Recommended tire ? With a twist

[deschodt]

What tire would you recommend, knowing that I enjoy the occasional track outing (6x year), I have to drive in occasional FL downpours but it's never cold, and I hate, loathe, despise my current Pirellis...

The car is a 2003 on 18" (225 and 285) The P-zeros on the car are noisy, bouncy, take flat spots after sitting 1 day, I hate them with every fiber of my being like I've never hated tires before ;-) I know it's the tires because I had a boxster on 18s" before and it was nowhere near that bad !

With that in mind... I've had the Michelin PS2 on my previous car, they were OK in terms of wear but I found they went away quite fast on the track in terms of grip. I'm looking at :

-Bridgestone Re050A ($986 + shipping at tire rack), the S03 replacement I guess?

-Conti sport contact 2 ($870 + shipping) : my cousin works for continental, he says those are much better now, but I had a set of V1.0 and they sucked so I am not sure I trust V2.0

-Michelin PS rib $1120 + shipping...

****, where are the Kuhmos in my car's size ? nowhere, it seems, unfortunately !

Any other recommendation? I don't mind if they wear fast, I just want dry and wet grip, less noise, less harshness... Opinions ? I know it's subjective but it's not like you can try them for "feel" ;-)

[PAULSPEED]

Hi,

Try yokohamas. These tires run good with less air when

you are driving on the track. The only drawback is

the fronts wear out fater then the rears.

Paul

[WARDHOG]

What tire would you recommend, knowing that I enjoy the occasional track outing (6x year), I have to drive in occasional FL downpours but it's never cold, and I hate, loathe, despise my current Pirellis...

The car is a 2003 on 18" (225 and 285) The P-zeros on the car are noisy, bouncy, take flat spots after sitting 1 day, I hate them with every fiber of my being like I've never hated tires before ;-) I know it's the tires because I had a boxster on 18s" before and it was nowhere near that bad !

With that in mind... I've had the Michelin PS2 on my previous car, they were OK in terms of wear but I found they went away quite fast on the track in terms of grip. I'm looking at :

-Bridgestone Re050A ($986 + shipping at tire rack), the S03 replacement I guess?

-Conti sport contact 2 ($870 + shipping) : my cousin works for continental, he says those are much better now, but I had a set of V1.0 and they sucked so I am not sure I trust V2.0

-Michelin PS rib $1120 + shipping...

****, where are the Kuhmos in my car's size ? nowhere, it seems, unfortunately !

Any other recommendation? I don't mind if they wear fast, I just want dry and wet grip, less noise, less harshness... Opinions ? I know it's subjective but it's not like you can try them for "feel" ;-)

I currently have the Bridgestone Re050A on my C4S and are the best I have ever put on my Porsche. A friend who is a tire service tech for GY did some calculating and promised these are the best for my car and driving. He was right and these are the best I've had. Second was Yokohama AVS Sports and the absolute worse tire is Kumho I only had on for about 2k miles. I hated the Perilliies because of wear and noise issues but handled alright. What ever you do, don't go the Kumho route because it will cost you again and you will hate them and feel unsafe riding with them.

Edited August 30, 2007 by WARDHOG

[RF5BPilot]

I don't mean to change the subject, but what kind of calculations can you do to select a tire?

(I'm not arguing, I simply have never heard of any formulas or numeric approaches to tire selection.)

[jmj996]

What tire would you recommend, knowing that I enjoy the occasional track outing (6x year), I have to drive in occasional FL downpours but it's never cold, and I hate, loathe, despise my current Pirellis...

The car is a 2003 on 18" (225 and 285) The P-zeros on the car are noisy, bouncy, take flat spots after sitting 1 day, I hate them with every fiber of my being like I've never hated tires before ;-) I know it's the tires because I had a boxster on 18s" before and it was nowhere near that bad !

With that in mind... I've had the Michelin PS2 on my previous car, they were OK in terms of wear but I found they went away quite fast on the track in terms of grip. I'm looking at :

-Bridgestone Re050A ($986 + shipping at tire rack), the S03 replacement I guess?

-Conti sport contact 2 ($870 + shipping) : my cousin works for continental, he says those are much better now, but I had a set of V1.0 and they sucked so I am not sure I trust V2.0

-Michelin PS rib $1120 + shipping...

****, where are the Kuhmos in my car's size ? nowhere, it seems, unfortunately !

Any other recommendation? I don't mind if they wear fast, I just want dry and wet grip, less noise, less harshness... Opinions ? I know it's subjective but it's not like you can try them for "feel" ;-)

Tire design and selection are all about compromise, and you definitely have a difficult set of opposing constraints. If you don't mind a soft shoulder, try the Goodyear F1 GS-D3's. I originally selected these because we lived in a very wet climate and I wanted the best wet-weather traction I could get. I haven't used anything else since, except for a set of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires that I have on my track wheels. I've run the F1 tires on both our Boxster and now our 996, and love everything about them except the soft shoulder. I've only taken them through one DE event, and they were very good, but not great (I rode along with a few others that seemed to have a little more grip, though their tires were not rated well for wet weather). They are an 'ultra-performance' summer tire and have an excellent 'feel' with gradually more give when pushing their limits, but their strongest suit is wet-weather traction and anti-hydroplaning. All of my F1's have been extremely quiet - I also went from Pirelli's to the F1's on our Boxster and from Ventus (on the car when I bought it) to F1's on the 996, and the F1's were much quieter, but noticeably not as sharp with the steering wheel. These tires are incredibly 'mushy' until you get about 250 miles in them (or several good heat cycles), then they're great.

[jaycdub]

What tire would you recommend, knowing that I enjoy the occasional track outing (6x year), I have to drive in occasional FL downpours but it's never cold, and I hate, loathe, despise my current Pirellis...

The car is a 2003 on 18" (225 and 285) The P-zeros on the car are noisy, bouncy, take flat spots after sitting 1 day, I hate them with every fiber of my being like I've never hated tires before ;-) I know it's the tires because I had a boxster on 18s" before and it was nowhere near that bad !

With that in mind... I've had the Michelin PS2 on my previous car, they were OK in terms of wear but I found they went away quite fast on the track in terms of grip. I'm looking at :

-Bridgestone Re050A ($986 + shipping at tire rack), the S03 replacement I guess?

-Conti sport contact 2 ($870 + shipping) : my cousin works for continental, he says those are much better now, but I had a set of V1.0 and they sucked so I am not sure I trust V2.0

-Michelin PS rib $1120 + shipping...

****, where are the Kuhmos in my car's size ? nowhere, it seems, unfortunately !

Any other recommendation? I don't mind if they wear fast, I just want dry and wet grip, less noise, less harshness... Opinions ? I know it's subjective but it's not like you can try them for "feel" ;-)

[jaycdub]

What tire would you recommend, knowing that I enjoy the occasional track outing (6x year), I have to drive in occasional FL downpours but it's never cold, and I hate, loathe, despise my current Pirellis...

The car is a 2003 on 18" (225 and 285) The P-zeros on the car are noisy, bouncy, take flat spots after sitting 1 day, I hate them with every fiber of my being like I've never hated tires before ;-) I know it's the tires because I had a boxster on 18s" before and it was nowhere near that bad !

With that in mind... I've had the Michelin PS2 on my previous car, they were OK in terms of wear but I found they went away quite fast on the track in terms of grip. I'm looking at :

-Bridgestone Re050A ($986 + shipping at tire rack), the S03 replacement I guess?

-Conti sport contact 2 ($870 + shipping) : my cousin works for continental, he says those are much better now, but I had a set of V1.0 and they sucked so I am not sure I trust V2.0

-Michelin PS rib $1120 + shipping...

****, where are the Kuhmos in my car's size ? nowhere, it seems, unfortunately !

Any other recommendation? I don't mind if they wear fast, I just want dry and wet grip, less noise, less harshness... Opinions ? I know it's subjective but it's not like you can try them for "feel" ;-)

I currently have the Bridgestone Re050A on my C4S and are the best I have ever put on my Porsche. A friend who is a tire service tech for GY did some calculating and promised these are the best for my car and driving. He was right and these are the best I've had. Second was Yokohama AVS Sports and the absolute worse tire is Kumho I only had on for about 2k miles. I hated the Perilliies because of wear and noise issues but handled alright. What ever you do, don't go the Kumho route because it will cost you again and you will hate them and feel unsafe riding with them.

[jaycdub]

I have a 2002 cab that had pirelli assymetricos that I didn't care for at all. I changed them out for the RE050 pole position and love them .. Quieter, smoother and outstanding grip wet or dry. Haven't had them long enough to comment on wear but shoudld at least match the pirellis. Happy shopping.

[WARDHOG]

I don't mean to change the subject, but what kind of calculations can you do to select a tire?

(I'm not arguing, I simply have never heard of any formulas or numeric approaches to tire selection.)

He showed me a formula that deals with the contact patch, weight, g-forces and the compositions of the material or something like that. He told me that the tires were designed with the Porsches negative camber in mind.