Troy Barnes

I've recently discovered that my car is out of alignment when I went in to get the tires balanced. I had not noticed the wear on the inner portions of the two front tires and mistook the high speed vibration for bad balancing.

I've made an appointment with a reputable Porsche repair shop in Toronto Ontario to do the alignment on Saturday morning, but I'm going to need new tires now.
I don't race the car, although I appreciate a good handling tire.
So my question is, what would you guys suggest to be the tire that gives the best bang for the buck?

Thanks,

Troy
86.5 928S

redidrum

Troy,

I have Bridgestone S0-2 245/40/18 front and 265/35/18 rears. Drives perfectly straight. I'm told that the car Should NOT be Jacked for the alignment. Try new tires first with high speed balance. My Opinion..

Ron

Jim bailey - 928 International

Troy search the forum for much which has been written about alignment as was mentioned they must not lift the car off the wheels during the alignment or the inside of the tires ALWAYS wears out .Your car was probably lifted the last time and the alignment WAS correct until you drove a few miles and the car settled .Very important that they not lift the car. I do not think any other Porsche model has that issue.

Troy Barnes

I have searched the forum and read much about the alignment procedure and even contemplated doing it myself. The fact is I trust this place -Mantis Racing, and the price is reasonable. I planned on telling them about the lifting of the car before the alignment just to make sure that that error was not made.

The car had 40kkms on it when I bought it and now has 70. I don't believe it has ever had an alignment since it left the factory, I'm more concerned with why it is out of alignment, but I'm guessing I'll probably find that out when I go on Saturday. I've honestly always thought it was a balancing issue before I saw the tread wear.

Thanks for the heads up.

Earl Gillstrom

My website has a page that you can give to an alignment tech that explains the pitfalls of 928 alignment.

heinrich

Yes mine definitely runs better WITH ... so I have to vote ... WITH tyres.

... Kumho for normal applications.

mpesik

what Heinrich said!-ME

Brent 89-GT

I have been running the Kumho MX tires for a while on my 928. They seem to have good grip wet or dry. They are wearing evenly if a little quickly but, I think that is the province of high perf tires regardless of brand. On the street you are unlikely to benefit from a big name tire from Michlein or Bridgestone especially at nearly twice the price. I took a chance with the cheaper Kumho's and have been very pleasantly surprised. The other tire I would consider is the Avon 500, good price, claims of good performance.

MUNYGUY

Mantis is a good shop so you should have no problems with the alignment. I have s03's on my car and they work great on or off track.

ErnestSw

I also vote for the SO3s. Great grip wet and dry, street and track, and they're quiet.

Deb

Troy, I'm sure that there are many good opinions re: choices but I recently did alot of tire surfing in a number of 928 BB's and if you are looking for a tire with good wear chracteristics; quiet ride and good handling then Kumho Ecsta 712 seem to fit that bill. Not to mention that they are quite inexpensive relative to many other brands -I picked up 4 today at Oakville Tire, between 4th and 5th line on the South Service rd. for $120.00 ea. Ask for Greg.
If you drive in wet weather these aren't for you - my cars are put away Dec. 1st and only get out on dry days.
RE: alignment, my last "checkup" was 5 yrs ago but this Shark doesn't get more than 4k Kils per yr. and altho the tires were nearing their end I think finished them off when I did the R & R for motor mounts and probably upset the alignment during that lovely job.

drnick

even at the risk of pissing off the technician doing the work, tell him not to lift your car and then watch to make sure there isnt some misunderstanding. the price to you will be much higher if the alignement isnt performed correctly.

do you drive in the rain or only in the dry? here in the uk it rains a lot and im running brigestone so2 on one car, so3 on the other. if i wasnt running in the rain i would probably get some dot legal race rubber!

hacker-pschorr

Potenza's on every car.

chaadster

Troy,
Keeping in mind the "bang for the buck" requirement, I'd add Falken GR Beta FK-451, which I recently picked up for US$118 at Discount Tire.

They are a considerable improvement over the Pirelli P Zero Assimetricos they replaced on the rear (245/16), if only in the noise and cost departments, although they seem better in the rain, too. Hard to say exactly, as the Pirelli's came used when I bought the car.

The Falken also has a cool, aggressive directional tread pattern, for what that's worth, but I admit that someone did comment on the tires to me!!

Jim R.

Another vote for SO-3's. Huge improvement over the old Bridgestone RE730's that were on my car. Not cheap, but if you can swing it, they are a good choice.

Jim R.