yardpro

here is my question..

I am putting new shoes on my ride today. I am using fierce... a new sub brand of goodyear. By all reviews, a great ultra performance tire..

My question is... are $300+ tires really necessary? How hard does the average owner drive their car?

Do we REALLY need 180mph rated meat? Heck I'll venture to bet that most owners never get much past 100 mph.

Personally I have hit 140, but only twice, then chickened out and backed way off..
Only hit 120 a few more times.

MOST of my driving is done at sub 100 mph speeds, and most of my cornering is not at ridiculous speed, as I like having a drivers license.

So can we get by with just a nice riding, quiet medium performance tire????

hinchcliffe

Short answer, yes. All seasons would be OK. Summer dedicated will feel better when hard cornering.

But when you start headed to DE's (if you do), you'll want a better tire.

morganabowen

If you are going to put your 928 on the track, you will appreciate performance tires On the other hand, if your driving is limited to daily driving within a closed area, you can find a good tire at a very reasonable price. I've used Yokohama AVS ES 100s which are very affordable and performed very good, and I've used the much more expensive P-Zero Rossos,which felt really good. Good luck on your choice

jcorenman

Sure, you can do whatever you want. However, I have never heard of anyone recommending that tires be fitted that were rated at less than the top speed of the car.
[Edit: Well, except for the above... ]

It seems simple enough: You may not plan to hit 140 again, but if you do, for some reason, do you want to die? Speed ratings have to do with the structural strength of the tires, they are conservative but at some speed above that, they will come apart. It has nothing to do with the average speed.

But tires with high speed ratings don't need to be expensive. There are lots of choices, and lots of threads here. We've currently got tires all over the price range, they are all W or Y-rated (168 & 186 mph resp.) and all work fine. And oddly, the more expensive ones seem to work better.

blown 87

Strange how that works.

dr bob

I've regularly asked myself the same question, usually as I look at the $1k cost of another set of PS2's. Maybe I should just get a set of nice touring tires. But not available in the sizes we want even with V speed rating. Narrower. taller, not as much grip, lower weight rating.

The key things to think about are not how fast you drive the although that is important. Think about swerving to avoid something, and about hard braking for that pedestrian in all black, crossing in the middle of the block at night. Either would leave a mark on the car. Dont want that! Performance tires are there for that fraction of a percent of your normal driving when you need everything the car is designed to deliver. At those moments they are priceless. Plus cheap tires are noisy, ride poorly, etc. In my experience. Not a bargain in the Big Picture!

blown 87

I will have to say that the Hankooks I have on mine are cheap, but they are not noisy, what they are is scary in the wet.

I think I will be putting PS2's on mine next go around.

How many miles are you getting out of yours dr Bob?

James Bailey

Nope..... for the most part you are paying for advertising and brand recognition. The Premium part of premium tires is the PRICE....but then I can not remember going 100 MPH on the street of course with the 85 MPH speedo I might not know If you do track a street tire with anything near full tread it is EASY to rip most of the edges off the tread blocks in little chunks in less than 15 minutes...BTDT !

auzivision

Price or brand shouldn't be the primary criteria in tire selection. Performance and speed rates are much more relevant. There are plenty of tires that perform well that don't cost $300+. Look at already mentioned Hankook or Khumo's... etc. I haven't even spent $300 on a pair of tires and have plenty of gripe to hang with the boys in the mountains even on rainy days.

I’d start your research project here: www.tirerack.com

brad@tirerack.com

There are many "inexpensive" tires out there that do a good job if moderate driving is your style Sumitomo HTR Z III, for example. When they came out nobody was interested. Now they are my number 1 selling 996, 968, 944, and 928 tire. It's performance rivals a PS2 up to probably 80% of their performance ranges. Is it as good as a PS2? No. Is it as good for most of people's driving styles and for half the price? Yes! Hankook V112 tires rate very well also. There are very good tires out there for $600ish a set, but some real junk, too. That's why survey results (like those on our website) and word of mouth (like the Sumi's here) matter in shopping.

Feel free to give me a call if i can help. Thanks.

Rob Edwards

Damon recommended the HTRZIII's to me and I am very happy with them on the GTS in the dry. (Not that I'm not happy with them in the wet, but I have to granny the car in the wet so am not sure how the Sumi's limits would compare to any other tire anyway)

dr bob

I get 15-20k but that is with -extremely- conservative driving habits. When Angeles Crest Highway was open right above my house, tire life was, um, reduced slightly. I've also become fanatical about suspension and alignment issues; when the tires are worn out they are very even.

fraggle

I never liked the ave es 100's. Too noisy after about 2500 miles. Of course I am only getting 6000 out of a set because I keep hitting the loud pedal.

Went to conti extremecontact this time. I like them so far!

Leon Speed

Yes. But the again, I'm in Germany

UKKid35

If the car will only be used on the road, you'll probably be fine, but if you track the car then beware. I went to Spa last October and one tyre disintegrated, it developed a bulge in the tread and the 400 mile journey home was unpleasant to say the least.

The tyre that failed cost me a small fortune because it was a replacement for tyre that failed the year before, away from home in Florence, Italy, so I had no control over it's cost. I ended up spending 500 Euros on a pair of tyres, one of which failed shortly afterwards at the track day.

I prefer to spend around $100 on a used pair, knowing that they won't last for ever.