Rob993

It finally looks like the snow is slowly melting way up here in the frigid North and I expect in about 3 weeks or so I can finally pull the car out of storage. (I will then get a better picture to change out my Avtar).

Today I went to my local tire store to price out a pair of rear 255/40Z 17" Toyo TS1's for the rear and they were around $830 for the pair.
The front are in great shape.

The tire guy threw something at me to consider - 4 Kumho Ecsta KU19 which are Y rated tires for a total of $770. He said the wear would be better.

I really don't track the car, but maybe the odd autocross this year.

I value your opinion's, so what would you do?

Thanks
Rob

P.S., yes the prices seem high because I am using Canadian dollars which is about the same as monopoly money for the most part.

joey bagadonuts

Those prices seem high ... even for Canadian dollars.

There's an outfit down in Florida, Edge Racing, which offers a pair of T1-S's in 255/40/17 for $308 USD or $407 CDN. Of course, this price does not include mounting and balancing but it seems your garage may be charging a premium for the tires.

I often have my tires sent directly to my local garage from Tirerack, another on line vendor. It's very convenient and freight is reasonable.

kkim

Rob,

Wow! How much is that in real money?

Have you been to Tire Rack webpage and read up on the Kumhos? May I suggest the Kumho MX tire? Don't know how much it would be in Can. dollars, but TR sells them for like 130 each, I think.

The Yoko es100 is another relatively cheap tire that offers performance on par or above of the tires you're now considering.

Good luck.. let us know what you decide.

Edward

Hi Rob,

If you're looking for a good, sticky tire that is less $$ than the Bridgstone/Mich,Pir offerings, may I suggest the Yoko AVS Sports which I loved on the street and got decent mileage from....even did one track weekend with them and they performed very well. Having just said that, I just mounted a set of the Kumho Ecsta MX as I wanted to try them out after hearing much good feedback, and they were a bit less $$ than the AVS Sports. Early verdict is that I like the MXs a lot. Good grip, quiet, and good feedback at the limit. I am reserving final judgment for when I burn through a set of rears, but for now, I think they're great. As for the Yoko ES100, I was considering those since they were a higher-mileage tire and my bro has them on his Volvo T5 with Bilstein HDs. Nice tire IMO, but definitely less grip than the AVS Sports, but if that's fine with you, you'll get more miles with them I'm sure. As for prices, as mentioned try TireRack, then compare with some of the bigger tire stores in your area. I found one shop in my neighborhood that beat TireRack's price when you finally figure in all costs. Hope this helps.

Edward

Rob993

Thanks for the great information Edward!

nile13

I will second Edward on Kumxo MX. I have them on teh back of the cab. Dues to alignment and suspension issues I have not pushed the car much, but I like them.
I will warn you, though. Kumho makes excellent DOT race tires (I autocross on them) and a very good street tire, which is MX. All other Kumho street offerings are ranging from below avarage to crap, in my opinion. Although I'm not familiar with KU19 specifically.

Rob993

I am suprised that no one had any comments about moving from a "Z" rated to a "Y" rated.

rob

TamiyaGuy

As someone that lived in Edmonton, Alberta for 30 years I can tell you that tires are actually that expensive in Canada. Someone explained to me that it was a lack of competition in the distribution channels.

Anyways back to the topic at hand. If I may stick my neck out with an odd opinion: I think the cheap tires should be fine.

My experience with the 993 has been that the limits are very high even with 5 year old semi-bald tires. In normal driving situations I really can't see being able to tell the difference between the tires.

And while it's true that autocrossing would reveal differences between the tires, I think of autocrossing as a chance to learn about my car's dynamics. So what if the edge of adhesion is a bit lower? Still fun... ask a Miata owner.

Having said that though, whatever you get for tires... man, you're stuck with them for at least the next 3 years. So, if you're someone that's going to constantly kicking himself for not getting the nicer tires then don't do it.

Rob993 - Is Randy M. still the only Porsche salesman at Norden these days?

Thanks,
Peter

nile13

Rob, I find the speed rating on the tires to be _completely_ irrelevant. In theory it indicates what speed the tire is capable of withstanding _for a long time_. I don't think many of us in US/Canada drive for any prolonged periods at 120+ miles an hour (190+ kph). That would be SR rated tire, btw.

nile13

Peter, I find your comment very surprising. I think tires are the single largest and cheapest bang for the buck for any car, especially a fairly sensitive car like a 993.
I do autocross a Miata, btw And I think my autocross car will outcorner my street 993 any day of the week. At least the edge of adheasion is definitely higher (I run R tires).

Rob993

Peter,

Randy is still going at it but Norden has had a second salesperson for around 9 years or so named Dan. Fantastic guy and a great salesperson and an absoulte top notch enthusiast of the P-Car's!

Nile, makes sense. Didn't know if a less than "Z" would ge the "what are you doing" kinda remarks.

Rob

GrantG

I got the Kumho MX's and am thrilled (especially for the $). I got 225/45 and 255/40 on my 17" Cups (7&9). Bought them at www.tirerack.com

TamiyaGuy

nile13,

True, but I'm realistic of how I drive my car. I spend MAYBE 1% of my time at the limits of adhesion (typically a long sweeping on-ramp... hee hee), the other 99% is what I would describe as "brisk" driving. I'm never going to get to the limits of adhesion on the car. I have fun with the car and I move quickly but I'm not hitting the limits.

My experience with a stock Miata (old body style) is relatively low amounts of grip. Great fun because well.... damn it's just fun to lose the back end at a reasonable speed! I'm sure you don't run stock tires on a Miata that is setup for auto-crossing.

I've always had S-02s on the car, but I'm sure I'm not exploiting the strengths of this tire.

Rob993 - Wow! I've been away from Edmonton for longer than I thought. Truthfully, I never actually got along with Randy even though I bought 4 Porsches through him. Alas, too lazy to drive my *** down to Calgary for a car.

Thanks,
Peter

nile13

Peter, I find the street tire's braking ability much more useful and important in everyday driving. S-02s that you have are excellent tires in my estimation (I have them on the front of the car right now). If you go to lesser tires you'll discover very fast that braking performance would suffer. So would transitional character of the car, like turn-in crispness, for example. Limits of grip are not really something that I care much about on the street, it's the other things. I get scared way before the car gets really unsettled.
I am cheating on the Miata - it's going to be a fully prepped CSP car with coilovers and 13x8 wheels shod in Hoosiers this year It'll take me a while to find the limits of _that_ grip. The cool thing that at an autocross course there's nothing to hit.

Rob993

Peter, the best way I can describe those two is a "good cop" and "bad cop" kinda of thing!

But as far north as we are they do move a lot of P-cars! All the oil money up this way has to go to some toys! Norden one a number of awards for Porsche sales in N. America.