Quote:
Originally posted by hkiang1
StayGold asks a good question: Do you want good inexpensive tires or do you want good tires? Most Porsche guys swear by Bridgestone S03 Pole Position or RE050A Pole Position, for the street. If you are looking for max stick and are willing to go to a race tire, Toyo RA1s are worth considering.
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Or maybe you should say... Do you want tires that stick, and perform incredibly well, and you don't care WHAT the brand name is... or would you feel better paying ridiculous amounts of money for a BRAND name that everyone tells you is the tire that should be on your car??
I guess before flaming out any particular brand of tire, Nineleven needs to share what will be the typical use the car will see... Just to throw out a comment like Toyo RA-1's for max stick is irresponsible. That tire would be simply stupid to run on the street. You obviously haven't driven those on the street, otherwise you wouldn't suggest them. Those tires are worthless until you get them PLENTY hot on the track. If you got them that hot by running on the street, you should be seeing flashing red lights behind you. Don't drive them in the rain, unless you are auditioning for the Dukes of Hazard sequel...
I've driven ~ 100k on my current Carrera, and have had the joy of experimenting with several different brands of tires, including Pirelli, Dunlop, Bridgestone, Falken, and currently Hankook.
Below are my opinions of the above mentioned tires for a 911:
Pirelli= WORTHLESS. Don't even consider...
Dunlop= I ran a tire that is now no longer in production SP8000. Similar I believe to the current Sport Max. great dry grip, wet was mediocre. Decent lasting tread wear.
Bridgestone= Excellent all around performance dry/wet. The only thing I can find wrong is the ridiculous pricing, and poor tread wear. Like 6k miles and they were DONE!
Falken= 451(now 452) Excellent dry performance, better than the Dunlop. Wet performance was equal to or better than the Bridgestone. Excellent tread wear -- 25k on the front, 15k on the rears. Less than $90 a tire!
Hankook= WOW!! RS2's- As good as or better grip dry/wet as the Bridgestone's at half the price. I've got about 4k miles on this set, with 2 days at the track. They appear to have about half the tread worn. With any luck, I should get about 10k out of them...
If you are just using this as a weekend car, with maybe 3-5k miles a year, putting on a hard tire that you might get 25-35k miles out of would be a waste. The rubber will crack and become dangerous well before the end of the useful tread wear. I would choose the Hankook's!
If it's a daily driver that never see's the track, I would suggest the Falken 451/452. Excellent wet/dry performance, long lasting tread, and at a very reasonable price. Another tire I've heard very good things about is the Kuhmo MX. I've heard more bad than good about the Toyo TR1. No personal experience with the Toyo & Kuhmo, just comments from other Porsche Pilot's.
I went with the Hankook's, as I needed a tire that could withstand the heat cycles I was subjecting my 911 to during DE's out at Willow Spring's Raceway, and also perform daily driver duty. This tire continues to excell at both! The Falken's, while an EXCELLENT street tire, couldn't hold up to the abuse of the track. If I were strictly using my car for street, and occasional canyon run's, I would definitely still be running the Falken's...
I've read on several different board's about Hankook's marketing strategy. They are trying to gain more popularity on many of their tire lines. Cheap pricing to get people to give them a try, then the product sells itself by word of mouth. I have a feeling that a year from now, after gaining more popularity, these tires will likely be as expensive as Bridgestone performance tires... If they were $200 a tire, would you buy them right now?
Please bear in mind, this in my non-professional opinion...
It seems that people get just as worked up over tires as they do motor oil!
Just my $.02!!
