Tire Choice

[Matt_West]

Hello,

A few months ago I bought a beautiful set of welded Fuchs off the board. (Thanks Mark!)

I am just now getting around to purchasing tires and need some advice. The rear wheels are 10 and 3/8ths inches wide with a bead width of 9.5 inches and the fronts are 8 and 3/4ths with an 8 inch bead.

I originally planned to put 245/45/16 Bridgestone Potenza SO3's on the rear with 225/50/16's on the front...

My concern is that the tire rack website specifies a maximum bead width o 9 inches for the 245/50/16 size. I track the car a few times a year and am hesitant to second guess the engineers who set the specs.

I am looking around and not finding any alternative for the SO3's. I am interested in these tires because I live in the rainy Pacific Northwest and hear good things about both the wet handling and maximum grip.

So what would you do?

Thanks for your time and thoughts.

Sincerely,
Matt West

[Jeff Alton]

I had the same set as you, got mine from RDane. (he and mark had them made up) I ran a 245/45 rear and a 225/50 front. Worked great! I only had them for a short while before I sold them to a fellow Pelican in WA.

Cheers

[Matt_West]

Thanks Jeff,

I appreciate the first hand report. In the meantime I have been reading on tirerack's site and have come up with an alternate option for tire choice.

SO3's generally recieve excellent feedback and while I really want to try them, but I keep asking myself how much will I be able to percieve the difference?

I previously ran Bridgestone RE730's on my 944 turbo and loved them. I met a guy a couple of years ago at my local PCA autocross and we were talking tires. I told him I had RE730's on my car and he said "Good tire, I won in my class last year on RE730's". A budy of mine just picked up a set of RE750's and is thrilled with them...

So incomparing the brands I notice this Fuzion tire... a new brand launched by Bridgestone targeted at the import crowd... in comparing the stats the tire looks to have a slightly softer compound then the RE750's with a little smaller tread blocks. Comparing the emperical test results the tires look just about identical to the RE750's...

Now for price point I am looking at:
1. SO3's = ~$800
2. RE750's = ~$500
3. Fuzions = ~$$390

What would you do? I am pretty certain that there is a law of diminishing returns and know that I won't see twice the performance between options 1 & 3...

[bigchillcar]

tracking only a few times a year means you basically should be purchaing for street in my opinion, since that's the primary mission of your tires. softer compound generally means fewer miles available on the tire, of course. how many miles does tirerack say each tire has in their lifetime? hard to argue with the logic of your last sentence. option 3 would be hard for a guy like me, always bargain hunting, to pass up.
ryan

[javadog]

Matt;

When measuring rim width, the overall width doesn't count, just the bead width, so the tire sizes you selected are fine.

I have cars with both the SO3 and RE730 and I can easily tell the difference between the two. I am not a fan of the RE730 when driving the car hard. I have no experience with the Fuzions, but if they are made for the Rice-boy crowd....

If I were you, I'd call Bridgestone and tell the receptionist that you have a technical question about some of their products. They'll usually connect you with someone who can talk intelligently about the differences between the different tires.

JR

[Vipergrün]

The Fuzions are actually a good tire. I ran them on my SC for a while. The held really well on dry roads and handled well in the wet stuff. I don't exactly understand the reference to "Fuzion" and "Ricer", but whatever......

[javadog]

Brad,

It was partly a joke. What it boils down to, is this: If the Fuzion is directed at the import crowd, in my neck of the woods that means a guy with no money who values form over function. How the tires perform is the last thing on his mind.

Like I said, I have no experience with them. I doubt I'd like them as much as the SO3, based on my experiences with Bridgestone products over the last 15 years or so. Whether they'd be good for Matt depends on how he drives and what he wants out of them, which is probably completely different than what I want out of a tire. For me, tire life isn't something I worry about.

JR

[Matt_West]

Thanks all,

I finally orderred... Avon Tech M500's. Here is why:

Tirerack posts emperical data comparing similar tires. These are skid pad measurements, braking distances, lap times, etc... both wet and dry. Additionally they have froofy things like sound levels and ride compliance...

Looking at results the Avon's did better in the measurement categories that I think matter most to me than either the RE750's or Fuzions. They cost about $40 mor than the Fuzions and $100 less than the RE750s.

While clearly inferior to the S03's... they were about half the cost. On the other hand, I am certain that my car will find the money I saved.

Thanks again for the help.

[bigchillcar]

If the Fuzion is directed at the import crowd, in my neck of the woods that means a guy with no money who values form over function. How the tires perform is the last thing on his mind.

i'm a guy on a tight budget at the present time. i couldn't say for sure whether the fuzion would be the tire for me. for one, i don't track at all..i drive all-season touring tires because what i have is a daily driver..performance isn't a need of mine, per se, other than that it perform well in water and all seasons. i currently have been running kumho 732 touring tires..they've been adequate in my opinion, but my brother, who as a local car wholesaler can get me tires locally at wholesale prices, want's me to check out hankook's next time. he has them on his car and likes them. i know nothing about them.
ryan