Two pretty good sources have confirmed with us this evening that paperwork has begun the process to put Achilles Tires as a new tire supplier in the sport of Formula Drift. They are already currently the title sponsor of Formula Drift Asia and sponsor the American newcomer Adwitya Amandio “Dio.” So the rumor about him running Hankook Tires was a backup assuming Achilles didn’t make the deal to be a supplier in time and we are now told it is near complete. This means that Dio will be running his home tire Achilles for Las Vegas Motor Speedway Round 6. Will other people make a step into this new tire in the sport?
Interesting news!
cool!
With a 400 treadware rating I don’t think anyone would make the jump. Maybe if they were free….. Won’t be keeping up in FD with those rocks
I have achilles tires on my daily driver. Now I can move up the ProAm ranks and be an FD pro!
Wish Yokohama would come back.
I hope he runs black wheels
the specs on those tires dont look good at all, that cars gonna be slooooooow..
is it safe to say if someone runs these tires….it would be their achilles heel?
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!
^^lol had to be you to say it just too easy lol
ill take them! im used to spinning out on used crappy tires. these gotta be a bit better than that.
sign me up for FD Vegas!
Well, I am interested to see how the tire performs. 400 sounds really high, but you never know..
The variance in UTQG rating between manufacturers can be a bit more than what some of you are thinking. I’m not saying these are going to be the unicorn tire or anything, but they might not be as bad as you’re expecting. They’ll probably end up in XDC where privateers are more concerned about tire budgets and a trad off in performance vs. dollars is a little more reasonable.
I wish TOYO would come back, I’ve driven on several sets of their Proxes lineup, me and my subaru loved them.
It’ll be interesting to see what Achilles does and how they perform
@CobaltGriffin
Toyo is still in the series in the form of Nitto
Sumitomo/Goodyear/Dunlop is in the series as Falken
Michelin is in the series as BFG
Mickey Thompson is in the series as Cooper
I think Kenda is partly owned by Cooper but I’m not quite sure
I don’t see a point of a parent company running two of their own manufactures in the series. From a marketing point of view its a bit of a cluster f*ck. Another thing alot of folks don’t know is that alot of these Taiwanese/Chinese brand tires (Federal,cooper,kenda,wanli,nexen, and even cooper) are made in some of the same factories and share some of the same technical input.
I agree with Kamikaze, UTQG isn’t the best reference of a tires performance. Especially in drifting where the tire data isn’t that proven yet. Anyone who is sponsored is going to say the tire they are running is great. It would be cool for someone to pull the durometer out and do some third party testing in a drifting environment.
Blaze1,
Mickey Thompson isn’t selling any tires because of Cooper
Michellin isn’t selling any tires because of the Challenger
Toyo isn’t selling any tires due to Nitto
You post some odd stuff sometimes, but that is just stupid.
Mike Peters I’m not questioning how many units a company is selling due to drifting. But simply showing that they use different companies to target a different markets. What is the use having 2 companies owned by the same entity competing for the same demographic?
Don’t forget that all these companies are global, one can have a loss in the states and a gain in Asia. Still think I’m stupid, that’s alright. Just sharing my 2 cents in a business I work in on a day to day basis. Its a dog eat dog world, but it doesn’t take a genius to keep their pups from eating each other.
I like pie.
I’m pretty sure most companies like pie.
Drifting doesn’t really get any pie.
Toyo, Michelin, and everyone else who doesn’t participate knows there is much more pie elsewhere.
I agree Mike Peters
And heres a bit of food for though
Yokohama gone after 2 championships Hubinette (04) and Millen (05)
Toyo gone after 2 Championships with Foust (07,08)
Maxxis gone after 1 Championship with Forsberg (09)
Bridgestone had a few good seasons with Millen and one with Yoshihara and they are gone too
Who’s next…. my guess will be BFG. That would be 4 major competitive tire companies that had given up on drifting.
MAXXIS Still runs in Europe and Aus/NZ
Yokohama runs every market except US
Toyo is same
Bridgestone is same.
American buyers just suck, and running a motorsports program in America, where gas is cheap, and one trip from Long Beach to Atlanta and back is more miles than would be traveled in 1 whole season and then some elsewhere.
Its just expensive. FD is doing a good job trying to organize a nice swing of things isntead of back/forth.
maxis left because there motor sports department head left to go work for toyo. they are still developing a new drift only compound and if they ever get there office in order you may see it here in the states. but for now there done with fd.
other tire companys have left 1 bacause most people who follow the sport have no money for new tires and slide on used crap tires. 2 fd’s stipulations for tire companys in regards to the sport are entirely to dificult to deal with.
remember dunlop yeah they used to deal with fd and imho make one of the best tires on the market, run off by formula drift it self. not the drivers or tire sales but by the very thing they tried to support.
rather than looking at the company and who owns who which is a terible way to look at it think about the corporation that is formula drift and then realize just how hard it is to deal with them..
every company wants each of there brands to be the best and they are all ran as a seperate entity with there own infostructure. your a moron for thinking that a parent company would not want its other brands to be in the same market as them. look at d1 last season good year and dunlop went head to head.
never the less the more tire options hooking up drivers in the sport the better the prices are going to have to be that are offered to privateers being that there is more competition to put there name on the side of more cars.
think asbo and falken (he paid for his tires last year and was hooked up no is running with free falkens)think he would still be with them if they didnt work out a sweet deal..
the achilles123 is what I would say they will be using. it’s a 200 treadwear 265/35/18, but the compound is actually really sticky and great sidewall, still DOT compliant. lots of guys here in NZ and aus run them. Curt Whittaker just won the drift challenge at WTAC on them, so they must be fairly decent.
hey drew me and dan over at parts shop max were just talkin abuot that… that 123 tire makes a piss ton of smoke too.. should be better than the cooper tires and so on…