Goodyear GS-C's; The crappiest tire ever???

[Mark Leiter]

I just bought a set of these tires in January of this year. During the year I put about 7K miles on them. This past week I just happend to look at the rear and found that they were bald!!!. On the passenger sided totally bald no tread at all and on the driver's side about 2 to 3/32's thread left. I am an easy driver. I never race the car. I never turn the ASR off, so I never break the tires loose. I've had the wheels aligned a few months before and about a month after these tires were installed. I know these are perofrmance tires and I'm not going to get 80K miles out of them, but I dont think 25-30k is asking too much. I just can't belive that Goodyear would put out such a crumby product and have the gaull to charge $225 each for them. Anyway, I guess this brings me to my question. Which tire should I get as a replacement. The new Goodyear HP's (I can't belive I'm even concidering GY's again) or the Firestone Firhawk SZ50's

[Illini Steve]

Mark,

Just another perspective, but my car had a brand new set when I got it (@ 31,900 miles). They are now just about due for replacement (@ 67,500 miles). Sounds like I drive very much like you, ASR on, etc. Mine is a pretty good mix of highway and local driving, what about yours? I've been pleasently surprised by the wear. Not so happy with the wet traction, noise or ride. I'm leaning towards Dunlop SP9000 next spring as replacements.

STEVE

[ModRed405]

I've got RunCraps on my C5, but had GSC's on my 98 Z28 and got probably 25,000 miles per set, if I remember correct. It sure as hell wasn't 7K. Something weird is going on.....

[Mark Leiter]

I got off the phone with the Goodyear customer service line and they have set-up an appointment with an authorized service center to check my car and the tires in question. I’m guessing that if the car checks out i.e.; alignment etc they will offer me some sort of discount off a new set of tires. The question is should I trust GY again??

We’ll see this coming Saturday.

[1LE]

I got about 28K out of my GSC's on my Z-28 with proper inflation and rotation every 6 K.

[Un4given]

I had P275-40ZR-17s all the way around my WS6 TA. I drove it moderately with some serious cornering, but seldom "lit them up". I replaced the first set at 33,000 miles. I replaced them with the same thing and just traded it in with 47,000 miles. The tires still looked new.

[c4cruiser]

I've seen some GS-C's go about 30K miles before being replaced, but I would not expect them to last 60-80K like tires on a passenger sedan.

I removed mine last fall after 24K but the tires were OEM on my 92 and I noticed that the grip was gone after a few A-X events. I have heard that performance tire will tend to "dry out" after a number of years and lose some of its grip. One track day showed me that!


The GS-C's were developed specifically for the 92 and later Vette's but are no longer in production and have been replaced with the HP. I got a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE730's from the Tire Rack ($660) and love 'em!
Excellent tire for the money, good grip on the track and they seem to be a very good tire for low-speed A-X

[92TripleBlack]

That will teach you to buy Badyears. Or in your case Badyear. They were designed for our cars which means the tire tech is 15 years old. Get some new modern tires with real performance. Its kinda like someone in the 80's griping about their redlines on their '65 GTO not being as good as a GSC. BTW, they also have cell phones now that are smaller than a briefcase.
92TripleBlack :rolleyes:

[Mark Leiter]

Here’s an update:

When I went down to the Goodyear service center this weekend to have the car checked out, I found out that the alignment on the car was all out of whack. So it wasn’t the tires at all, but rather the crappy job of an alignment that was done to the car.

It just so happens that I had had a four-wheel alignment done by the same people that installed the tires. After some arm-twisting they agreed to replace both tires for $100 a piece with no installation charge plus correct the alignment free of charge as well. I think this is a fair settlement for both parties so I won’t name the company or bad mouth them here. Though I would have to be hard pressed before I would have work performed by them again.

I also should retract my derogatory comments I made towards Goodyear. In fact I should give special props to Rob at the Goodyear service station on S. John Young Parkway in Orlando. He was very professional and a fellow Corvette fanatic (he owns two himself).

In the end I’m glad things have worked out.

Mark

[No Go]

I was going to suggest that about the alignment...:)

I got over 50,000 miles out of both a set of Gatorbacks and GSC's each! Sold the car with second set of tires with 111,000 miles on it. And yes I hit the corners and visited the dragstrip. Lots of rotation and tire pressure checks is only thing I can think of.

Seems many comment on lack of grip on GSC/Gatorbacks (original type tires)-course they are all like 10-15 years old and it's not new knowledge that old tires don't grip as well as new ones do. Heck even BFG's Drag Radial-lose their grip after more than a year!

Good luck with the new tires.

[92TripleBlack]

New ones were the worst gripping tires I have tried from day one. I have also had Bridgestone RE-71 and the Michelins. Both gave me about a 10% increase in MPH around corners vs. NEW GSC and I could cruise with confidence in the wet at about 25 MPH faster than new GSC. Face it, when these were developed, CDs just came out, personal computers were TRS-80s, and Cell phones were briefcases with handsets. Technology has moved forward in tires as well. GSC means sucker in latin BTW.
On the flipside, I have nothing against the GY dealers. But I have had overcharge experiences with them. I ordered GY tires for a lease car because they were original equipment from Tirerack. They were $105 a piece, $125 shipped and installed. The GY guy wanted $220 for these and he also wants $450 for runflats. Ripoff.
92TripleBlack