BFGoodrich g-Force Phenom TA Tire Review: High-Performance Grip

It’s amazing what a new set of tires will do for your car or truck. As rubber ages, it can harden, changing a vehicle’s handling characteristics for the worse. As mileage climbs ever higher, tread blocks wear down, which can lead to increased noise and longer stopping distances, neither of which is good. Old rubber can also impact ride quality, degrading it noticeably compared to fresh tires. The factory rubber installed on my 2017 Ford Mustang EcoBoost Fastback was far from worn out, the odometer registers just 25,000 miles, but a fresh set of BFGoodrich’s new g-Force Phenom T/A tires completely changed the car’s character, a difference that is as noticeable as it is impactful.

Performance and Style in One Sleek Package

The g-Force Phenom T/A is an ultra-high-performance summer tire that’s aimed squarely at car enthusiasts who appreciate performance and aesthetics. These rollers promise ample grip in both wet and dry conditions, plus they offer stand-out looks thanks to their minimalist sidewalls and pronounced outer tread blocks that look aggressive enough to work on a dedicated racecar.

Slotting between BFGoodrich’s g-Force COMP-2 A/S PLUS high-performance all-season tire and the g-Force Rival S, which provides extreme ultra-high performance, these tires were engineered for enthusiast vehicles, models like the Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger, hopped-up Honda Civics, Nissan’s various Z models, the Volkswagen GTI and Golf R, the Subaru BRZ and yes, even my EcoBoost Fastback.

Sure, I wish I had bought a Mustang GT—in fact, I nearly grabbed a low-mileage used model—but my endemic pragmatism steered me toward a new model with the turbo-four. I adore Ford’s 5.0-liter Coyote V8, which sounds amazing and pulls practically like an Italian exotic, but the EcoBoost’s superior fuel economy, lower insurance costs and generous midrange torque, especially with the six-speed manual transmission, are still enough to keep things interesting and give these g-Force Phenom T/A tires a good thrashing.

It’s worth reiterating that these are summer tires designed to deliver excellent handling and braking performance in warmer weather. If you plan on driving your car 12 months out of the year and live in an area that gets snow and ice (or even just experiences low temperatures), you’re going to need a separate set of, ideally, winter tires. Do not run these during a blizzard or in freezing rain. You’ve been warned.

A Huge Upgrade That is Immediately Noticeable

After getting this fresh rubber mounted to my car’s stock 19-inch wheels, I swapped out my winter rims and tires, tucking them back in the garage attic. After that, I hit the road, and the difference was immediately noticeable, and not just between the g-Force Phenom T/A’s and my winters.

My Mustang came with a set of ostensibly performance-oriented all-season tires. They looked decent enough, but I never liked these things at all. From day one, the rubber seemed almost stone-like in its hardness, and the tread blocks were decidedly pedestrian, with a fairly open pattern.

While switching to this new set of BFGoodrich g-Force Phenom T/A tires didn’t make a night-and-day difference, my car’s dynamics were still markedly better, like, significantly improved. In fact, the very first thing I noticed after swapping to these tires was the crispness of the steering. I didn’t even make it down the driveway before I was able to home in on this improvement. These tires dramatically improved the feel through the wheel; my car is much more energetic. The steering is now eager and engaging in a way it never was before. It almost feels like the actual steering ratio has been changed, that’s how noticeable the difference is.

Throw the car into a corner, and the front end feels incredibly planted, like there’s a huge reserve of grip just waiting to be exploited. The wheel is also more communicative in turns, transmitting far more information about the road surface— and how much traction you have—than the old tires ever did. Color me impressed.

Another noticeable change these BFGoodrice tires made to my Mustang’s dynamics is the ride quality. As the base model, my car is not particularly stiff – a great thing in my book – but these tires really tightened things up. The ride is by no means harsh, but it is noticeably starchier, a good thing for roadholding and steering feel alike.

High-performance tires tend to be nosier than more pedestrian rubber, but that’s not the case here. I have not noticed any difference in cabin ruckus since switching to these BFGoodrich tires.

Technical Details

Delivering this enhanced performance requires plenty of clever engineering. For starters, the g-Force Phenom T/A tires are designed with two different tread patterns as well as offset shoulder grooves for better cornering stability, and perhaps even more importantly, enhanced at-the-limit feedback. Sensing how much grip you have when really putting your vehicle through its paces is critical and can mean the difference between having an epic day on track or in the canyons and an expensive insurance claim, or worse, a trip to the hospital.

There’s a wider, blockier tread section to the outside for enhanced grip and curb appeal, and then there’s the inner portion with additional sipes (the grooves in a tire) and a more traditional appearance. As these tires wear over time, BFGoodrich claims they maintain consistent performance, so there’s no need to worry about sloppy handling or poor braking after running a set of g-Force Phenom T/A tires for a few years.

Special sidewall inserts improve the stiffness of these tires for “immediate turning response,” which I, appropriately, noticed almost instantly. Those starchier sidewalls almost certainly contribute to the firmer ride quality as well.

Together, these different tread patterns are designed to provide better water evacuation for enhanced traction in less-than-ideal conditions. Helping cut through liquid, these tires incorporate a silica-infused compound that, according to BFGoodrich, enables the g-Force Phenom T/A to deliver shorter wet braking distances than the comparable Yokohama ADVAN Apex V601 as well as other competing models.

Checkin’ the specs, these tires have a treadwear rating of 380 and both traction and temperature scores of A. This means the g-Force Phenom T/A is made of fairly soft rubber, which provides that impressive grip at the expense of some tread life. Those traction and temperature scores are also exemplary, underscoring this tire’s ultra-high-performance capabilities and high top speed, which is ideal for enthusiast vehicles.

Whether you drive a Toyota GR86 or a Mazdaspeed 3, a Lexus IS or yes, even a humble EcoBoost Mustang, there’s a good chance BFGoodrich offers a tire to fit your ride. Initially landing on the market in early 2025, the g-Force Phenom T/A should currently be available in a whopping 50 different sizes for wheels running from 16 inches in diameter all the way up to 20. Falling at the larger end of this spectrum, my car has 255/50 R19s.

The BFGoodrich g-Force Phenom T/A tire delivers excellent on-road performance and enhanced steering feel compared to other offerings, all with very few tradeoffs in noise or ride quality. Another significant advantage to this tire is pricing. Perusing TireRack.com, it looks like the 255/40 R19 size goes for around $250 before taxes or other fees, less than many other high-performance summer and all-season tires from competing name-brand manufacturers. That is a more than fair price for all the impressive performance these handsome tires offer.

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