Sumitomos vs Bridgestone tires
02-16-2017, 12:30 PM
#18
I still sell a very large majority of 993/996 Sumitomo over other brands, and there are plenty of reviews out there on them. For the price most feel that they have to at least try a set and see for themselves. They do drop off a bit compared to Michelin and Bridgestone with regards to track performance, but wet grip and wear seems to be consistent with the higher priced tires. They tend to run a bit narrow also and don't have the rim band in some of the rear sizes would be the biggest complaint. Overall a very solid tire for the money.
02-16-2017, 12:42 PM
#19
Adding my vote as a very satisfied Sumi/Tire Rack customer. They do everything I ask of them, without complaint. In fact I don't think I've approached the limits of these (street driving), except for maybe a few PSM moments on questionable traction surfaces.
02-16-2017, 01:28 PM
#20
My 996TT came with a nearly new set of Sumitomos when I bought it 2.5 years ago. I can't complain about them as a street tire. Don't know about track abilities as I use MPSCs for track.
02-16-2017, 02:42 PM
#21
I ran Sumitomo's for a while. Their only redeeming quality to me was their price. I found them to have much narrower tread width vs Pirelli, Bridgestone, or Michelin's of the same numeric sizes. I also found them to me noisy. Lastly they seemed to have far less grip.
I had a set of 19's, and the Sumitomo's were FAR too narrow/stretched on them. The same size Bridgestone has a nice square shoulder. There was such a difference my tire guys too the Sumi's back no charge.
I went from 12yr tires that the car came with the car when I bought it to 18" Sumitomo's and thought they were good. Quickly they got noisy, and then I swapped to a buddy's S-02's. The difference was stunning. Though they had far more miles than my Sumitomo's they were far more quiet, more supple over the road, and the grip was a huge difference too. In the dry the Sumitomo's could spin in 1st at will and light up my traction control. His barely ever did. I have since moved to Pirelli P-Zero Rosso in GT2 size, and again the grip is amazing. Traction control in a straightening in 1st gear does not come on.
Again, for the money they are unbeatable. I chose to step up because this is a performance car, and I wanted quality tires that provided as much grip as I could get. I just found the grip in the Sumitomo's, esp in the winter here in Florida, to be far to easy to lose grip. They re also far narrower than the competition in the same size. Just my 2 cents, you paid nothing for it, so YMMV.
I had a set of 19's, and the Sumitomo's were FAR too narrow/stretched on them. The same size Bridgestone has a nice square shoulder. There was such a difference my tire guys too the Sumi's back no charge.
I went from 12yr tires that the car came with the car when I bought it to 18" Sumitomo's and thought they were good. Quickly they got noisy, and then I swapped to a buddy's S-02's. The difference was stunning. Though they had far more miles than my Sumitomo's they were far more quiet, more supple over the road, and the grip was a huge difference too. In the dry the Sumitomo's could spin in 1st at will and light up my traction control. His barely ever did. I have since moved to Pirelli P-Zero Rosso in GT2 size, and again the grip is amazing. Traction control in a straightening in 1st gear does not come on.
Again, for the money they are unbeatable. I chose to step up because this is a performance car, and I wanted quality tires that provided as much grip as I could get. I just found the grip in the Sumitomo's, esp in the winter here in Florida, to be far to easy to lose grip. They re also far narrower than the competition in the same size. Just my 2 cents, you paid nothing for it, so YMMV.
02-16-2017, 10:04 PM
#23
Banned
02-17-2017, 01:06 PM
#24
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
thks guys, I just bought the Bridgestone Potenza So2 N3's as i) I don't like tire noise ii) In Switzerland they are a very reasonable $600 a set
02-20-2017, 10:00 AM
#25
Instructor
Join Date: Jul 2012
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Wow! They are twice the price stateside. Joking, but what would shipping to zip code 94010 be? You could be Bridgestone's distributor of the year at that price
02-20-2017, 12:10 PM
#26
Race Director
Revs per miles front and back is wrong. The fronts make 818 revs/mile the rears 817 revs/mile. Not much of a difference but in the wrong way so the AWD becomes some kind of fancy viscous coupling brake.
02-20-2017, 03:22 PM
#27
Race Car
Dan.
02-20-2017, 03:59 PM
#28
Three Wheelin'
My tax accountant says I should be ok with retirement as long as "I don't spend a bunch of money on Ferrari tires". I said I would never do that, they are for the Porsche. He and my wife looked at me and we moved on.
02-20-2017, 05:07 PM
#29
Rennlist Member
And I know everyone on the boards says this, but what is the actual source for that information? I'm a relatively new 996TT owner, but I haven't seen any actual info from Porsche, other than that the difference should be < 3%.
I'm running 235/40/18 + 315/30/18 PS2's right now, and I can say that it feels MUCH better than the 235/40/18 + 295/30/18 combo that was on there previously. With the 295's, I could feel the AWD/PSM doing something weird when braking late into corners, and that instability is gone with the 315's. While I get the logic for wanting the fronts to be larger, I have a hard time believing that 1 rev/mile is going to cause a problem.
02-21-2017, 11:26 AM
#30
I'm RWD so I would love a 315/30/18 in this tire and would run the 255/35/18 up front that they all ready have. When I was in Encinitas CA in dec I was in a parking lot at the Beach and a guy pulled up next in a big Mercedes turned out he was a tire dist. and handled the these tires. He told me he had been the factory where they are made along side other more expensive brands. He also told me to hit him up for my next set, I'll ask him how likely it would be to have them add a larger size. Not likely but worth the ask maybe.