Knoxville, Tennessee, isn’t the type of place you count on to start out a street journey with ghosts. However that’s precisely the place Firestone dropped me: the Oliver Resort, a historic brick constructing with greater than a century of tales packed between its creaking floorboards. Supposedly haunted.
I can affirm–stuff saved falling off the cabinets in my room all night time–which meant I rolled out to the Civic the following morning bleary-eyed and already working on unhealthy espresso as a substitute of sleep. Not the type of relaxation you need earlier than pointing a loaner from the press fleet on the Tail of the Dragon, however hey, what’s a street journey with out a little chaos on the begin?
A brand-new, manual-transmission 2025 Honda Civic Si sat ready out entrance, parked and shod with Firestone’s newest Firehawk Indy 500 summer time efficiency tires. The plan: Go away Knoxville, snake down legendary ribbons of Tennessee tarmac just like the Dragon and the Cherohala Skyway, cease for fried meals in a city known as Sweetwater (in fact), and end in Nashville simply in time for the IndyCar race. Firestone’s pitch was easy: Drive exhausting, reside more durable, and let the tires show themselves.
Meet the Automobile (and the Footwear)
In case you’ve ever owned–or needed to personal–a Civic Si, you already know the drill. The 2025 mannequin is Honda’s newest tackle the attainable sport compact: six-speed guide solely (reward be), turbocharged 1.5-liter 4 making 200 horses, and sufficient chassis polish to make you consider Honda engineers secretly moonlight as autocrossers.
It’s not a race automotive, nevertheless it’s the type of automotive that dares you to maintain pushing–like a buddy who retains saying “yet one more beer” till abruptly it’s 3 a.m. and also you’re nonetheless on the kart monitor.
Wrapped across the Civic’s 18-inch wheels have been Firestone’s new Firehawk Indy 500s. In case you’ve been round sport compacts, you’ve most likely seen the title earlier than. The outgoing model constructed a repute as probably the greatest budget-friendly summer time tires available on the market: sticky, predictable and simply aggressive sufficient for monitor days. Treadwear continues to be listed at 340.
[Tire test: Firestone Firehawk Indy 500]
{Photograph} courtesy Firestone
Firestone’s engineers advised us the redesign sharpened that method:
• New tread compound: Stickier rubber designed to grip more durable in each dry and moist.
• Wider shoulder blocks: Extra rubber on the street while you lean on the skin edge mid-corner.
• Stiffer sidewalls: Faster steering response and fewer squirm when the load builds.
• Improved water evacuation channels: To struggle hydroplaning in summer time storms.
Paper specs are high quality, however I deliberate to check them the one method that issues, by throwing a press-loaned Si at among the gnarliest roads in America and seeing if the tires begged for mercy.
The First 45 Minutes
There’s a sure power while you pull out of a lodge car parking zone on a press journey. You’re in a convoy of shiny, new automobiles, everybody jockeying for place, no person eager to appear to be the primary to stall a guide transmission.
Knoxville visitors barely gave us time to breathe earlier than the route veered towards 129 Hub, the enduring motorcycle-and-car outpost on the entrance to Tail of the Dragon. The Civic felt gentle on its ft, wanting to play, the shifter slotting into gear with that metallic snick that’s pure Honda.
[Tail of the Dragon: 5 alternatives that rival the renowned road]
After which blue lights.
{Photograph} by James Wooden
Forty-five minutes into the journey. Proper after the Hub. I swear I wasn’t doing something insane–simply having fun with the stream of the street, third gear singing, tires buzzing fortunately throughout excellent Tennessee pavement.
However there he was: native regulation enforcement, and me with each arms sweating on the wheel.
Right here’s the miracle: The cop was a automotive man. The sort who spends his days patrolling the Dragon, pulling over squids on bikes and vacationers who assume double-yellow means “elective.”
He talked about how wild this street will get, how many individuals underestimate it, and the way he’s principally seen all of it out right here. After which he handed me what needs to be the largest written warning within the historical past of dashing warnings: a full-size sheet of paper, like one thing you’d tack to a bulletin board. I folded it thrice and nonetheless couldn’t get it into my pocket. Largest warning, smallest mercy.
Truthfully? After an evening of poltergeist interruptions and 0 actual sleep, I most likely regarded responsible earlier than I even touched the throttle. However due to that chill officer, I left with my report intact and a narrative too bizarre to make up.
Tail of the Dragon: 318 Curves, Zero Excuses
You’ve learn concerning the Dragon. Possibly you’ve watched shaky GoPro footage of bikes scraping pegs. However nothing prepares you for the sensory overload: the cover of timber closing in overhead, the fixed rhythm of brake-throttle-shift, the odor of cooked pads hanging within the air like barbecue smoke.
{Photograph} courtesy Firestone
That is the place the Civic and the Firehawks got here alive. The Si’s steering–electrical however surprisingly communicative–danced with the Indy 500s, each curve an invite to lean a bit of more durable.
Flip-in felt quick, just like the tires have been already occupied with the following nook earlier than I used to be. Mid-corner grip? Planted. The Firehawks provided that excellent mix of stick and slip–you can really feel the sting, tease it, and again off with out drama.
{Photograph} courtesy Firestone
Right here’s the place the brand new tech mattered: the stiffer sidewalls translated to much less delay between steering enter and tire response. On the outdated Indy 500s, you’d generally really feel a touch of squirm while you actually leaned on them.
Right here, it was like flicking a change–the automotive adopted immediately. The broader shoulders meant extra rubber dug in as cornering hundreds piled on, which gave me confidence to brake later and carry extra velocity. And even after a stable stretch of corners, warmth buildup didn’t flip them greasy. Consistency is the secret, and these tires delivered it curve after curve.
The Dragon has a method of exposing weak hyperlinks. Tires get greasy, brakes wilt, suspensions begin begging for mercy. However lap after lap, the Firehawks simply took the punishment.
Sweetwater, The Lazy Beagle, and the Skyway
After surviving the Dragon with out a second blue-light intervention, our pack rolled into Sweetwater, Tennessee, a small city with vintage outlets, brick sidewalks and a restaurant known as The Lazy Beagle. Image wood-paneled partitions, waitresses who name you “honey,” and sandwiches as large because the steering wheel I’d simply been gripping. Southern street journeys demand fried meals, and Sweetwater delivered.
{Photograph} by James Wooden
From there, the Cherohala Skyway stretched out like a reward for surviving the Dragon. The place 129 is tight and twitchy, the Skyway is large and sweeping–mountain vistas, lengthy sightlines, curves that beg for fourth gear and a gradual throttle.
This was the Civic’s glad place: turbo buzzing, chassis relaxed, Firehawks rolling simply with out tramlining or getting noisy. Freeway cruising could be the place summer time tires disintegrate–drone, harshness, wandering–however the Indy 500s shocked me with their composure: snug, quiet sufficient, but able to chunk the second one other nook appeared.
And right here’s the kicker: In moist patches (due to course mountain climate can’t make up its thoughts), the Firehawks saved their cool. These deeper circumferential grooves truly did their job, channeling water out as a substitute of letting the automotive skate throughout it. Summer season tires and rain don’t at all times get alongside, however these felt sorted.
Someplace on the market, within the silence between mountain peaks, I lastly realized I wasn’t drained anymore. Lack of sleep, ghost paranoia, even the warning slip–all of them light. There’s one thing a couple of well-balanced automotive on the fitting set of tires that snaps you awake higher than any cup of lodge espresso.
Rolling Into Nashville
By the point we hit Nashville, the automobiles have been dusty, our group was bonded by miles and warnings, and I used to be satisfied of two issues: The Civic Si nonetheless represents one of many purest types of driving pleasure you should buy for beneath 35 grand, and Firestone’s newest Firehawk Indy 500 is the actual deal.
[Tire test: Firestone Firehawk Indy 500]
{Photograph} by James Wooden
On the Music Metropolis Grand Prix in Nashville, surrounded by IndyCars screaming previous grandstands, Firestone’s presence made sense. It’s not only a tire firm, it’s a part of American motorsport DNA. And but right here it’s, constructing a tire that your common fanatic can bolt onto a every day driver and really feel like they’re a part of that very same lineage.
Ultimate Ideas (and That Warning)
The 2025 Civic Si isn’t about brute drive. It’s about steadiness, really feel and wringing pleasure out of each shift. Pair it with the Firehawk Indy 500, and also you get a automotive that makes mountain passes really feel like race tracks and race tracks really feel inside attain.
The tires aren’t simply good “for the cash.” They’re good interval. Responsive, confidence-inspiring and sturdy sufficient to take a pounding throughout among the hardest-driving roads within the nation.
{Photograph} courtesy Firestone
As for me? I’ll at all times bear in mind this journey, not only for the roads or the tires, however for that second of flashing lights, a full-page warning slip, and an evening in a haunted lodge the place cabinets rearranged themselves simply to maintain me awake. A ghost lodge, a haunted freeway, and Firehawks that refused to fade–all of it added as much as one hell of a narrative.
And if the Oliver Resort ghosts adopted me again dwelling, nicely, a minimum of they’ll know I used to be rolling on good rubber.
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