Well, I smashed my OEM 19 inch rear wheel on my new to me 2012 S… Doesn’t look too bad, but 2 reputable shops say it isn’t repairable. I have a replacement ordered which will take at least 8 weeks to get here.

In the mean time, I ordered a set of Apex 18 inch wheels. I plan to put miles on the car and am trying out track and autocross. First HPDE event next month. Max performance summer seems to be the best option for tires at this point.

Apex rec is 245/275 front/rear; OEM is 235/265. Narrowed it down to 2 tires. PS4S which many recommend are only available in OEM size. Continental Extremecontact sport 2 is available in the wider spec. If the track bug bites, I can always go to an aggressive tire on the Apex wheels and something more livable on the OEM wheels.

I would appreciate any suggestions on tire size or choice.

 

On my personal 987.2, I run the 245/275 combo with the Continental ECS 02, and I have been very happy with it for street use.

This video might be worth a watch since you are cross-shopping the two tires.


- Brandon

 

I am running the same widths here as Brian on the same tires! Love the setup.

 

Thanks for the advice and sharing your experience. The video was very helpful. I’m going to go with the Continentals.

 

Love both tires. I went from the Michelins to the Contis on both my DD Civic Si (10th gen) and my 987.2. I've been on track on them both and driven them also in the rain on track. Great response, feel, road manners. I can't recommend one over the other, but they're both equally fantastic

 

That's a pretty hard smack, did you check for suspension damage and have alignment checked?

 

Fortunately, there is no evidence of suspension damage… I should have my new tires/wheels later this week. To be safe, I’m going to do an alignment when I mount them.

 

I recently bought the same Apex wheels and went with 245/275 Bridgestone Potenzas 71RS tires. I have coilovers in front and back and run -3 camber in front and -2 in the rear and the car is also lowered and corner balanced. Please be aware the inside of the rear tires may rub against your rear shocks/coilovers. I learned the hard way and ruined my brand new rear tires before my first track day…

 

Thanks for the information. I am mounting the tires and wheels tomorrow and will check for rub. I’m starting with stock suspension setup with PASM and plan to make necessary changes when I have more experience.

 

By the way, I solved the problem by buying two new rear Bridgestones along with 15mm spacers in the rear and 7mm spacers in the front.

 

What coilovers do you have? I have honestly never seen a customer with this issue on a 987 using the 10"ET36 with a 275 tire, even with many of the popular setups for a 987 like Ohlins, Bilstein, MCS, or JRZ.

- Brandon

 

I don’t think it is the coilovers, rather it is the 10.5 inch rear wheel, not the 10 inch from the original post.

 

That explains it, the 10.5"ET44 is not intended for the 987 for this reason. Even on a stock shock car, the inner lip touches the shock, and coilovers typically make that clearance even worse since the spring generally sits next to the wheel/tire instead of over it.

- Brandon

 

We are aligned! The 15mm spacer solution works perfect and it looks cool too (flush with fender).

 

I run ECS02 on my apex sm-10s with 245/275 - fantastic tires