audi49

For those that have 17" wheels, what all-season performance tires would you recommend?
Looking at:
-Continental DWS-06 (good overall reviews, but comments about they being too soft)
-BFGoordrich g-force comp-2 (good overall reviews, but some reviews about it being noisey, and visually aggressive thread)
-Bridgestone RE980AS (?)
-General G-max AS-05 (the sleeper here, good overall reviews but some comments about difficulty balancing, flat-spotting)
(I'd go with Michelin Pilot Sport AS3's, but they don't have a size that would fit the front well.)
Thanks!

CaymanSinAR

I have the Bridgestone RE980AS on my 991.2 911 for winter. Holy heck what an amazing tire. Performance in cold and wet is simply incredible. Best all-season tire I have every owned. No other all-season tires has been close to that. It is, without question in my mind, in a completely different class than any other all-season tire.

I ran the Pilot Sport AS3 (and 3+) on my BMW. It was OK.

Have the g-Force Comp-2 on my Miata. It's OK. You can definitely tell it is an all-season tire in the dry.

The RE980 is another story. I drove it as hard as I was comfortable driving on public roads in cold weather and not once did it give up an inch. And rain performance? Forget about it. Might as well be dry out for all those tires cared.

Heck, I even started a thread asking if the incredible performance in the rain was due to the car or the tires.

Scooby921

The concept of a high performance or ultra high performance all-season is a joke. They all have high treadwear / high mileage rubber compounds just like the normal all-season or grand touring tires. To make them sporty they add a stiffer sidewall and they make the tread a little more blocky or just cut fewer sipes into it. You get a slight increase in steering response and dry weather grip and sacrifice grip in wet / inclement weather. You still never approach the dry grip of a summer tire or the wet / snow grip of a winter tire.

I haven't tried the BFG G-force comp-2, but my wife's old Scion tC came some some variety of BFG G-force as the OE tire and it was ****. Somehow Toyota sold a car this century with an open differential and no form of traction control. Undriveable in the snow. Replaced them with the Conti DWS and it was night and day better. She liked them enough to burn through two sets, but we did find that after 10k-15k miles the tread wore down enough to turn the DWS into a DW. If you don't have the means to buy and store separate sets of summer and winter rubber then I'd go with the DWS. Just don't expect the "ultra high performance' moniker to mean they are anything like a proper summer or winter tire.

audi49

Appreciate the comments. A bit more background. My Boxster presently has 19" wheels and Michelin summer tires... so a great set-up for performance and great looking. But I'm looking to get another set of wheels/tires to have on the car most of the time... just looking for more comfort than the 19 inchers provide. I know that I could step down to 18" but I'm not sure that'll make enough difference to make it worth the change. So I admit that I'm looking for a compromise here... just want a quality tire in this class.

wizee

I used to have Continental ExtremeContact DWS tires (18”) on my 987 Boxster. The grip was decent for an all season, but they were prone to flat spotting, even though I had the pressures set right. If the car sat in the garage for 3+ days, I would get severe steering wheel vibrations on the highway that took around 10 minutes of driving to fully clear away. No such issues with my current Michelin PS4S tires on the Boxster.

On my Mercedes CL63, I have (all season) Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ tires. Cornering and braking are decent, but the car struggles to accelerate without wheel spin, even in relatively gentle starts from first gear. The car being a front engined RWD 563 hp beast probably has something to do with it, but I’m still a bit disappointed in the straight line traction. The car had these tires when I bought it, so I don’t know how real summer tires compare. I’ll probably put Michelin PS4S summer tires on it next once it completely devours the current rear tires.

bvanlieu

HPAS tires have come a loooong way. Honestly for a street car, having summers on them is more ego/marketing then extracting performance for street driving (at the cost of 50% or more loss in treadwear).

Besides several on my 335d (lot of torque so easy to spin starting if you happy with the tall skinny pedal), we also have Goodyear eagle sport HPAS on the 981 for cold temp driving: they don't change the driving experience dramatically over the N rated Goodyears. Bit more grip? Sure...but its not as dramatic as it was 20 years ago comparing summers to AS.

Mich PS tires are great, but if you drive your car back to back on a track with them and an AS3...most folks will drive similar lap times. Now dial it back from 8/10s to 6/10ths for street driving: the HPAS tires work just fine

- b

ekam

Speak for yourself. I've daily my 986 with extreme performance summers and I can play frogger on the highway.

PorscheAddict

DWS06 rock if you aren't being real aggressive. Awesome in slush/snow.

ramans

DWS06 are the only choice IMHO for an "All Season" performance tyre, I had them on my 964, and have them on my 981 Boxster S

TEF

Given that General and Continental are virtually the same company, both would likely perform much the same. I've owned the DWS tires even before they added the "06" part and they performed far better on my 2004 350z than the Bridgestone tires that came with the car new. Unless all your time is spent at track days, the DWS's would seem a good choice. In fact, the recent purchase of my 2008 Boxster S was encouraged in part because the car had an almost-new set of DWS06 tires.

Kuro Neko

I made the change from 19 to 18 for the same reason, and the difference for normal driving is amazing.
The simple shift in sidewall height, and the use of PS2s made a measurable changes to both ride and handling.

I would go for the 18s myself...

evilfij

I have/had the conti, Michelin, and RE980AS albeit on different cars (not a 981).

Not sure I have a preference as I think all are good. I don’t have enough miles on the Bridgestone to know how they wear, but if I were driving a lot of miles I would get the Michelin.