993inNC

Oh they are certainly NOT and do mean NOT track tires !!!

banzai993

have 2K on mine now and still very happy

cabrio993

Thanks for the update and the shop lead. I just ordered mine and should have new shoes by the end of the week!

jdistefa

I'm going to run these for fun at Mosport on thursday in the MCoupe... the 993 won't be ready yet. As per Chris's comment, I'm not going to push them, but I'll post some impressions on friday.

jdistefa

Post-Mosport: All I can say is.... wow. Exceeded expectations. Ran hot pressures of 34-35 all around and they were impressive for a street tire, price be damned. Granted, the car (M Coupe) has 500lb springs and is well dialed in, but hey, for $700, these were a pleasant surprise. Humid/warm with a greasy track that's had a lot of rubber on it over the past couple weeks. Again, I'm sold on these as d/d tires, but a little DE time didn't hurt.

They certainly aren't MPSCs, but I think they're better than 45% (by price) of PS2s. My 0.02 .

cabrio993

I just go these tires, and so far I am very pleased with everything about them. The car actually feels much better planted than with my previous Pirellis Pzeros Rossos.

The Pirellis tend to follow every ondulation and grading on the road. They also had a lot of sidewall flex for my taste. Tire wear with the Pirellis was also an issue as I could only get about 5K-6K miles on a set of rears. So when the time came to change all 4 tires, I decided to give these a try.

I'll update this thread once I have some more miles on them, but so far so good...

jcb-memphis

I don't consider the PS2 a track tire either. Most of the local PCA instructors at the Zone 2 event suggested I stick to street tires for a while, despite the pressure to get R compound tires, in order to learn more.....to not "rush" into the R world.

Just me listening to the advice of other, better drivers.

bentlink

Most likely due to the mismatch.

I just came off Contisport 2s (just touching wear bar but slippery in the rain) and my Sumitomo HTR ZIIIs are great.

Balanced well, fairly quiet (not measured, but just by ear) and feel superb on my favourite twisties.

Look forward to trying them on the track at a driver event.

All in all, a really good tire so far at ~600 miles. And for the cost, they rock.

brad@tirerack.com

Here's a great thread from over at 6Speedonline on this tire. Some great feedback here as well:

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/9...sumitomos.html

Let me know if interested! Thanks.

J.B.H.

I just ordered another set for the rear...im at 8,000 miles and dont have much left...I am running a pretty agressive camber and too much toe...Just had the car realigned which should help but car is RS height ish... Noise doesnt seem to be a problem either but that's probably due more to Mr. Fister's stage I....

NP993

Negative. Mismatched tires front to rear do not make a car twitchy.

Mike J

I now have about 2500km on a new set of Sumi III's...and am very impressed. With some spirited mountain driving over the last few weeks, the car handles really well and the tires have really good grip. Nice in the wet as well, much better than the Yoko AVS Sports that were mounted on the wheels.

BTW, I am running 19" RUF's, and bought a full set of Sumi's for less than $800....almost affordable!

So its a thumbs up so far!

Cheers,

Mike

bentlink

You can't by Fuzions that fit a widebody -- don't come in the right size for the rear of a Turbo or C4S.

I have have Fuzions on a previous car and liked them.

Roll on sidewall and oscillation seems really odd -- almost like underinflated?

However, no disrespect to you personal observation, but have a lot of respect for TireRacks testing and support of grassroots motorsports (where they get lots of real world feedback from autocross, DEs etc. from multiple sports cars).

I picked the Sumitomos HTR z3 for the TireRack test (which shows them a better performer that the Fuzion by far). My personal experience with new Sumi HTR zIII are that they are great tires and are completely stable.

Definitely better than the Contisport II that came stock with my C4S. Especially in the rain -- several road trips recently with heavy rain and standing water and no hydroplaning even at speed.

I now have about 5,000 kms on them and they are solid all around performers.

One one recent trip, my wife was driving our Audi A4 S-Line with Pilot PS2 and she had far more hydroplaning. (Granted, my Sumitomos are a little bit newer, but very impressed with wet weather performance.)

bentlink

Many manufacturers, autocrossers, racers and tuning shops say to avoid mismatching tires: it varies from odd performance issues to downright unsafe.

Not sure why you are so confident with your above claim that mismatched tires do not make a car twitchy. Besides, it is a sweeping statement that any combination will not be twitchy.

rpm's S2

Basic Tire 101 - do not mix and match brands or types from front to rear or side to side on performance cars.

As to whether the HTR ZIII is actually the 'Holy Grail' of performance tires - great traction+low noise+high treadlife+low cost - the question is infinitely debatable. That tire may never exist, and probably can never exist (though we have all tried to find it, wasting money on Kumhos, Fuzions, and other tires that seemed promising, but got slick and noisy very quickly).

The feedback in the 9 months since this post began, both here and on TR and other sites, certainly shows that this tire is a serious consideration for any performance car. Additionally, any comparisons that use previous Sumitomo experience are clearly irrelevant, as this tire represents both a new generation of high performance asymmetric, and the infusion of Dunlop-knowledge to the Sumitomo line.

Buy them or not, but they are clearly a strong choice, particularly when compared to much higher priced options.