Rinty

I just completed a 4,000 km trip of which about 1,500 km was in rain of varying intensity, including some monsoon level conditions.

I was really pleased with how these tires grip in corners, and with how they get through standing water with only a bit of lift.

Most of the route was on winding roads in the Northwestern states.

996tnz

Can back you up on that Rinty. Experienced some of the worst on track and on road weather I've driven while putting the better part of 1000 miles on my Turbo during a 3 day track tour this weekend gone. Sumis are good in the dry (see my earlier post) but fantastic in the wet. On a track day where 2 of 25 cars had to be trailered off the circuit as aquaplaned wrecks (we're talking standing water halfway along the main straight and also in some fast and heavy braking zones) the Sumis were very consistent, confidence inspiring, and pretty fast too. Surprisingly, one of their better aspects is that they allowed control to be won back after after the back stepped out large one time exiting the esses (and fishtailing almost to the point of running out of steering lock on the recovery). I'd been running the kerbs as practice and the raised grid markings near the last apex complicated the save. Only the car behind me saw it happen but everyone in the pits heard it loud and clear. Short of Hoosier/Hankook rains or something I don't think I'd have wanted to swap for much other rubber just then.

While they do very well on track and take forever to wear, these HTRZIIIs are still not really track tires though. My last rears were retired prematurely with half to one foot long internal sidewall bubbles after a dry spin during a sprint race. That's with running hot pressures close to the factory cold pressures. I also have some suspicions about their compatibility with PSM, at least on a hard-pressed 996 Turbo. Not sure why, but my PSM faults to off much quicker with the Sumis than with some other tires. Usually in the first few corners in the dry, sometimes after a few laps. In the wet, it usually takes at least a few laps to happen. I suspect my PSM is flaky to start with though as I haven't seen others complain of this, but I like my car better with it fully off anyway.

The Sumis were still good enough though that I bought another set for the road, but on dry tracks I'd now rather run r-comps like Nitto NT01s/Hankook Z221s/Dunlop D3Gs etc.

XavierLaFlamme

I am on my second set of rears and really like them on the street.
--Michael

Vorsicht

How many miles on the first set before change?

chaoscreature

I ran these before switching to Dunlip Star Specs. I really really liked the tires.
I got 10,000 miles out of my first set of rear tires and only 5,000 miles out of the 2nd set due to more track days. The fronts still had a little bit of life to them when I swapped the whole set out.

When my Jetta tires wear out I am going with Sumi's all around

timothymoffat

I got 12000 miles on a set of rears with 100% street driving. Not commuting on the freeway but not race track.

XavierLaFlamme

About 10,000 but I didn't do an odometer check so I am not absolutely certain.
Michael

nine9six

Cuz its easier to be spoon fed information that is readily available?