What To Replace SO-3's With?
 

Crap - pulled off the wheels to do the brakes and find all kinds of metalware embedded in the left rear SO-3. A big bolt (head diam 1/2"!) and a smaller nail in the tread, and a long screw at the shoulder.

The tire is not leaking (I have a tire pressure monitoring system), but I see a new tire in the relatively near future. Also, all four tires are approaching the wear bars (1/8" away) so I guess new tires all around are going to be needed this summer.

So, have there been any new and interesting "max performance" tires that are great in dry, good in rain, and fun in AX? When I bought the SO-3's about 2 years / 15K miles ago, they seemed like the best choice (and I'd been very happy). Perhaps there's something better now?

Open to suggestions!

"What To Replace SO-3's With? "

SO3's. :)

Re: What To Replace SO-3's With?
 

That's just about as good as it gets for all around (non snow) use.

Yup.

same boat here, tirerack has a $100 mail in rebate with purchase of four S03's
don't know if thats a good deal or not
255/40/17 @224$
215/45/17 @169$
I haven't done any checking around yet

I'm new to the Porsche game, but I've tried a number of performance minded tires on my Miata that I tracked. I think the S-03s are very good tires, but can be pricey and they wear quite fast under hard use. IMHO, you may want to consider Toyo T-1S'. They're fairly quiet, good in the rain and provide excellent dry grip. They have quite a following among the Miata folks. Another good tire that I've had good results with is the Khumo MX. Excellent grip at a great price and reasonably quiet.

BTW, a good source for the T-1S is www.onlinetires.com.

T.

RA-1s.

what's rain?

My, what a short memory we have...

Refresher courses are available. No registration necessary. Just drive north on I-5. Wait a minute. First you go down to the viaduct. Okay. Now drive north on I-5.

viaduct?

Ok, I give up...why a duck?

Wow, Toyos are cheap! Anyone here have them on a 911?

If cash isn't an issue, buy the SO3s. If you can afford filet, why eat sirloin? If it is an issue, I like my Sumitomo HTR-Zs...can you tell I'm a sirloin guy? :D

Well, the advice is leaning toward SO-3s if the budget allows.

I scanned Tire Rack and don't see anything new and interesting. The Kumhos are interesting, but don't get a good rain rating. I don't see the Toyos or RA-1s on Tire Rack, at least not in stock 911 sizes.

If I bump the tire widths up 20mms and go 5 points lower on the aspect ratio (so F 225/50-16 and R 245/45-16) some other choices pop up (Michelin Pilot Sport, Sumitomo, AVS Sport, etc). However, I noticed I'm rubbing the upper inside of the rear wheelwells, so I am likely constrained in going any wider in the rear, absent a little spacer. Need to investigate this further.

I just checked out the link above for Onlinetires.com for the Toyos T1S. Front tires, 205/55/16 = $107 each and rear tires, 225/50/16 = $109 each. These are what I'm running on 6s and 7s. John for your rear tires, 245/45/16 = $117 each. Great deal if they really are that grippy.

John,

225s on 16s can be problematic fit wise. Some guys get it done, I was not able to. I went back to 205s on 7s up front and 245s on 8s for the rear.

How are your shocks? You really shouldn't be rubbing in the rear with 225s on 7s ( I am assuming sizes here)....

-Chris

Unfortunately, TireRack doesn't carry Toyo tires. However, I'm fairly confident that if you check out any place locally or on the internet that sells Toyo, you'll be hard pressed to come anywhere near that price.

I run SO-2's ...and I agree with the SO-3 gang...

I would at least look at the stated Toyo models ( T1-S and RA-1).

Look also at BFG KD ( not KDW) if high performance wet weather driving is not a big concern....

Wil

Since you already had S0-3s I would be inclined to try the top tier tires from other quality manfs. Michelin, Pirelli, and was it Goodyear that came out with a new tire just recently?

A good rough rule is that the tire that has been most recently designed will often be bst -- the technology and competition is moving fast.

I have appx -1.5 deg camber in the rear. Still, I'm surprised at the rubbing. Will investigate further.

I just went through the same ordeal....noticed the head of a sheetrock screw protruding from my left front while the car was on the lift.
Being the sirloin kind of guy I am, I opted for the Yoko AVS E100's from Tirerack. 2-205's and 2-245's for $400 bucks, and they arrived in 4 days!
Now, just to find a mounter that will respect my rims, and I'm all set!

Sounds like auto-x is only about 10% of what you are doing, so I don't think I would suggest a max high perf. summer tire - waste of money in my opinion.

I was using the Yokohama AVS ES-100's and they were great initially, and then when they started to wear and it started to rain - all grip broke loose. Not a tire I would recommend. Besides, I only got about 8,000 miles out of them in less than 2 years. True, I am hard on street tires, so I might need a bit of a firmer compound.

I am going back to the Bridgestone RE 750's ( I had two sets of the RE730's and loved those as an all around great tire, and then they stopped making them).

Anyone familiar with the Avon Tech M500's? They look like a good tire and seem to be rated highly not only by the testers at Tire Rack, but also the people buying them.

My experience with the Yoko ES-100s sounds similar to EC's above. They're okay, but not the ultra/max performance that TireRack seems to suggest. I think I got about 14k miles on my set (most of that freeway) and they got really loud in the last 50% with grip falling off substantially during that last half as well.

T.

I don't now if this helps or not...
I got new tires in Jan. I went for the S03. But only because I have or had the disposable income. I spent the better part of a month looking at tires on tirerack. the RE750 would have worked just fine for me and the Yokos evs-100 looked good too.
Overall I have no regrets. Autocrossing is hard on tires and if you plan on doing many the so3 wear as fast as others. So if you only have one set of wheels I'd go Re750 or alike. Haven't talked to anyone running the Avon tech though.

Just put a set of Goodyear Eagle F-1 GS-D3 tires (225/45-17)
on my son's '00 Beetle (modded) and boy are they sticky! Although pricey at $165. each.

I just put a set of Dunlop Sport SP-8000 on my 911 and wish I went for the Eagles. They are better all around in comparisons especially wet and are much quieter.

Just my .02¢

I have a second set of wheels, 16" x 7" cookie-cutters (I think that is the size, not positive on the width). I mean to put snow tires on them, but the ski season came and went without me getting around to it. So they could be used for AX wheels, but they are equal widths all around so not ideal.

My usage is mostly for DE (and to & from DE). I've had ES100s, Kumho MX, and I just bought Goodyear F1 GS-D3's. The ES100's provided the least amount of grip at the track, and they got seriously noisy very quickly -- the outside tread blocks are small, so they feathered quickly. The MX's provided some serious grip when warm -- probably similar to that of the S03's from what I've read. They're noisy when new, but even when they became seriously feathered the noise hardly increased (due to the massive tread blocks). I have yet to drive on the Goodyears, but I expect them to be better than the Kumhos (which I thought were pretty darn good). The F1's are highly rated for rain/wet, and that was my deciding factor in trying them. And they're quite a bit cheaper than the S03's.

Just to clarify -- you couldn't pay me to use the ES100's again, especially considering what else is out there. I forgot to mention that they also have significant tread squirm under high speed cornering.