jb_bgg

When I bought my car in early ’11 (‘09 CTS-V 6M sedan) it had a set of Hankook V12 Evo’s on OEM wheels that were nearly done. After picking up a set of 20” wheels I shopped around and came across Vredestein which is a very popular performance tire in Europe, here not so much. Quite a few of my peers from the Vette community (I used to have a C4) were running the Sessanta’s on their cars. They were happy with the performance and mileage and they were very reasonably priced compared to other options. Nearly bought a set then but couldn’t get my head around the tread design on the Sessanta, so I wound up doing another set of Hankook’s.

Those lasted about 17K miles and a few months ago I was looking again. Went back to Vred and found they came out with two additional models; the Vorti and in Monaco this year they released the Vorti R. The Vorti is a 320UTQG compound (similar to the Michelin PSS @ 300) and the Vorti R is a 160 UTQG compound tire. Both are Y speed rated (186MPH.) In comparison, Michelin PS2 is 220 UTQG, Bridgestone RE-11 and Hankook RS-3 at 180 UTQG. That together with the fact they had a 305/30/20 available in the Vorti R got my attention. Doing more research on these I found nothing but positive reviews from other high HP car forums, and found a Consumer Reports comparison rating them quite high. Tread pattern was changed to a more traditional look and learned the front and rears are slightly different to allow better water dispersion on wet roads which I thought was interesting and made sense. Pricing was very good so I bought a set of the Vorti’s R’s and ordered another set of matching rear wheels with what was supposed to be proper offset to accommodate the 305’s.

Mounted the fronts and drove them a couple hundred miles waiting for the rear wheels. I really liked the fronts re: feel, turn-in, ride quality, etc. Won’t bore with the details on the rears but in the end I was unable to accomplish my goal without buying another full set of wheels. Disappointed, I recently sold the Vorti R’s to another CTS-V owner with the proper wheels and offsets and I’m awaiting his feedback. His sedan is modified a bit more than mine so it will be a good test of their grip and performance. I’ve seen them mounted on his car and they look exactly as I’d expected; awesome.

In my case, I went with the previous version Vorti, 265 front on 9”, 295 rear on 10.5”. I’ve driven them for a few thousand miles now including a recent 1200 mile roundtrip college run from So CA to No CA. They’re a very smooth ride with no tramlining, quiet and comfortable, and while my car is not heavily modified (560WHP) the grip was significantly better than I expected for a 320UTQG tire. Night and day difference compared to the Hankooks’s which is the only comparison I can make first hand. 295’s look pretty damn good as well and although I’m still bummed the 305 Vorti R’s didn’t work this time for me I am very impressed and pleased with the Vorti’s.

For those looking or soon to be looking for tire options I’d encourage you to take a closer look at the Vredesteins. IMO from a performance and value perspective they’re as good and in some cases better than their competition, and their warranties are equivalent. While they may not be very well known here in North America currently, I found Apollo Tires (parent company) has been around since the early 70’s, generating billions in revenue. Safe bet their US presence will be growing significantly as the word spreads and you’ll be hearing a lot more about them soon.