A performance tire that is also all-season sounds a bit odd, if not fake.
When it comes to tires, all-season tires can be a smart way to go, assuming you live in a climate where the temperature extremes are not all that extreme. If you live where the sun shines and the roads are not in disrepair – and you have a performance kind of car – performance (think race track) tires make sense for your vehicle. Thusly, a car that is both all-season and performance is not really the norm, though for me, the VW Golf GTI comes to mind. Thusly again, if you yearn for such a combo meal, be sure to get a tire that can handle it all, and the Firestone Firehawk AS (All-Season) performance tire is one to consider.
Simply put, modern technology has eliminated some of the obvious limitations of yesteryear. Performance tires are meant to be lightweight and agile but gripping and solid. All-season tires are meant to be gripping and solid but tough and sturdy. Like getting your peanut butter mixed with your chocolate, this magical combination can now be had in a tire.
Former competition racer and current tire diva Darlene Gray was my guide on this butch / beauty racing tour. She tried to explain to me how Firehawk tires are asymmetrical, meaning that the outer tread design is different than the inner tread. Being the beauty and the brain that she is, she then said something about a Wide Oval, and I then started thinking of Breakfast at Tiffany’s ..…. and that’s all I remember because at that point, it was, just like high school Latin class (do kids take that anymore?) all lost on me, until we got on the track.
Basically, I was able to do some pretty stupid driving on wet pavement and amongst many obstacles and the vehicle handled it all like a champ. Yeah, sure, it was on a track, but the online reviews of the Firehawk, which is also available as an Indy 500 ultra-performance tire, support the notion that this tire does cut the mustard and spice-up your hot dog racing.
I also got to see some of the promotional videos / commercials that Firestone (a division of Bridgestone) will use for their 2016 lineup. Two videos feature a throaty / grovel-y man’s voice speaking in a bit of a country twang and sounding like he’s smoked two packs a day for the last 30 years. The music is country rock. I won’t say this ad is aimed at Donald Trump’s “I love the poorly-educated” voters….. Another ad has more color, more graphics and features a ‘softer’ geeky hipster man’s voice. Well, I am assuming that both these voices are male, though I could be wrong….. Click here for more about the Firehawk, which kinda sounds like the name of the hot new neighborhood leather bar, doncha think?
When she’s not a traveling tire diva, Darlene is a caregiver for former Indy 500 racer Jon Paul Jr., who is battling Huntington’s Disease, a cruel genetic neurological disorder similar to (but more harsh than) Parkinson’s. I don’t know how she does it, and having actually dated a man with Huntington’s, I know how much of a struggle every day can be. The last thing Darlene would want, however, is pity, but she would like you learn more about Huntington’s Disease, so click here to learn more.
Big Gay Postscript: In the movie and book Valley of the Dolls, one of the male characters is also afflicted with Huntington’s Disease, though author Jacqueline Susann incorrectly writes that it skips a generation, since unfortunately, if the parents have it, the children will likely contract it in adulthood as well.