I've been through a couple of sets of Hankook's V12 Ventus EVO 110, now: they grip very well, to be sure, and ride comfort and quietness on the street is commendable. They're also very resistant to hydroplaning. However, after one serious track day with two week-old tires, I was on the wear bars on both front tires and nearing them on the rears.

 

Wider wheels require less camber than narrower ones. Too much negative camber will change the "feel" of the car quite a bit on the road. More tram lining etc. On the race track, it is a different story. Could this be part of your problem?

Wider tires in front will increase steering effort which might make the car feel less responsive since you work harder to turn the wheel. Could this be part of what you are feeling?

 

I run these tires myself and love them. I'll be going to my first track day with them on Thursday and really anxious to see how they fare.

Another tire I'm eager to try is the Kumho Ecsta XS although it's a scary tire in the rain.

 

Really surprised no one has mentioned Bridgestone Potenza RE-11's or Yokohama Advan Neova AD08's...
Both very exceptional tires for the street and the re-11 is really hard to beat when it comes to wet/dry combined traction and predictability/preciseness.


I run these tires on my gti, I think the re-11 or ad08's would have been much better tires over all based on my past experience with the re-01r's and ad07's, but these are much more affordable and my gti eats tires very quickly. In the rain they feel just fine, and the dry traction is really exceptional. With my fwd gti and 300+ whp I don't spin but maybe chirp a little when getting on it in second gear, before, with potenza re-050a's I would spin second and into third. Around corners they do feel a little uncertain at first, but once they settle it holds a line very well. The initial squirm though is what I dislike about them as it does not inspire confidence during turn in. I have ad07's on the 944 (gen right before the ad08's) and they have none of that, it's all point and shoot. Then again it's a different car altogether and I may need to check my sub frame bushing on the gti as I've heard they wear quickly when driven aggressively quite often.

 

I have had an agressive alignment done with kwv3 suspension. But still feels off, my guess 4" more wheel + offset in rear. While I do think weight hurts there is a lot more wheel in the center and you feel it in the seat.

 

what tire are you running now and did you buy them new or were they broken in on a different car first?

i ask this because i had a miserable time with the crappy tires which came on a set of 17" wheels i bought. i also have manual steering and i could physically not turn the front wheels at a low speed as in when right turning into a street while braking. but when i switched to pilot sports, that all went away and the car is a different animal now. still not sure what exactly the cause of this difference was (no unusual camber wear or anything like that) and your experience will obviously be different as mine was exaggerated by the manual steering so....

also, i love the pilot sports and am upgrading to PS2's which seem even nicer. and they wear very impressively. i also have falken rt-615's on my scirocco and the are very nice for grip but the wear is definitely going quickly and that car weighs nothing. on a 951 i can't imagine they would last very long at all but they are pretty affordable. C&D's last tire test did not rate them very highly at all though which was surprising but falken has just released an update (RT-615K).

the star specs have received pretty impressive reviews everywhere so that might be my next tire.

i guess you can't go wrong as others have said.

anyone ever try hankook RS-2's or RS-3's? they're similar to the falkens but i haven't seen many reviews on them.

 

my guess would be the weight issue making the most difference. you could just swap them out for a weekend if you kept the stockers...

 

Goodyear F1 Asymmetric's, in 265/35/18 and 235/40/18. Replaced my 16" with Goodyear GSD3's. Good upgrade, more tramlining and more grip than I can use. I still bolt the 16" on for kicks, less grip = more fun!

My 18" weigh the same as the 16" (including tyres), so I'm not convinced that weight = tramlining. Steering offset and camber sensitivity (as previously mentioned) are likely candidates.

 

Personally, I think 18" wheels are too large for the cab platform.

Remember that cabs have to lug an extra 120 lbs in structural reinforcements as opposed to coupes.

I wouldn't go larger than 17" with front 968 M030 caster mounts on a cab.

Great job on that conversion, BTW!

 

Handling, much like a motor, is a sum of its parts. The tires with the most "stick" won't do much if your suspension is crap or not all working together.

Also, street is a whole different ballpark of "stick" compared to track.

I also am running 18x8/18x10 with Kumho Ectsa and it corners and handles like you wouldn't believe, but I also have koni adj., welt springs, lowered 2" and strut tower brace.

 

+1

I never ran mine on the track, but ran Hankooks on the street for a while and they are at the top of the list in terms of bang for the buck.

 

Play around with your front toe in/out settings – they will change how the car feels. You don’t need to measure this on a rack – if you are close to start with then just make a small change (you can do it in your driveway) and then drive the car. Keep making small changes until it drives the way you like and then get it checked to see what the settings are.

Too much caster can give you a dead feeling but too little can make it wander.

The rear alignment is a whole different problem…most shops can’t do it right. Toe settings in the rear can really change how the car reacts.

If the car is aligned right then crap tires feel good. If it is wrong then great tires feel like crap.

 

What exactly do you guys mean by "tramlining"? Is that the phenomenon of the car "riding" every little ridge and gap in the concrete at highway speeds?

For what it's worth, I've been reading opinions of the BMW people that their "legendary" steering feel is a combination of running more caster than most manufacturers, and not running flexible rubber steering rack bushings. Not sure how well that relates to our cars, but I'm going to try out some rigid delrin steering rack bushings I just bought, plus I might run a slight bit more caster when I align it after that, gotta check my current specs.

 

Tramlining is when the car seems to suddenly want to shift rapidly left or right, as if on rails and has been deviated onto another track. Depends on road surface too, but lots of neg and toe out will exacerbate this effect. Keeps you on your toes in traffic!

By swapping out OEM rubber for harder delrin or metal bushings firms up the ride and sharpens the steering. Guess that might also happen if you change out the steering rack to some degree. I have found recently by firstly checking caster and seeing it was uneven, then adding some and evening it up, my handling seems to be better than ever. This is all trial and error though from car to car.

 

Ditto.

I run the RE-070 on my GTI for autocross duty and that is a fantastic tire. Very fast turn in/response, awesome grip. My GTI is pretty mild (just a Sachs sport shock and Autotech springs) and I get it up on 3 wheels very easily. According to my Tire Rack rep, the RE-070 "is a cheater tire." I spent some time chatting with the Bridgestone rep at Parade, because I want a similar tire for my 951 and the 070 is only available in 2 sizes (neither of which fit my 951), and he actually suggested that I try the RE-11 in place of the RE-070 on the GTI for improved grip and turn-in response. I'm lucky enough that my GTI wears one of the 2 available sizes for the 070... so when these wear out, I will most likely go RE-11 on the rep's suggestion. (Bonus is they're cheaper than the 070 too.)