Mueller944s2

The rears on my S2 are shot, starting to show thread. I'm not concerned with high performance tires. I live in New Orleans where the roads are terrible so I need the most comfortable tire I can get that's still rated for 150mph. Comfort first, THEN handling, just so the car lasts longer! Right now I have Yokohama Avids. They were a big change over what I had before, much softer! But I'm wondering if there's something better. These roads beat the car to pieces and I'm tired of finding new noises all over the place! Any ideas?

V2Rocket

what size wheel are you running? that will determine some of the recommendations.
i use the falken ze912 on 15" wheels but i think they are available in 17s as well, they are quiet and grip well

Mueller944s2

they're 16's, the standard 968 cups

Scott at Team Harco

More aspect ratio is your friend if the roads are rough. I have an S2 as well.
The standard wheels (not on the car) are 16 x 6 front and 16 x 8 rear.

I have 205/55R16s on the fronts and 225/50R16s on the rears. This is probably your best starting point. You might be able to find 195/60R16s but the choices are not likely to be particularly attractive. Finding a good 215/55R16 might be difficult. You can see where I am going here, right? You want to maintain the same diameter but increase the sidewall height (aspect ratio). The only way to do this is to go with a narrower tire (section width).

You are locked in to the 16" wheel as the smallest diameter wheel you can use and still clear the brakes.

For what it's worth I like BFG g-Force Sports for general daily driving. Not sure if they are available in the sizes you would consider. They are a good compromise of performance/wear and cost.

One thing you may want to consider is lowering your tire pressure a coupe of pounds to soften the road impacts.

One last idea would be to see if you can find 205/60R16 and 225/55R16s. This option will increase the diameter (and aspect ratio) of your tires. There can be issues with this; such as speedo error, looks and even tire rub. The gain is in possibly a less harsh ride due to the greater aspect ratio.

Good luck.

V2Rocket

I ran the g force sports for a while and found they wore out very fast and were very noisy. The wear wasn't an alignment or inflation problem, they wore evenly across the tread but I went through two or three sets in 30,000 miles of normal fast street driving, one set down to the cords.

Scott at Team Harco

For what I was looking for - these tires have been good for me. I am on my third set in about 10 years. The Comp 2s are what I have on Stu. I believe that is also what I put on Herbie, just before he got rearended four years ago.

There are only a few other tires I would have considered for my needs - the Dunlop Direzza, the Falken Azenis or the Toyo Proxes. Granted, there are various tires with the same "code" name with varying levels of performance. My priority was a good high performance summer tire with decent treadlife, a reasonable cost and the ability to hold up under occasional track-day use. I believe the other choices would all fit the criteria, but cost seemed to swing the decision in the favor of the BFGs.

As always - your mileage may vary.

Ultimately, this information may be of no value to the original post. One thing that is going to be a major conflict is the "need" for 150 mph capability and the desire for ride comfort. I doubt these two things exist together in the same tire. Kind of like traction (grip) and extended treadlife.

Northern_aqs

Living in Southern Ontario and dealing with some of the worst roads locally, I run Bridgestone RE 760 Sports and they've been an excellent balance of performance, comfort and durability. Cost is not bad either as an added bonus.

I think the use that the vehicle sees the majority of use for is the most important consideration. I know several people who buy an extreme performance tire because "they go to the track". The reality is 99.9% of the time the car is on road at legal speeds (as opposed to the .1% that's an occasional DE event), yet they complain when their extreme performance tire rides, wears and costs like one.

To each their own, but my car is weekend/event car so I choose to find a balance.