"N" Designation Tires

[ThePuf]

I looking for a new set of tyres for my '89 3.2 but am finding it terribly difficult to find a good N-designation tyre in 16 inch.

Question is: How important is it to use a "N" designated tyre?

Will it really make that much difference in grip, longevity and safety?
Most of my driving is city with occasional long highway trips.

I've done a search but nothing useful came up.

Can anyone advise, please?

Thanks
Puf

[geof33]

Um, "N"? DO you mean "Z" rated tire?

Y at a min, Z is best for our cars. Some might say "H"... but if you want performance for the occasional "spirited" drive, Y or Z...

[83SC in PA]

Originally posted by geof33
Um, "N"? DO you mean "Z" rated tire?

Geof,
I think he's referring to 'N' as in factory approved tire.

[ThePuf]

Actually I do mean "N" designation. In particular designations such as N0 and N2 which, afaik, mean that the tyre was developed in conjunction with Porsche. These only come in certain sizes from certain manufacturers. For e.g. Michelin Pilot Sport ps2, 235/40 - 18 comes as N2 but not the 16 inch tires.

Not too familiar with the technical aspects of tyres, I'm afraid

Cheers
Puf

[geof33]

I'm pretty sure that back in 89 Porsche didn't design in conjunction with tire manufacturers. I think this is a more recent thing. I'd have to check my owner's manual, but I don't recall it mentioning anything about a particular "type" of tire. Mine is an 84 tho'.

Anyway, as long as you have a good speed rated tire that is the correct size for your wheels from any of the various manufacturers you will be fine. Do a search on "which tires" and you'll find more opinions than you will ever need.

[Dutchie]

In Europe some insurrance companys don,t pay if the car was in an accident without N coded tires. Geof they are diffrent from normal tires and are more expensive.

As mentioned above it's a fairly recent thing so I wonder how much importance it may have when it comes to pre 964 cars? Anyway I have N marked tires on my car and can't feel any difference?

[Dutchie]

Mikkel not sure either i talked to a Bridgestone salesman about this and he said the sides of the tires are stronger. Maybe just salestalk ?

[ThePuf]

I understand that part of the N designation is also in respect of the heat resistance of the tyres, due to the heat generated to the rear tyres from the proximity of the engine.
I cannot verify the accuracy of this though, hence the question.

There is a 'horror story' I have heard about a chap who _allegedly_ ran non-N designated tyres on his car and the tyres got so hot on the highway that small chunks of rubber started peeling off. May just be urban legend, though...

Nonetheless, given that so many pple seem to run non-N tyres on their 911s with no problem, I think it should be fine. Just wondering how much of a diference the 'N' makes.

Now to decide between the AVS Sports or the Pilot Sports.

Thanks all
Puf

Well it's obvious that people are confused about this. Many have heard something but never know for sure. For example I was told that the rubber compound should be different on N tires? Again it was just a rumor.

[imcarthur]

see Tirerack N for info about the N designation

Ian

[911-32]

Originally posted by ThePuf
I understand that part of the N designation is also in respect of the heat resistance of the tyres, due to the heat generated to the rear tyres from the proximity of the engine.
I cannot verify the accuracy of this though, hence the question.

There is a 'horror story' I have heard about a chap who _allegedly_ ran non-N designated tyres on his car and the tyres got so hot on the highway that small chunks of rubber started peeling off. May just be urban legend, though...

Nonetheless, given that so many pple seem to run non-N tyres on their 911s with no problem, I think it should be fine. Just wondering how much of a diference the 'N' makes.

Now to decide between the AVS Sports or the Pilot Sports.

Thanks all
Puf

IMHO, totally, 100% urban legend. If you drive a McLaren F1, then sure you would be foolish not to use the tyre designed for the car, after all the F1 can do 240+mph and has 650hp. The idea of having to use a special tyre for a somewhat more humble 3.2 just does not make any sense. Plenty of cars have more loading over "an" axle than 3.2s have over the rear axle and plenty of cars have much more horsepower.

There is a lot of dis-information about what the N designation means but not much information. I searched this extensively in 2003 and never got a clear answer. Lots of speculation but no hard facts. My personal conclusion is that, while an N designated tyre is slightly different from the regular model, it is such a slight difference that on 3.2s anyway you would be unlikely to ever notice the difference. I think the N designation is more a marketing tool that allows the tyre manufacturer to charge an "affluent Porsche owner" premiuim on their tyres. I may just be cynical...

Buy any premium brand high/max performance tyre and you will be happy enough given your driving profile. If you want to save a few dollors then there any many testimonials for some less expensive tyres on this board - try Kumho, Yoko ES100, Falken FK451 etc. A search will net hundreds of results.

HTH
Richard

[Bill Verburg]

I first ran into the n designations in the early '80s, they have been around for that long. It just means that Porsche has tested the tires and approves their use on their cars. Sometimes the manufacturers have to make minor changes in the tire sometimes not. I wouldn't worry about a tire not having the N designation. However if the tires on a given car don't match each other, that could be a prblem

Originally posted by imcarthur
see Tirerack N for info about the N designation

Ian

This goes some way to explain the differences:

It is also important to know that while Porsche N-specification tires have been fine tuned to meet the specific performance needs of Porsche vehicles, the tire manufacturers may also build other tires featuring the same name, size and speed rating as the N-specification tires for non-Porsche applications. These tires may not be branded with the Porsche N-specification because they do not share the same internal construction and/or tread compound ingredients as the N-specification tires. Using tires that are not N-specific is not recommended and mixing them with other N-specification tires is not permissable.

[Wil Ferch]

N -spec is simply Porsche-specific...and the parameters viewed under N-spec can be very wide ranging...and may have little to do with safety or performance. A certain N-spec may include noise and harshness characterisitcs, for example, and when Porsche went from the classical banana-arm rear suspension to the rear-cradle arrangement ( ex: for the 993), the added isolation afforded by this design may have allowed a different N-spec by Porsche to be applied...for ( say) noise.

Because we don't know of the specific inherent characteristics of the particular N-apec....the only general advice is not to mix non-N with N on the same axle. As a lesser-concern subset....maybe do not mix a (say) N1 spec tire with a revised N2 spec tire on the same axle either.

A lot of this can be found in the archive, too.

---wil