I will be replacing the rear tires soon. The fronts are fine. I have PS2s all around but wanted to change to the Pilot Super Sports. Can I replace just the rears to the PSS or should I stay with the PS2?

 

Stay with PS2. Mixing tires on a performance car is nothing one can recommend. Or replace all 4 tires.

 

I would replace the rears with the same PS2s.
You will likely go thru that 2nd set before (or about the same time) that your front pair will need replacement.
Then you can switch to a new brand or model tire for all 4.

 

Thanks for the input. One more question, how important is it to get the Porsche spec'd N4 tire vs the regular PS2? I have N spec fronts.

 

YMMV but if it was me I'd just put Super Sports in the back. They're similar enough.

I know what "everyone" recommends but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's always significant in real life... I had a student last weekend in a 987S with PS2s in the front and Continental Contact 3s in the rear. The car handled just fine on the racetrack, thank you very much, and it wasn't because of PSM either. PSM only kicked in when he overcooked some corners.

 

There's really nothing special about Michelin Pilot Sport x tires; plenty of competitors have as good or better tires for cheaper. N rating is nothing but marketing; I would may it no mind whatsoever.

 

It's probably a good idea to replace rears with same model/spec tires as the front. Porsche works with tire manufacturers to produce tires specifically for their cars ("N_"). When you replace all four tires, go for whatever model you want.

OBTW, Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires in size 265/35/20 are impossible to locate right now. Tire Rack is supplying USA Porsche dealers only, so they have none to sell on there website!!

 

Not necessarily. They DO develop specific tires for specific applications. For example, Michelin followed GM's requests in developing Super Sports specifically for C7 Corvettes. Well, guess what, a whole bunch of those tires cracked and became garbage after sitting in the outside cold at the docks, dealer lots, etc., over the winter. They had to replace all the cracked tires. Michelin's point: hey, we made them according to what GM wanted. You didn't see this cracking with other Super Sports (N-spec, for example).

Orthojoe has also reported difference in N-spec and K-spec Sport Cup 2 tires.

Some of the tire manufacturers work very closely with car manufacturers to develop specific tires for specific model cars even if the tire model is the same.

 

I did exactly that just over a year ago. I bought a full set of PSS but the front PS2s still had tread. I installed the PSS at the rear but left the front PS2s and did a track event at Road Atlanta. It was fine. It DID get better when I installed the PSS at front too. I went to Barber with it a few weeks later. A bit less understeer but mainly I noticed that I could BRAKE harder without getting into ABS.