Tire Philosophy
 

I just got new shoes for the 911. This is a fair weather driven convertible. Shopping for tires, I contemplated the aged out, all season tires that were on it, and thought to myself whatever tires I got for it, they would probably age out before they wear out.

This being the case, went with Bridgestone RE71RS. Sticky, can stick a dime on the sidewall and it stays. I had almost forgotten how good the brakes are, and the GRIP is astounding.

What do you think, you go for the performance tire on the performance car, how conservative are you on tires?

I drive my car on long highway trips cross country. And I do autocross and HPDE events. I went with the Continental Extreme Contact Sport tires. I can drive in the rain with confidence, and they have plenty of stick. I wear my tires out withing three or four years.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1727717112.jpg

I replace them when they get to this point.

I can't go with that extreme summer tire. I drive my SC year round and those beasts would be slick as snot in cool weather...at least until they warm up.

I'm running ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus...Ultra High Performance All-Season

for daily driving, it doesnt ****ing matter, unless its winter, and then i run a winter tire.

for competition driving, the more grip the better.





i usually end up putting dead competition tires on my daily driving cars cause they are all the same size, saves money. currently on some pretty worn out A052s for my daily driver.

i do go through between 6 and 8 sets of tires a year.

Track
Summer performance
Summer
All season performance
All season.
Winter/snow.

That's what it's in my head for choices.
All have pro and cons.

I have multiple cars and some of them multiple sets of tires.

I really like to use the correct tire for the conditions. It makes a huge difference to me.

I bought a set of RE71rs . Great tire. But I personally don't use it outside track and autocross environments.

When on public roads I want a young full of thread all season type of tire.

Every single performance part on your car from pistons to tie rod ends does their work via the tire/road contact patch. "Tires are important" is quite the understatement.

For me, the Continental Extreme Contact Sport is an excellent tire. YMMV

At the racetrack, its all about Tires, tires, tires.

Tire PRESSURE also is huge. Get a good digital accurate tire gauge.

I really like the Bridgestone RE71RS. That's my go to Cayman track tire.

My 930 runs Toyo R888R but that's mainly for the 315/35-17 rear tires. I tried Nitto NT555's but they suck.

I'm real excited about the new Hoosier Track Attack tires coming out now. They're made to complete with the RE71RS, Cup 2's, etc in the 200 treadware range.

On the subject of all season tires, I've mentioned this when this came up before but I was so surprised I have to mention it again:

A few years ago I saw a ZL1 Camaro with Cup 2 tires in the middle of winter in Creede, CO. It was parked in the middle of town so not there overnight and the streets were snowy and icy.

I thought it was just a one off but the next year I saw the same Camaro still on Cup 2's parked the same area. So even tho I wouldn't do it, it can be done.

If I'm anywhere near my Camaro's limits driving on the street, regardless of tire, I'll end up in jail pretty dang quick. No, I'm not bragging about my car. I'm saying most modern cars can easily exceed what's prudent on the street. Especially the arrow straight roads in Florida.

i drove my 944 turbo one day in winter with hankook RS3s, and i drove my mr2 spyder in light snow with Dunlop Z1 star specs, back in the day when those were the hot tires.

i would not recommend. 944 was sideways while engine braking (just a lift), the mr2 was never not side ways.

winter is not to be ****ed with. proper winter tires are the only solution IMO.

When you are rolling you can have wooden tires and it's going to be fine.

Think about any panic situation on public roads, not to mention weather.

You will be very happy you have the proper rubber. Whatever proper means to you

My specific tire choice always seems to be dictated by size availability and whats in stock more than what I want to run.

I got a set of 18" wheels to replace the stock 20s on my cayman and have been riding around on RS4s for the last several months, would have rather went RE71. Around here driving on 3 season tires is fine for about 99% of days. I like to do the occasional autocross and HPDE when I can and don't always want to be messing with changing tires and/or pads, so just live with all the compromises. Not trying to set any records and will just leave the sports car at home during bad weather.

I did exclusively run r888 on my old exige, it was either those or all seasons due to the funky tire sizes. Fine for nice days but a little scary the few times I got caught in rain or a cold for houston day.


Never really saw the charms in Michelin tires due to expense and only "medium good" objective performance, but after going through the stock set of PS4s on the cayman, I get it. FOr a normal casual car guy they are amazing. Great at nothing but pretty dang good at everything. Even driving in 35 degree weather they are OK. Great in the rain and will hold up to low level HPDE. PS4s really is a well engineered product for the intended application. Too expensive for me though.

also my daily driver hot hatch (focus ST), normally just put cheap 3 or 4 season tires.

Tirerack had a sale on potenza sports which is a second tier OK performance tire for dirt cheap. Having a bit too much grip reduces the fun of driving it by a decent margin. Used to be pretty easy to slide the rear a bit with a hard lift and had quite a bit of dramatic torque steer, now its mostly just stuck at sane speeds.

THere is something to be said for the fun aspect of low grip tires.

I was at Discount Tire last week and overheard another customer:

"but these were supposed to be 80,000 mile tires"

My tire philosophy: No way am I driving tires that have 80k miles on them

My Army boss in Germany had a 5 series BMW (1990s era). Him: BMW's suck in the snow.

Me: driving around in an E30 M3 with snow tires... going where I wanted when I wanted.

I generally go with max grip street tires that get driven in rain, so something like the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. The fact that these are driven on the street, including in rain, keeps me away from something like the various Cup 2s or the RE71RS. I'd love to have those on the car and the performance that they provide when it's dry, but I want to balance dry grip/handling with wet grip/handling and hydroplane resistance.

Absolutely. If the tires last that long, then they are hard as rocks and will suck at everything cornering, braking, etc.... And they won't last that long, because I'll be sliding all over the place on them.

If you're always driving miss Daisy, then they may be the tire for you.

"Good tires, but certainly not great tires"