Firestone  Firehawk Indy 500

This review is for the Firestone FireHawk Indy 500 tire. These tires are perfect for a summer high performance driver. Great general handling, excellent rain handling - no hydroplane, and performance in corners as well as quiet. The tire is soft but wears well. Exactly what I wanted out of a high performance tire, quiet, excellent dry and wet handling tire. Definitely will purchase again and recommend these tires.

I consciously choose this tire for the 340 UTQG treadwear rating because I wanted a sticky tire for daily driving due to the high HP of my modified turbo FWD car. They are super quiet on the road, I really like to look and style of the tread design and it has excellent traction, handling, and performance on dry and wet road conditions all through the tires' tread life. It was not until I was at 3/32 of tread depth when I started to notice hydroplaning over ponding water on wet roads. I knew in advance that this tire would not last very long (as far as miles) because of the 340 treadwear and my "spirited" driving style. If your looking for a long lasting tire by miles, ANY low treadwear tire is not for you, but with higher treadwear tires (like a 600 or 700 which usually = 60k-70k in miles) the rubber compound is harder, and traction will suffer as a result.

I bought my first set of these tires 7/19 from Firestone, and I just bought my 2nd set of these 08/23 here at Tire Rack, so they lasted 4 years but only 25,368 miles. I drive daily, but don't put on a lot of miles, so for me, 4 years of life is satisfactory for the traction advantage this tire gives.

Warning: Simply put, this tire is Unsafe and Dangerous to drive on roads with even a light dusting of snow, and you may not even be able to get out of your driveway with ice on the road (you don't want to anyway). This is a Ultra-High Summer Performance category tire and is NOT designed in ANY WAY to be driven on snow/ice. I have a different 4x4 vehicle to drive in the winter. If you don't have that option, and you live in a place where you may need to drive these tires on snow/ice, you better have a 2nd set of wheels with all-season or snow tires to put on for winter time.

My first impression is that it was surprisingly comfortable! My Hankook winters are 225/45/17 and these Firestones are 245/35/19 (basically a 16mm/0.6 inch decrease on the sidewall) and the ride comfort is barely noticeable. The steering is light and very little feedback but I heard I just have to break them in and the response is very responsive! Handles greatly on the wet too! I feel confident going fast on a circular onramp even on a hard, rainy day.

These do not work in the snow, i know this is not the intended use, but if you happen to get stuck in a snowy situation you wont be going anywhere. On wet or dry however these tires are fantastic, and the breakaway feel in the dry is fantastic and truly talks to you through the steering wheel and butt-feel. Great tire for a daily that you want to drive aggressively and have that track-ready feel. Will buy these for all of my cars in the future for daily use.

So I have owned many different cars and had most of the top line tires for dry traction. Most recently Michelin PSS for the last 5 years. I needed a new set and price has become an issue. So I started looking at all the new tires as I always do. I found these were excellent dry summer tires , which with tread ware is what I am interested in living in California. Also at $127 a piece, which is almost half price. We shall see about tread ware. I drive extremely hard on the street and these things are amazing. I am experiencing as good or better traction and response and turn in as the PSS. Extremely happy so far. Heavy car awd . Would definitely recommend and buy again. Will update with more miles and rain conditions. Enjoy

These tires are awesome! Dry traction is great! They do pick up every loose Tarmac pebbles
On the road but that's because they're very sticky which is fine for me. Which means shorter intervals in between tire rotations to get the most mileage out of these UHP tires. The reason why I went with these on my vehicle was for the capabilities in wet conditions. I live in Hawaii on the island that rains a lot. We just went through Hurricane Val that dropped about 17" of rain in 24 hours. Though it downgraded to tropical storm 4, the roads did "river" up pretty quickly. The Firestone did very well during this weather and I am very impressed! I felt confident in this wet, wet weather especially with my spirited driving. I'll do another review, if possible, at my 3k tire rotation...

These Firestones replaced a set of Yokahama run-flats which were close enough to worn that I could justify getting rid of them. The Yokos pounded all the passengers over every roughness in the road, and were moderately noisy. The Firestones have a much smoother ride, and transmit much less impact to the interior when going over railroad tracks (we have a lot of them) and bumps. Fortunately, the Firestones are much, much quieter. On smooth pavement they're among the quietest tires I have driven, and on rough pavement they're no more than average noisy.

The car is a 2008 BMW 328ix Wagon with the sport wheel package and six-speed manual transmission. My driving style is spirited at all times. Roundabouts are chance to practice apexing and weight transfer, and every twisty road sign makes my eyes light up. Freeway exit ramps are a great chance to practice apexes and traction limits. The tires are quite responsive to steering input and have great corner grip. Fun is all in the corners!

With that said, the Firestones have behaved extremely well in the first 3500 miles. Right after having them installed, my wife and I drove a 2200 mile trip through two sets of mountains and plenty of freeway mileage. The Firestones were quiet, had a wonderful smooth ride (not Cadillac smooth, but as nice as you'll get from a BMW 3-series with sport suspension) and were great fun on the twisties in the mountains. We also drove through one summer deluge of rain and hail which we thought might damage the car, but the tires never slipped or hydroplaned. I was very impressed with the resistance to hydroplaning under extreme rain conditions.

Overall, in the first 3500 miles the Firestones are among the best decisions I've ever made in tires, and I have been driving since the 60's. I find them quiet, capable and responsive, and an absolute "best buy" for the 3-series and similar vehicles. I have snow tires on a second set of wheels, so I just change wheels for winter.

Great tire! Previous tires were Michelin pss OEM tires and these are much quieter and ride comfort is much improved. Grip is fantastic, I have 640rwhp on my supercharged corvette and these tires grip. Much better grip in low temperatures compared to the Michelin tires. Driving in wet conditions are also greatly improved over the Michelin tires. Only downside is speed rating, but honestly I would never see over 150 mph anyhow.

After not being able to find rear Direzza Z3s for my staggered fitment, I opted to get 4 of these. I was immediately impressed with the comfort of these tires. Especially after coming from 200tw tires. These are 340tw. I don’t have power steering so turning while stopped was a task. These are great on the road and are quiet, but got warm quick during autocross. Great as a summer tire. I plan on using these for every day driving and getting a different set for autocross.

One of the best tires I’ve bought from Tirerack over the past 35+ years. Great handling, good in the rain, quiet and after 8000 plus miles hardly any wear. On top of that a great value. Very pleased.

Excellent value, stands up to ANY tire, with the possible exception of the Pilot. I admittedly pushed the total mileage too far, and hydroplaned today, 4 complete spins of the roadster from 70 mph, across the median of the 4 lane, into the oncoming lanes before I got her stopped. New Firehawks in the morning! An impressive 20,000 miles on this set should have been replaced at no more than 18. I credit the tires, the car, and more than my fair share of good fortune to be here to buy another set in the morning! Absolutely Firestone's best tire.

I took the reviews on these tires and kept them in mind and everything from traction wet/dry and tire wear was true. I've had zero issues with the tires . I mostly 75% highway driving commuting about 90 miles a day work and home. Tires held up well. Wear was good even with my -2.3 front and-2.5 camber rear . I will hit 25000 mark before I replace them with another set indy 500 fire hawks. Best performances and price in its category of tires.