JonSeigel

My front RE 71s need replacing. I have fairly new RE 730s in the rear. 17 inches. I have a '93 C2 coupe, which I use about 1/2 time for city driving and 1/2 time for canyon carving and highway driving. I also do about 2 DEs per year and 1 or 2 autox.

My questions are:

(1) Is there a problem mixing RE 730s and SO2/3, even though they're all made by Bridgestone?

(2) Your thoughts on RE 730 v. SO2/3.

(3) Your thoughts on SO2 vs. SO3 (BTW, there was a long thread on this on Pelican about a month ago. Many people bitching about SO3s).

Thanks in advance.

Rick964

I ran SO2s on my 16 inch wheels (205/225) and found them to be much stickier then the RE730s on my 17's (225/255). I do about 10 AutoX's a year. The RE730s do last a heck of a lot longer though. I wish mine would wear out so I can put something else on the car. I am leaning towards new SO2s but I may try the BFG TA/KDs.

ked

I have mixed RE71s w/ RE730s and immediately noted the poor behavior, & yes, the unsettled performance remained even after break in. I haven't mixed w/ S02/03s yet, but I would expect the negative result to be more pronounced.

I believe any mismatching of tire pairs on the 911 will yield a loss in performance, even when mixing different models from the same manufacturer.

There is a consensus that "if you want the best performance & behavior from your 911, run the same model of tire all-around."

Don Magee

As an experiment, I ran new RE730s on the rear of my 95 993 and old Dunlops 8000s on the front. The handling was not awful, but it was not confidence inspiring either. I put on SO3s on all 4 wheels now and the handling is superb. The SO3s will not last as long as the 730s, but they are better in the wet and dry. That said, the RE730s are a very good street tire for the price.

Drew_K

As far as RE730 vs SO2/SO3 goes, my guess is that you get what you pay for. I've never run either of these tires, but I've used comparable tires. My experience has been that an RE730 type of tire is great for the money and more than adequate for street driving. However, an SO2/SO3 type tire will give better grip, both wet and dry, at nearly double the price.

Personally, I use Kuhmo 712's for my street tires and V700 Victoracers for my track tires. I didn't want to pay for expensive street tires when I would rarely take advantage of the performance increase. If I didn't have track tires, I would have purchased SO3's.

That being said, the Kuhmo 712's don't grip as well as the high end tires I've used in the past. For example, I can get them to squeal loudly when coming to a hard stop, which I've never been able to do before. It's also much easier to lay rubber from a dead stop with these tires. The 712's (and the comparable RE730's) get good ratings on Tirerack.com b/c, IMO, they are a good value. If there was some way to take out the economic factor and rate the tires on pure performance, I think you would see a larger disparity in the ratings between the RE730's and SO3's.

BrokeAss

I've just had a new set of S03's fitted today. The major complaints that I've heard of the S03's haven't been performance related, rather noise related. With my B&B exhaust, and K&N snorkle - I get plenty of noise and excitement. Therefore I couldn't care less about noisy tires.

Once these tires break in a bit, I'll probably post a message detailing my experience with them. Fresh outta the box they're greasy and squirm quite a bit - like most new tires.

jonfkaminsky

Don-
Or anyone else for that matter- do you have an opinion regarding noise on the RE730's versus the SO2's or the S03's?

I am running 17-in RE730's and in my opinion they make a racket- but I only have my previous 16-in Yoko tires to compare against which were quiet, but not what I would call performance tires.

Thanks,
jon

Bill Gregory

I've had 16" S03's, in stock sizes, on for around 5K-6K miles, and I'd say, they're fine - I don't notice noise from them, and they're grippy under dry conditions. If I have any disappointment, it's they aren't as good in the wet as I had hoped. My intention was that they would serve double usage as daily driver tires and track rain tires. As track rain tires, they just don't have the grip that the tread would suggest. On the street in the rain they're fine.

MSchett2

I had S02's on my previous 911 and have RE 730's on my C2. I think the S02's are a better tire, but you pay for it. For street use the RE 730 has been fine and I have never run out of grip wet or dry. If you feel the need for a little extra performance then go with the S02's.

jonfkaminsky

I'm actually asking about the noise. Does anyone have experience with both RE730's and S02/S03 and can comment about the difference in noise levels?

Thanks
Jon