grip and reduce unwanted noise while cruising.”

Is it really much noisier than the Dunlops?…..or did you mean to say “quieter” instead of greater?

There seems to be a conflict with “road noise on the low side, but much greater than the Dunlops”…the Dunlops must be, I guess, really, really quiet?

bluzeke Sep 26th, 2006 Link

Does anyone out there have any experience with the All Season version of this tire – the ASX ?

MotoringFile » Archive » White Roof Radio #98 Oct 2nd, 2006 Link

[...] We cover Gabe’s review of the Kumho Ecsta SPT fairly well. We are overdue for a real live tire show and I’m working on getting one together as I type this. Watch for it sometime after Woof 100. Don’t forget our disappointment in the lack of a good online translator, a car that changes to a briefcase and moving sidewalks. We also spend a fair amount of time discussing the design of the R56. [...]

MotoringFile » Archive » MotoringFile 2006 Year in Review Jan 1st, 2007 Link

[...] MotoringFile Reviews Auto Reviews: ‘06 JCW GP Longterm Reader Review: JCW GP ‘06 JCW Cooper S Long Term Comparison: ‘06 Lotus Elise Comparison: ‘06 Mazda MX5 Comparison: ‘06 UK Focus ST Comparison: ‘06 Civic Si Comparison: ‘04 TVR T350 Comparison: ‘06 Nissan 350z Comparison: ‘06 VW GTI w/DSG Podcast: Cooper S Auto Podcast: BMW 325i Podcast: JCW MC Soundkit ‘04 JCW MINI Cooper Tuning Kit ‘05 MCS: One Month Review ‘05 MCS Auto ‘05 JCW S 1st Drive ‘05 MINI Cooper ‘05 MCS Conv. Long Term ‘05 MINI Cooper S ‘05 MCS Cabrio 1st Drive ‘04 JCW MCS First Drive ‘04 MC w/JCW Tuning Kit BMW M3 SMG Vs. MCS ‘04 MINI Cooper CVT ‘02 MCS 3 year Review Autocrossing the MINI Range Performance Accessories: Craven Speed Short Shifter M7 Understrut System Kumho Ecsta SPT Tires M7 Strut Tower Reinforcement JCW Alcantara Steering Wheel JCW Brake Kit Webb 15% Pulley Helix MCSa 15% Pulley H-Sport 19mm Sway Bar MCS Supersprint Exhaust Podcast: MCS SS Exhaust JCW Cold Air Intake Reader Reivew: JCW Brakes Supersprint Cooper Exhaust Remus Cooper Exhaust Promini Cooper Intake MC Remus Dual Exhaust Schroth Harness System CVT Steering Wheel Paddles Exterior Accessories: Miniature’s Receiver Hitch OEM White Tail Lights Lifestyle Accessories: MINI_Motion Watch MINI_Motion Driving Shoe Audio: MINI Digital SoundModul ICE-Link Plus iPod Adapter Official BMW/iPod adapter ICE-Link iPod Adapter Kenwood iPod Interface Alpine iPod Interface Harman Kardon Stereo Interior Accessories: JCW Alcantara Steering Wheel JCW Leather Dash MCAW Auto Up Circuit MINI Rear Camera MINI Rear Saddle (official) MINI Rear Cargo Storage Case Official MINI Rear Saddle Bag 2004 MINI Armrest Reviewed Mymini Knee Pad MINI Bluetooth Kit MINI Video Input Aftermarket Bluetooth Integration Ian Cull Auto-up Circuit Universal Mobile Phone Holder Offers from the Tirerack > Special Offers: Save on quality tires with these manufacturer’s promotions available from The Tire Rack. > Gift ideas for $50 or more in The Tire Rack’s Automotive Gift Guide. > Shop for KUMHO tires at The Tire Rack. [...]

Andrew May 8th, 2008 Link

Got four of these a month ago after doing much research. Basically I could not afford the Bridgestone RE050’s (just over half my month’s gross salary as an IT professional here in South Africa!). Paid slightly less than half the price for the SPT’s… they rock. I’m very happy: extremely quiet and comfortable – I did drop my tyre pressure but still swear they take imperfections in the road (of which we have many) better. Slighly less traction than the RE050a’s but nothing worth bothering about. The tread pattern looks fantastic. Only thing is I wish the lip protector was more pronounced – very slight and subtle. That’s my only criticism really! The treadwear is 320 vs 140 on the Bridgestone’s and the traction rating a ‘AA’ vs ‘A’. Nice! Thank you Kumho!

Sandi Tyme Jan 29th, 2009 Link

I have experienced extreme cupping on the insides of both rear SPTs. Hard to say what the mileage is on these tires as I run snows (Dunlop Winter Sport M3) half the year, but I would estimate under 25,000 miles. Dealer inspected suspension, and found alignment to be correct. (I declined to have them reduce the camber). Some folks say that cupping can occur on an inferior tire. My Dunlops show no such wear at all. Can’t handle the noise… it’s deafening. Any thoughts?

Jason Jul 10th, 2009 Link

Thank a MILLION for this review. Off to go have these put on my 07 Coop S, 17″ right now. Will post a review after some miles are put on them.

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MF Review: Kumho ECSTA SPT

Sections: Reviews Sep 25th, 2006 26 Comments

MotoringFile Rating: 4.0 (out of five)

Written By: Gabe

26 Comments

Yegor H. Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Lucas Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Ric Stofer Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Jac Sep 25th, 2006 Link

lTZMTOR Sep 25th, 2006 Link

FrankInMiami Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Pete Aykroyd Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Rob Saunders Sep 25th, 2006 Link

lasersailor Sep 25th, 2006 Link

lasersailor Sep 25th, 2006 Link

MillieTheMini Sep 25th, 2006 Link

mightydread Sep 25th, 2006 Link

MINIAK Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Bilbo Baggins Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Nathan Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Paddy Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Paul Sep 25th, 2006 Link

JP Sep 25th, 2006 Link

am0eba Sep 25th, 2006 Link

Robert Sep 26th, 2006 Link

bluzeke Sep 26th, 2006 Link

MotoringFile » Archive » White Roof Radio #98 Oct 2nd, 2006 Link

MotoringFile » Archive » MotoringFile 2006 Year in Review Jan 1st, 2007 Link

Andrew May 8th, 2008 Link

Sandi Tyme Jan 29th, 2009 Link

Jason Jul 10th, 2009 Link

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