hi,

i recently bought an unused, never mounted set of wet tyres.

180/550/13 hankook Ventus Z206

the compund is W50

the seller insists that he bought them new in 2013

now 2 hankook dealers told me that the compound W50 was from tyres around 6-10years go, followed by W51...and today´s tyres are named W5

this would mean the tyres i bought are old and useless. (also one of the hangkook guys told me that)

they dont feel very sticky on the surface and my durometer shows 65-70shore A...which would be way too hard, imo.


meanwhile i found a data-sheet of hangkooktyres usa from 2014 where the z206 is still listed with W50

http://www.hankooktireusa.com/Motor/Tech_2.aspx?pageNum=4&subNum=4&ChildNum=3

total confusion now!!!

anybody can bring some light into the dark?

[Edited on 5/3/15 by alfas]

There will normally be an oval on the sidewall of the tyre with a four digit number in that is the manufacturing date.

http://www.simplemotoring.co.uk/tyre-markings/#.VPhB-_msVbc

Only the web site is published in 2014, it does not include your later compounds so could just be historical information.

No reason to distrust the seller, he may however have been sold old stock the best you can do is soak in tyre softener and lump it if he will not refund.

racing tyres from hankook do NOT have any DOT markings indicating the age (by the way: is there any racing tyre with a DOT marking existing??)

the compound indicates more or less the age:

W50 was followed by W51 and the actual tyres would have W52, but it seems that hankook has now decided using only the first digit "5" -->W5

W=wet
5=medium
0, 1, 2 = evolution

W51 was sold in the past ~5 years...and W50 before....those are the definate infos of hangkook.

the seller told me that he bought the tyres from a dealer in xxxx

in xxx there arent any authorized dealers for hankook....so he might have bought from a recycling company which might have had the order to dispose of those tyres from hankook at a race event.

the reason i´m writing / asking here is:

i want to collect some data if the info i was given about the age (w50= minimum 6years) is correct or not.

if its correct i can sue the seller for refund.
being fussy: in his sales advert he was stating several times "new" tyres.

by law an item sold as "new", even unused, isnt new anymore after certain time.



[Edited on 5/3/15 by alfas]

Yeah sorry speed read the original post and read it as road tyres.

Have always found buying race tyres a bit of a gamble, unless you can be sure of compound etc. before purchase. Too many one offs for single use formulas and prototype tyres that may or may not work.

In the end I decided it was best just buying New Avons from the likes of BMTR because at least you knew what you were getting.

now the seller replied:

"if i would have had all the infos, given now by you, i would not have sold the tyres like this"

"but as i already lost some money from the original purchase i cannot refund you anything."

great!!!

Private seller ?

yep---private seller...but he is a chairman in a motorsorts club.

according to my lawyer this would break his kneck as he cannot hide under the cloak of clueless....

when i told him about those legal facts he took the tyres back and i got a refund.