having been running the above on the tin top for a couple of weeks now i thought i would just summarise my thoughts.

I'm comparing them to my "cheapest you've got" cooper tyres i had on there before

In the dry they are very good and grippy.

As soon as theres any moisture about they are actually quite a lot worse than the old cheapo tyres.

Would others agree with that?

Never had trouble with them in the wet on my Fury

Definitely get less grippy with age, though...

I have been running them them for around 2 years now on my Golf.
They're pretty much a standard road tyre in my experience through that time.
Fair in all weathers, not fantastic in any conditions particularly. As above, as they age they get a bit worse, then you stick on some new ones and the car feels great again.

I had a set on my locost, my experience is pretty much the same as Liam's, i.e. acceptable grip in the dry, but substandard in the wet, very prone to locking up under braking.

Tyre opinions are always a bit subjective though, with lots of variables to muddy the waters, but suffice to say that changing to R888's has probably reduced my wet braking distance by something like 30%.....

[Edited on 2/1/09 by GeoffT]

aren't R888's supposed to really bad in the wet??

i found mine to be superb at donnington when it chucked it down all morning only span once and that was driver error

should have said the 888 were superb only had yokos on tin top many years ago they were ok

[Edited on 2/1/09 by bob tatt]

Got them on the tin-tops and the '7'.......(but not the VXT), brilliant tyre, not had any problems at all.

However, rumour has it (only a rumour mind), they are going to 'retire' the 539's ...

FWIW, for the price, I think they are a good 'all rounder'.......

Fozzie

ive got a set on my kitten and in the wet they arent bad and seem to let go in a predictable way but il be changing them once the weather picks up

Always used them on my 205 GTIs and found them to be very good all round tyres. Now have them on the front of the Indy and again find them to be good.

Excellent value too.

i agree with ok in Dry but not een worfth taking the car out if slightly wet, not worth the risk.

Funny thing was i was discussing this witha mate a while back, 10 mins later in the wet he slid into a curb, lol.

The thing about 539's is that they are an all round tyre.....Therefore, the compound is much harder than some. The upside is they last longer than some of the more popular tyre, the downside is that they take forever to 'warm' up......perhaps (and only a suggestion) those that experience trouble in the wet, are running their tyre pressures slightly too high?

Fozzie

Hi

The A539 has been replaced by the C-DRIVE range. There are obviously many still in circulation though. The trouble is that the C-drive is not as good as the A539 when the Stock hatch racers tried them in comparison to the A539.

The A539 is as said a very good all rounder but slightly on the harder side of ideal. You will get differing opinions on the tyres due to many people running them at inappropriate pressures. You would be very very surprised to find out what really makes them work on light kit cars. The other trouble with them is that the tread blocks are not that well supported ( Mind it's the same with many treaded tyres ) This results in far better performance if you take a brand new tyre and have it buffed straight down to 4-5 mm before using. This gives the tread blocks less chance to move and distort during cornering wich gives much sharper control during cornering.
Life span is around 18 months before they start to give a noticeable difference in performance. Check the date stamp moulded on the tyre wall for age.

General performance in the wet is quite good they do an efficient job at clearing the water preventing aqua planning in most conditions.The suprising thing it though that if it was monsoon conditions on a track and i was going out for a race i personally would prefer the O48's.
Getting heat in to them is not really a problem on the rear due to most of the cars being RWD but to get the heat in to the fronts you have to push through the initial under steer to get the fronts up to some sort of temp. This is going to be a lot harder to do on the public roads as apposed to the track. Which means that many road cars will have an imbalance with temps front and rear when on the road. On track they are good from cold and take 1-2 laps to bring up to a good temp But again personally i have no issues with going into first lap first corners on them cold. But as with all tyres running them at pressures that are suitable is critical which MOST people DO NOT on these types of cars. Do not be afraid to experiment with higher pressures than the usual 16 - 20 PSI that most use.

Cheers Matt