tire suggestions for 88 carrera 16's

chrisz01 · 10-31-2011, 12:34 PM

I'm looking for new tires for a 88 carrera 16'. Looking for soft compond summer tires.

JP911 · JP911's Garage

I like the Dunlop Direzza Star Spec. Tire Rack has good prices on them. The only downside is that they do not have a 245/45 16, so I run 205/55 16 front and 225/50 16 rear on 7s and 8s.

AVDCAV · AVDCAV's Garage

Toyo RA-1
245 45 16 rear's cost me
$205.00 mounted and Balanced
I brought the rims off the car.

I like them
much better than the Yokohamas I was
using.

kidrock · 10-31-2011, 04:39 PM

With tires, I'm a firm believer in getting what you pay for. If you're not on a budget, go for the "money" tire. That being said, be sensible about it. There's enough feedback on the internet, so do your homework and see what people are saying about it. Then, do some more homework and see what the best price is.

I've found that most Pelicans prefer the Dunlop Direzzas. I've only owned my Carrera for almost 3 years and am on my 2nd set of budget tires....and I don't track my car.

CT Mike · CT Mike's Garage

Star specs + 1!

Carrera3.2LG50 · Carrera3.2LG50's Garage

I have a set of Bridgestone RE760 Sports which were suggested to me by my shop.
Tire Rack called them "ultra high performance summer" tires.

I've been very happy with them. They handle well and are very quiet. I would recommend them.

Paul

masraum · 10-31-2011, 05:24 PM

Bridgestone RE11s. Fantastic tires. It's what I've been running on my miata for a few years. It's odd, I wore through them much faster on my old non-turbo miata much faster than on my new Turbo miata. The alignment must not have been tire friendly on the old car.

Read the Tire Rack test of Bridgestone Potenza RE-11, Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec, Kumho Ecsta XS and Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08

Testing the New Extremes of Extreme Performance Summer Tires

PabloX · 10-31-2011, 05:28 PM

Over the summer I put Conti ExtremeContact DWs (plural, *not* the DWS all season) on my '86. Sizes were 205/55-15 in front and 225/50-16 in back. So far I'm very pleased with them. They stick well, ride decently and track well. I haven't had them in the rain so I can't comment on that. The price is also very good relative to the competition.

My daily driver will need new summer tires in the spring and I plan on buying these again, though in a bigger size.

golftime · golftime's Garage

Recently installed Conti ExtremeContact DW tires. Tire Rack gave them top ratings.

darrin · 11-01-2011, 05:03 AM

I third the Conti Extremecontact DW tires. Just swapped them out for the winter and, while I enjoy my nokian wrg2 winter tires, it really highlighted how much I LOVED my Contis this summer. Simply a great Road tire.

ivangene · 11-01-2011, 05:47 AM

I am on the DW's (not S) and have done 5 DE's with them and DD my car, about 9 autoX too...

pretty happy with them!
(we get plenty of wet driving in Seattle...no handling issues in standing water either)

Quicksilver · 11-01-2011, 07:00 AM

Define "soft compound summer tires".
Do you want R compound and are you willing to live with tire life of less then 10K miles (hard street driving and some Auto-X/DE)? It so the RA-1s are an incredible, virtually cycle proof, R compound tire. You can get the same compound on Nitto NT01s for less money but the huge treadblocks don't like rain. (I run NT01s...)

For most people an R compound tire means purchasing a new set every year or two and that is great for "gods own toy car".
If you need more life then get an ultra high performance street tire but be clear: This is a step down in performance from an R compound tire. If you don't like to lean on the tire pretty continuously this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

It is a personal choice which means very different things to different people.
(I have ultra high performance tires with sport springs on my Volvo wagon and Porterfield carbon pads on my crappy little pickup... We all want different things.)