mnypit944

It is a 99 328, but it has the full M3 suspension set up including the front sway bar attatched to the strut instead of the LCA. Email me with the info on the tires and possibly pics. monypitgarage@cfl.rr.com Where are you located and how much would shipping be if necessary? Sounds like a great option to buying new tires now just to have the wife destroy them before I get the car pried from her hands. Now she wants an X5, so hooray for me.

What brand and speed rating would you recommend for the 944? How do I know what width my rear rims are? They have spacers in there behind them. I assume you are suggesting to go with the staggered for normal driving and pick up an extra set of rims for racing? If I do any racing, time will probably only allow for the occasional autocross or weekend events. So realistically staggered tires will probably be fine. Like I said before though, I dont notice any adverse understeer or anything now and the tires are really dry rotted from sitting so much.

Plum

I just saw the new Goodyear Eagle Response Edge in the new C&D.
It comes in stock 215/60-15 and a V rating.
Not crazy about the look or the $166.95 per tire on the Goodyear site.
The last set of Goodyear's I had were on my Lexus, the GT HR's, and they
were horrible! All 4 out of round after about 18,000 miles and replaced them at about
24,000.
Just throwing out another option but one I will probably not buy.

Scott at Team Harco

I'll give you the same canned reply I've been giving to this same question from others:

Visit Tire Rack (online) and shop by tire size (I suggest 225/50R15). You don't need to buy at Tire Rack (though their service, selection and prices are always very good) - just educate yourself on what's out there. Review your options and narrow your choices based on how you drive and what you desire from your tires. There are "Extreme" and "Max" performance tires that offer high grip but give up wear and tend to be rather costly. Then there are the "Ultra" high performance and high performance summer tires. These give up ultimate grip but can be had at very reasonable prices and also offer good wear characteristics. Then there are touring tires. These tend to give up even more grip but can offer even better tread life.

Notice I don't give "no-season" tires any consideration what so ever - you shouldn't either. If you drive in snowy conditions, you need a dedicated winter tire. Since it looks as though you live in Florida - you shouldn't need to worry about this. However, how the tire handles the wet may be a very strong requirement.

So here are the tires I personally recommend for the two categories I would consider:

Max and Extreme HP - high grip (wet and dry), low tread life, high cost:
1) Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Position (I think this is being discontinued - the RE-050A replacement does not look attractive to me at all)
2) Michelin Pilot Sport 2
3) BFG KD
4) BFG KDW
5) Hankook R-S2 Z212

UHP and HPS - good grip, good tread life, reasonably priced:
1) BFG g-Force Sport (the set I plan to buy to replace the nearly gone S-03s currently on the car)
2) Fuzion ZRi (made by Bridgestone)
3) Yoko AVS ES100

I selected 225/50R15 for all four corners on my 944. It lowers the car a little and introduces some speedo/odo error (reads high). I found this to be an acceptable compromise when looking at the options availble in 215/60R15. 225/55R15 would be a good size to consider - but there are no good high performance tires available in that size (from my observations).

Based on your comments, I think you would do well to select from the three choices listed under the UHP and HPS area above.

Best of luck.

Tony K

I have been happy with my G-force Sports (BFG) in 225/50/15 on all four corners. Round, smooth, decent grip for the money wet and dry, and smooth "breakaway". Perhaps more important for everyday driving, though, they are WIDER than most of the 225/50/15 tires, and thus offer a little bit of curb rash protection on 15x8 fuchs vs. Falkens and Michelins. My first choice was the S-03, but you get a good tire for your dollar with the G-force, and it is good enough for many people.

I think it is very important to have at least a V-rated tire on the car -- My first set of tires on my first 944 were H-rated Bridgestones, and when I made the switch to the correct tire, the car felt much more stable at freeway speeds, especially over 70mph. I attribute this to the higher-speed-rated tire resisting deformation from centrifuge better.

By the way, as far has handling goes, If I push steadily harder in a turn, it will understeer, but lifting off the throttle brings it right back into line, predictably. OTOH, I can put it into oversteer at will, and come out where/how I want. I think it is a very good balance of handling.

Scott at Team Harco

Hey Tony - where you been? Haven't seen you here in a long time. I was on another thread and saw your post from a few days ago. I was going to send you a PM. But.... since you've popped up here, I'll ask publicly. How are the g-Forces holding up? Do you ever use them at the track or at autocrossses? I know they're not intended for that - just want to make sure I'm not going to slide off the track at Nelson Ledges in a couple of months.

I'm sure to use up my S-03s this weekend at the SAE student autocross that I am chairing. My plan is to replace them with the BFGs. I love the cost and the fact that I will likely double the life expectancy versus the S-03s - I'm just a little concerned about the reduced grip.

Tony K

Hey Scott,

They have very good grip, just not as much as the S-03! But you feel when they start to slide -- it's smooth enough and not too sudden that I don't have a problem controlling it. I think any street tire will be a step down from the S-03, but I feel very good about the G-force, and think you get a better tire for the dollar. No autocrosses on them yet, but plenty of spirited miles on places like Rte. 555 and 550 and 26 in SE Ohio . . . FWIW, they were on the car back at the Fest last year. I've had them since May.

They are wearing smoothly, and have never been "lumpy" in the morning. If you would like to "try before you buy", the fuchs are off the car right now, sitting in the garage here in Toledo, as the car still has the snow tires on it (in storage, too). If you want to put the wheels on your car for a day and blast around a little bit, come on down.

I've been messing around with other cars, and now that I have a company car, I chose to store the 944 for the winter, and haven't gotten it out yet! I sold the Lancia and bought another Esprit. The new Esprit has a freshly rebuilt motor and new shocks and springs ($$$$), but the interior needs to be completely redone, and the original paint has a lot of ... "patina".. I have half of the interior out of the new Esprit, and have been reupholstering it in full-grain leather in my (very little) free time . . .

Better to email me than pm: racing_nut_1@yahoo.com
I don't really plan to hang around on here a whole lot . . .

- T

Matt H

It IS discontinued and the RE-050A Pole Position was...1.1 SECONDS faster than the S-03 in recent lap testing in the dry and about .7 seconds faster in the wet. I have driven both and I have done test driving on both, if you like the S-03 you will LOVE the 050A PP. I was not a believer either but in back to back tests the 050A PP was MUCH faster than the S-03. I dont think there is a better dry tire out there than the 050A PP. Remember that what you are readin on TR is the old 050 or 050A, they dont have the new PP stuff up quite yet (except for a limited test they did). In the wet I preferred the 050A to the PS2 but I was fastest on the Eagle F1-GS D3, though I dont like the breakaway characteristics of the GY.
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cjeckert

i run brgoodrinch g-force sports and overall very good tires.

bader$

I bought the fuzion ZRi at the recommendation of Matt H. (to someone else.) and love them. They are reasonbly quiet, and sticky enought for me. and a good price 85 each.

baldheadracing

Even compared to the Azenis RT-615 or Bridgestone RE-01R (not an r-compound)?

I usually use Toyo RA-1's, but I'm looking for something with more hydroplaning resistance and nicer wet breakaway characteristics. I had S0-3's, which were fine in wet, but they aren't as close as the RA-1's in dry as I'd like.

CHEERS944

Wow! That's alot of info...thanks guys!

I guess I'm going to need to do some more research, because I'm not familiar with alot of the tires mentioned above. I have some time, as the car is not my daily driver, but I will definitely be using the current tires up after a DE next weekend. As far as sizes other than 215/60/15 go, I would say I'd want the same size all around, but am I understanding correctly that I could put another size on my stock phone dials? And what would the best size be to have a minimum of speedometer error, 225/50/15? How would it affect handling? I don't have any winter issues, but I do use the same set of wheels for street, autox, and DE, so I'd need something of a compromise between the 3 as far as the performace category goes. In a perfect world, I'd love to be able to buy a nice set of 16" wheels, but $ are a problem.

Thanks again, everyone!

Scott at Team Harco

Tony,

Thanks for the offer. If we were at University of Toledo rather than University of Detroit - I would definitely have taken you up on the offer. I was actually quite surprised how well the S-03s held up on Saturday. After 10 hard runs there was no perceptible tread wear. I'm on the wear-bars already, it just didn't seem to take much more off, thankfully. Still need to allocate a little cash to order up the BFGs.

So are you going to the Fest this year? Should be another good one. (Hell - bring the Lotus if you have to).

Scott at Team Harco

Matt - that is surprising to me. It must be in the compounding because the tread pattern doesn't look like anything special to me. If the 050A is better than the S-03, we may need to test a set or two on our Z-car programs.

I've tested the F1 GS-D3 on the Sentra. I was impressed with this tire in the wet. It needs to be shaved for hard driving in the dry.

dmalo810

Go to Tirerack.com and look at the different tires available and read the reviews and tests. Helped me detirmine the tire I'm using on my 951 based on my driving style and planned events (autox and DEs).
TireRack has some decent yoks in the size you need for $86 a piece. Good luck

apierce918

so what is the best tire sizes front and back for someone using 17" 7 1/2" up front and 9" rims in back?