misterbeverlyhills

Hi,
I am getting ready to replace the ancient Falkens on the car and looking for a little advice on what to get. I drive the car mostly in the dry and occasional wet days, we don't get many here despite what you see on the news for this week.

Car is tracked and AutoXed so I would love to hear from anyone what they feel is the best combo all around and what may be the best tire pressure at the track, F/R.
Thanks,

Crank

Nice! Post some more photos of your Cobalt, please!

Any shots of it in action?

misterbeverlyhills

Some in action and one of what I think is the best interior that these cars came with. Have not seen another.

My daugher at an AutoX and in the driveway.

I would be really interested in anyone else sharing Cobalt photos, especially interiors, Bill V (Cobalt on this board) has been helpful with info but I am looking to redo the carpets in front and finding matching blue/purple/Marine is a biyatch.

christallon

Christian,

Get the RA 1's if they come properly sized. They are terrific all purpose tires.

misterbeverlyhills

Do you think they will work in the wet? I drive the 964 all season not like the 73. I find if it rains in the 73 the RA1s are all over the place. I am even going up to Streets tomorrow on the all season tires and if it is dry I will miss the Toyos at the track but I don't want to risk getting caught in some weather with them. Even Marco talked me out of switching over when I was at TLG Friday.

Marco likes the BF Goodrich somethingForce for this one.

jimq

the 993 guys like the Sumi HTRZ-III

LouZ

Great all purpose tire for me was the Toyo "T1R" This is a street tire that can run quite well at the track.

1pcarnut

I have the Sumis on my 96 and 89, they do well in street, nice and quiet, good grip, they wear well and guys who have autoxed them are pleased, and the price can't be beat at TireRack, they also have a comparison test there so you can get and idea how they did against others.

pantera43

The Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec would be a great all around non R compound tire for your usage. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....t+Z1+Star+Spec They seem to be quite popular among the autocross and track crowd alike. They will also get up to temps pretty quick for autocross and they seem to do well on heat cycles for the track. I'm presently tracking with the Falken RT615 and plan on switching to the Dunlop's for the upcoming season.

By the way thats a beautiful car you have.

Dan

Steven C.

I race RA-1's wet and dry and they are GREAT! Tread wear rating is 100 so you will not get much street time out of them is the trade off. I have Sumitomo's on my DD 996. Treadwear rating is 300 so 2 times harder than the Toyo and this is the grip number. Like they say, speed is money, how fast do you want to go?

911Jetta

Just a heads up, don't focus too much on tire tread ratings.... it's not consistent across tire brands.

from Tire Rack:

My Sumi HTRZ-III (Treadwear 300), feel just as good as my old Bridgestone Potenza S-02 (TW 140?). I'm sure the Bridgestone tires where in fact better... may a coulpe % here and there? Based on treadwear ratings, the Sumi definitely aren't twice as hard...

Manny Alban

I've got the Sumi's on my 964 and have been very happy with them. They have 10K miles on them and the tread wear is excellent. Have never tracked it, but I have autocrossed with them. They are very response. Sure can't beat the price.

ian89C4

+1 on the toyo RA1's. Great tires.

misterbeverlyhills

Thanks all for the input and compliments. I was at the track yesterday with the POC at Streets of Willow and although I was in the 73 I did see a few 964s and 993s wearing Sumis and the owners were very pleased. The instructor teaching an Amazon Green 94 C2 said they were OK, not as good as the RA1 in his mind but very good, when he heard the price of the Sumis he got on all fours to inspect the tires, slackjawed.

I would love to put Toyos on and agree thery are tops for track but I find myself picking up the keys for the 964 more and more just to go to the store (with a 30 mile detour through the hills) or out to dinner with the wife. At $400 for a set on the car I don't think you can really beat that and there is a certain pleasure in the (RARE!!) frugal moment owning these cars.

One thing I did re-learn yesterday as I was running the 73 on it's winter tires is that one needs to learn to drive the car fast with what it has and not keep improving it with go faster products. It is a cliche but tightening the nut behind the wheel is the fastest, cheapest performance enhancement there is.
My instructor and I took turns flat-spotting the front tires and a wheel off by me took care of the alignment and we still were tough to get past. This was due to a superior line by my instructor, the Venerable Otto of Otto's in Venice and believe me if you could see what is left of the tires you would agree- it certainly wasn't superior grip!

Here is photo of 73, just to have a little perspective: 1 rear Michelin for the Benz is $372. Thank you all for taking the time to help.

mojo747

+1 Sumi HTRZ-III