Best 16 inch tires for my SC?

[Denis54]

I need new max performance street tires for my SC. I never drive in the rain nor in the snow and I do not track my car.

What do you recommend?

[zotman72]

Well I am about to put Dunlop 9000s on my 1980 SC and my 72 911. Some sizes are on sale cheap at tirerack. These are pretty good tires for the money, though somewhat noisy I am told. Both of my 911s have 15" rims. HTH

[nostatic]

Bridgestone SO-3 seems to be a favorite. Maybe Pirelli P-Zero too? I like to spend less, and am running Yoko AVS-ES100s.

[thabaer]

My AVS Sports seem snappier than my S-03s, I haven't swapped them between cars so it may be due to the Yokos being paired with Koni Sports vs the Bridstones w/ Bilstein Sports (same H&R springs on both).

[Emission]

Go nuts. Toyo RA-1's (R-compound and DOT legal)

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I run SO3's on 7x8x16 on the 84 as well as Pilot Sports on 7x9x17 Cup IIs with spacers.

With wheel diameter, sidewall and significant change in rear width (225 vs 255) and , it's like comparing apples and oranges, but...

Pilots are more communicative and forgiving at limit. SO3s feel downright squishy by comparison, but I think that's the sidewall height.

I ran AVS100s on my old, now dead 9000 Turbo and thought that they were the best tire for the money.

I'd try the AVS100s.

[azasadny]

Dunlop Sport 9000's!!!

[Jack Olsen]

Falken Azenis are good and cheap, if you can use their sizes. Other than that, the BFGoodrich g-force T/A KD is the best dry traction tire with a tread rating of over 140.

[1982911sc]

I have Firestone SZ series on my SC right now...They are abosultely incredible...Look them up on Tirerack..they blow almost any other tire away on the whole site...except for the fact they are Firestones! They are getting old (7 years), so I just purchased (sitting in my garage as I type) The AVS E100s. All the research I have done kept pointing to this tire...I will provide an update once I have broken them in. If you are not tracking you will probably never truly outdrive the majority of the Hi-Po tires availablel today.

[corey79sc]

i am looking for some new tires as well i am thinking about the new fuzion by bridgestone thay are the news thing out right now

[Jack Olsen]

The Firestone's don't even do as well as the wed/dry version of the G-Force.



The G-Force KD's seem to be king of the dry-surface hill:



Unless any of these numbers are comparable across different tests (which I doubt), in which case TireRack might have a new champion in the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2?



Anyone have any experience with the new Michelins?

[dlearl]

Originally posted by JackOlsen
Falken Azenis are good and cheap, if you can use their sizes. Other than that, the BFGoodrich g-force T/A KD is the best dry traction tire with a tread rating of over 140.

Just got a new pair of KD's for the rear, woo hoo. They should call 'em EW's though. (Empty wallet!)

I will emphasize "dry traction" though. They truly suck in the rain. So much so that I run my stock Fuch 16" with Falken M&S in the "winter" here in Vegas.

[1982911sc]

Hmmm The Firestones beat the BFG in the customer reported data ...


BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KDW Firestone SZ50 EP

HANDLING RATING 8.80 8.90
DRY TRACTION 9.1 9.2
WET TRACTION 8.2 9
SNOW TRACTION N/A N/A
RIDE COMFORT 7.1 8.3
NOISE COMFORT 6.5 8.5
WEAR 6.9 7.9

On top of sticking like glue they are very quiet and have worn quite well. I have never driven BFG but I am sure those tire rock as well.

[KTL]

I agree that on the street, one is hardly going to find the true advantage of some of the big name tires. You're gonna pay thru the nose for Michelins and BFG are pretty pricey too.

I still say the best bang for the buck is the Kumho MX. Your only sizes are 205/55 and 225/50 in 16 in. though.

Yoko ES100 is a safe bet without question. And all sorts of sizes are available.

The only Falkens that are applicable are the Azenis ST-115, Ziex ZE-512 or 502 and the GRB FK-451. I'd lean toward the FK-451 of all the Falkens. It's supposed to be a decent tire, very similar to the Yoko ES100. The supersticky Azenis Sport RT-215 doesn't come in the applicable sizes for the Porsche wearing Fuchs 16 in. wheels. Too bad. Because these tires are supposed to rock.

By SoCal911SC:

How about the worst 205/55 16 and 225/50 16 tires for my BMW??

Actually, not the worst, just the least expensive, hardest wearing tires in those sizes. For my daily driver, don't care about having the grippiest tire on the road (in fact, don't want that, wears too fast).

Any suggestions?

Kumho Ecsta 712 V-rated (geez, I sound like I work for Kumho) have a treadwear index of 340, which is pretty high for a V-rated tire. The lower the number, the more the tire wears. I understand the 712 lasts for quite a while and they are cheap. Something like $65 ea. at TireRack. Their new ASX has a 420 rating and is around $75 ea. Continental and Bridgestone have some different tires in the $80-$90 range with 400 treadwear indices that would be suitable for your BMW as well.

TireRack is a good place to do some comparison shopping. They have reviews, prices, sizing and all the tech info. about each tire. Do a size search and see what tires come up in those sizes? If nothing else, it gives you a place to start

[JackT]

Bridgestone SO3. I have gone through many different brands and these are the best so far. Very predictable, which is important on a 911.

[gerry100]

I'd go cheap.

My experience is that the rears wear out 2-3X as fast the fronts, so you are really looking at the price of 6 tires. You may get away with mixing tires front to rear as long as you don't track the car.

In '86 they recommend, 36 rear, 29 front . The 36 psi rear results in tire wear in the center of the tread. ( my Yoko AVI rears are bald in the center of the rears after 8K ( 1k track). Fronts are fine.

I'm getting 4 Yokohama ES100s and will maintain the rears at about 32psi

[masraum]

For my daily driver, don't care about having the grippiest tire on the road

You know I used to buy the nearly cheapest and/or hardest/longest wearing tires I could get for my cars, but I have since realized how big a mistake this is, especially for a daily driver. If you have two cars, one that you take out on nice weekends or a toy that sees occasional duty and a car that you take to the front line everyday and drive probably 5 or 6 days a week and several hundred more miles per week on the roads with the other sheople (sheep/people) which car are you more likely to need to hit the brakes or swerve to avoid a problem? Well the tires are pretty much the most important part of the equation when needing to take some sort of emergency action. From now on all of my cars are going to have relatively grippy tires, well made tires from a reputable company.

I read a posting somewhere on the internet from someone who had bought a tire with a tread wear rating of either 460 or 540 for his car, and he wanted to know why his tires locked up so easily. He said it seemed really dangerous. He, of course, was right.

[masraum]

I think you will generally want a little more pressure in the rear than the front. You might try 32-33 frt 34-35 rr.

[thabaer]

Originally posted by gerry100
I'd go cheap.

My experience is that the rears wear out 2-3X as fast the fronts, so you are really looking at the price of 6 tires. You may get away with mixing tires front to rear as long as you don't track the car.

In '86 they recommend, 36 rear, 29 front . The 36 psi rear results in tire wear in the center of the tread. ( my Yoko AVI rears are bald in the center of the rears after 8K ( 1k track). Fronts are fine.

Like maus says, I wouldn't go cheap but you don't have to pop for the most expensive either.

I solved the center wear problem at the rear by going 4-6 lbs higher (yes that's higher) than spec. The explanation was that stock pressure on some tire designs lets the center of the tread squirm and scrubs it down. I began to get even wear when I started running 42 lbs with no other changes to the car, this was in the day of P7(or 700)s and A008s.


One other thing is that those review numbers are coming from people... people who paid good money for the tires and may be experiencing a large placebo effect ( i believe...i believe... ). Even some of the data in Jack's graphs is subjective, don't get me started on the abuses people have committed with some of the visualization software I've developed over the years. Take poorly gathered data, print it up real Offishull-looking and you wouldn't believe the stuff you can feed the public.

[gerry100]

Thabaer-

Interesting, does that mean you're running 42 rear/ 29 frt? - sounds like a lot of oversteer