Dreaded Tire Thread...
 

I'm looking for new tires for my '88 coupe

205/50x16 front
225/50x16 rear

thanks,

Todd

Cool. Best of luck.:D

Tirerack.com. I have RE71s and I like 'em. People seem to be pretty happy with the Kumho 712s also.

RE71's are antiques. They're no longer made. Not for quite a while now.

If you want a great tire at a reasonable price? Try the Kumho Ecsta MX. Got mine at Tire Rack and i'm very pleased so far. For street driving, you can't beat 'em. Look good, perform good and they don't take a monster chunk out of your wallet!

I've got Continental Conti Sports on a stock suspension and 16" Fuchs. Good ride, lots of grip.

Yokohama AVS ES100. The highest rated tire in its price category. I love em so far, but am a bit concerned with my ride height now.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/143462-lower-rear-end-only.html

I like my SO-3's. When I got them, about 9 months ago, my reading suggested they had among the best combination of dry and wet grip.

Although there is a lengthy thread on Rennlist, in the Wheels/Tires forum, sometime in the past month, debating the pros and cons of the SO-3 on 911s. According to that thread, the SO-3s will be replaced before long.

I've compared the Kumho MX back to back with the Yoko ES100 and I think the MX is more responsive. Probably due to the shallower tread depth of the MX and bigger tread blocks.

MX is 8/32nds when new, ES100 is 10/32nds.

do you know About how long?

my S-03s are down to the wear bars

Supposedly "12-15 months", according to a poster who works for Bridgestone. I guess I misremembered the "before long" part.

Here's the thread, it is an interesting read despite degenerating a bit into a tit-for-tat. Many of the opinions (including that of the Bridgestone guy) were suprisingly un-enthusiastic about the SO-3s on 911s. I say "surprisingly" because previous I had read largely positive-to-very-positive comments on these tires from 911 drivers. And I like mine a lot.

http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/showthread.php?threadid=91677

thanks John..
it was a very good thread.

Aren't 205/55's the correct size for the fronts?

Lot's of good tires to pick from. It really depends on what you want to do with them.

Ronin (or others), do you agree w/ the Rennlist thread comments about the SO-3s being "soft" on the rear of a 911? I don't have enough experience w/ different tires or w/ really hard driving to opine.

I do tend to run high pressures in the rear - usually 32 F 38 R when tires are warmed up. I'm going to bring gauge, pump, and chalk to the local AX school (in Feb) to see if that's really appropriate.

I like my AVS Sports - and they have come down in price. I looked at the MX's but the widest at the time was 225's. I'm just glad there are more choices now -

You're right. I mistyped...I have RE750 tires.

The key word there is "being". A better term is "feeling".

I think that most everyone agrees that S-03s are objectively very sticky and all the tests and reviews I've seen conclude that they have excellent maximum grip. A number of reviews also say that they feel squirmy and don't give as much confidence as other tires, even when the ultimate limit of those other tires is lower.

As the Rennlist post stated, they seem to work/feel better on some cars than others. In my limited experience, I love them on my Audi, hated them on my Subaru and really don't have enough experience with them on my 911 (installed 1000 miles), but they seem OK so far.

The one thing I take away from (a) this discussion, (b) the discussion on Rennlist, and (c) other side conversations is that what's great on one model of 911 isn't necessarily great on another. Perhaps the best answer to "what tire should I buy?" is to pose the question to your peers having the same 911 model with similar suspension setups.

I have Eagles and have been very pleased with them. The car sticks in the rain and on dry roads. I do not track or event though, so this was not a criteria for me. They are holding up very well (9K miles and still have some of the little nobbies on them) and were rather in-expensive.

Jim - I think that's the best advice ever... Everbody has different needs - I know for me I was very concerned with the wet performance - driving in Florida...

S03's are good tires, or if you want to spend a little less money, get i little less stick, and have tires that wear a little better get the RE750's. I have them and had the prior RE730 and can vouch for them being good tires.