Greg Fishman

Steve,
I guess you just don't get it. I would think with your racing and track experience you would see the light but I guess not. BTW a rennlister emailed me and said he would not get involved in this discussion but assured me that in his 10+ years as an engineer in the automotive industry and with 3 of those years being specifically focused on tire testing, that he would never recommend mixing different tires on ANY car.

ca993twin

Greg,

No, I guess I don't get it... at least I don't get the conventional "dogma". I know that I've tried it and it works. Will Porsche recommend minxing? No, of course not. That isn't the safe, conventional wisdom. Post your opinion, and I'll post mine. I'll never tell you not to post yours.

And that's why I have my flack suit on...

Robert Henriksen

Hey, I tried heroin twice and didn't get hooked. You shouldn't worry about trying it, either.

I screwed my girlfriend for months w/o protection and she didn't get pregnant. Quit wasting your money on condoms.

I went to Vegas and came back with $50 more than I left with. Sure, mortgage your house...

My cousin's been going to call girls for years, he hasn't gotten AIDS.

I drive drunk all the time & have never had an accident, never been busted.

I post on Rennlist all the time, I can't understand why everybody jumps my case.

I'm gonna go play with matches now.

Mark in Baltimore

Late to the game on this one. Here's my FWIW-$0.02 on this. When I bought my '85 Carrera with the much-less-sophisticated-than-the-993 suspension, it came with two different types of Dunlops on the front and the rear, 8000's and 9000's, IIRC. When I started tracking it three months after I bought it, I found the car and tires to be incredibly forgiving and surprisingly fast. At that point, no one had ever told me not to mix brands or types of tires; I simply drove with what I had and enjoyed myself immensely. Later on, I was told that doing this was not a good idea. I put about 10,000 miles on that car in six months of ownership, so I had a decent amount of seat time in a short period. Yup, I looooved driving that car!

Was mixing tires dangerous? Maybe I dodged the bullet on this one, but that car was remarkably well-balanced. Is this applicable to the 993? I don't know nor do I claim to, but I present this as merely one anecdotal experience of this controversial subject. Would I recommend that people mix tires? Without knowing a thing about the two ages of the tires, types of carcass constructions, tread compounds or patterns, no, I would not recommend doing this. Can it be potentially dangerous to mix tire types? Yes, I think it can, but based on my limited experience, I did not have a bit of problem. Perhaps the 8000 and 9000 Dunlops were very close iterations of each other.

Your mileage, grip and experience will vary.

DJF1

This has happened to me with a rented Boxster in Hawaii , a story I have recounted a year or so ago on a similar thread. When the rear of the Boxster snapped under avoidance maneuver it was all in the mixed matched tires...
I too believe that most people here especially newbies will take advise from established members as gospel, heck I did in the past myself so it is inherently dangerous to offer questionable advise when it comes to safety matters. For example newbies have asked in the past about the 18" wheels on 1995's. While I have run 18's without a steering brace as advised by Porsche without any problems I would not dream giving this as a factual advise to anyone. I will always advise to put the bracket on as this is the responsible thing to do...

Viken

Perfect! I couldn't have said it better, Danny.

BTW, I just went through this thread and pretended to be the original poster with the original question. I am so confused that I couldn't trust any of you with any of the info you gave me. After all said and done, I am still looking for credible and reliable responses. But, I see that there are huge disagreements on these forums. Let's see, does anyone know another Porsche forum where I can get some reliable answers rather than opinions? Well, that is not the reputation Rennlist was built on and I hate to see it go down the wrong path. Needless to say, I am very disappointed.

And, to the person who said that the Lotus Elise comes with different tires front and rear, I really don't think so. Maybe different sizes front and rear, but no car manufacturer would install a Yokohama on one axle and a Bridgestone on another.

User 4621

VERY loosely quoted:


Lot's of people read Rennlist and take the the opinions stated here as truth. This doesn't mean that opinions aren't welcome, it means that we should take responsibility for the possible outcome of our "opinions."

Rennlist is only as good as the information within it. I would hope everyone keeps this in mind when posting "information."

ca993twin

According to Autoweek December 15, 2003 (page 18, Lotus Elise review): "Standard tires are Yokohama Advan 175/55R-16s front and Neova 225/45-17s rear". Why, do you suppose, Lotus feels that this mix is a good idea?

And in the spirit of Roberts post, which I found very humourous, even with its twisted logic: "I know that alligators are afraid of my dog, Snickers. This is proven because since I began taking Snickers for evening walks, I have NEVER encountered an alligator".

And lastly. Cars with low polar moment of inertia (like the Boxster) do not translate well to cars like the 911. I would never suggest mixing tires on a Boxster.

Viken

Oh, so you read AutoBleak too? No wonder you are so confused. They are the ones who called the Boxster engine a 4-banger numerous times. If you knew better, you would be catching misinformation in every one of their articles. Heck, they even misquote other and more reliable magazines all the time.

As to the differences between the Advan and the Neova, there aren't any. You see, they are the same tire and the proper description is Yokohama Advan Neova AD07. So, it seems that Lotus made a mistake and used the same tire front and rear. Shame on them for not asking your *opinion* before doing so.

Franklin229

Steven-
If you feel the need to do some experimenting at high speed-I won't stop you.

DJ

Is a Lotus Elise not a car with a low polar moment?

Franklin229

BTW-Here is some interesting reading:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/12/19...etreads_021219
http://www.dunloptire.com/tiretech_1...ires/index.htm
http://www.michelinman.com/care/tip6.html

There are enough bits and pieces of info out there to enable you to form your own opinion-should the feedback here be inadequate.

SundayDriver

Man, I haven't watched anyone dig themselves this deep since GhettoRacer. Has he been coaching you?

Stevarino

Franklin:

Now you get it. This is helpful. I reiterate Viken that until now, nothing posted was objective, helpful or even correct. Rennlist is a community, so you guys should respect each other, even if you can't agree with each other's opinions. The goal here should be to help the original poster or further an intelligent discussion.

Thanks again for your last post.

waybrig

Wow, some of this is downright nasty. In the end we all have brains and we all have to make up our own minds based on all the available information we can find. Telling some persons to not give their opinion seems to fly in the face of what Rennlist is all about.

So as an answer to the original question: will ponying up the $$ for matching Pilot Sports be the safest bet? Yes, I'm sure not many would disagree that spending as much money as possible on the finest set of tires available would be the safest bet. But then again, the very safest bet would be to not own a high horsepower small sports car in the first place. Or if you do own it, keep the thing in the garage. The safest bet would be to go buy a large SUV or better yet, own no car at all!

Given the fact that we all choose to drive these wonderfull, relatively unsafe cars, it seems that maximum safety has taken a backseat. We all decided that the risk was not great enough.

We all have to make the same sort of decision regarding tires. I personally did not like the thought of throwing out perfectly good front tires for the type of driving I'm doing. Call me a tree hugger or whatever, but blatant waste just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I also knew that I wouldn't be tracking the car anytime soon. So, I replaced my rears only. And even worse, I got cheap tires (Kumho's) to go with the cheap fronts the original owner had (Sumitomo's).

With this setup I started autocrossing this past summer. The car has been perfectly predictable in all circumstances I've encountered. As a newbie I haven't always done things right, but managed to never even spin the car.

On public roads I don't drive near the limit. Even with matching tires this is a bad idea. Will emergencies happen? Sure, but even a perfect set of matching tires won't save you in every situation.

So, as an interim solution I haven't had any problems with my unmatched tires. When my fronts wear out my rears will most likely be gone too and I will aquire a matched set at that time. I look at this period as a good time to learn the handling of my car with low grip tires.

The scenario's I would have a problem with are tracking with unmatched tires or driving near the limit on public roads with unmatched tires. For me the risk is acceptable as long as I stay away from those scenario's. Feel free to flame away!