timothymoffat

5K miles now and measured 6/32 remaining on the rears. Probably replace rears (with the same Sumis) at the end of this driving season (~4K additional miles). 1 auto-x, otherwise all street miles.

Anybody else with wear/mileage updates?

tooloud10

Anyone have any experience with these versus the Hankook Ventus K110s? They're both great deals and I'm trying to decide which to proceed with for my 996 C4.

RDS928S

I have the Hancook Ventus EVO's on the family ride BMW 540M sport wagon. They are phenomial so are the Sumis III'S on my 993. My pick after owning both would be the Evo's. Hancook is owned & operated by Michelin bty. The price of these tires are almost to good to be true compared to the so called "high end " stuff.

Regards Rich

abiazis

No complaints at all, even with VERY spirited driving.....traction on both wet and dry is very very good - meaning controllable/safe..........lots of rubber on the tread and wide channels for handling, etc...

Just unbelievable for the price versus higher priced tires, i.e. Michelin PS2s and Continental "hard as rock" tires, Goodyear F-1s, Bridegstone Potenza Pole position, various max performance Dunlop, Pirelli P-Zeros, etc.......

I do not see ANY reason to spend more on tires for daily driving unless you are tracking every weekend and want more confidence in a more established name tire........

I am amazed they are so very good.......they are owned by Dunlop so there must be a technology exchange to assist in components and quality.......

That is my experience so far........if they wear faster, so be it, as I can buy 3 sets of these for the price on one of Michelin or other higher priced brand sets.

Plus Pcars wear out the rears pretty fast regardless of brand....best mileage I have ever gotten on rears with 993 cab or 996 is 17,000.....these should go at least 10K...........and I'll be happy.........

Jeff928S4

I wanted to add that I had a set of PS2 Sports in a 285/18/30 in the rear and replaced them with the Sumitomo HTRIII in a 295/18/30 and they are noticeably less wide.

Garth S had rolled my rear fenders to tuck the 285's up in there and they would sometimes slightly scrape on large bumps/potholes/speedbumps, etc. The Sumitomos don't scrape at all - no matter how big the bump. Now there is ample space with the rolled fenders - they could even be unrolled and I think I would be fine.

So.....if you have a 285 on your car now, I suggest going up a size to the 295's or even into the 300's if you get the HTR ZIII.

As for the tire itself, I find it does the job well - I don't push the car at all, so I can't comment on how they stand up to that type of driving; but for "normal" driving, they seem as good as the PS2's. I do find they tend to slip in the rain if you give it any gas from a dead stop - they feel almost like a set of REALLY cheap tires I had on there at one point ("Hercules" was the brand name I think)....kinda "plasticey", if that makes sense - but then again, they are relatively new, so maybe they will get better.

I do have a question.....I went today to get a set of Sumitiomos for the front and they installed the HTR A/S P1 (the Ultra High versions vs the High versions - they are a 91 load/W rated - the ZIII are a 95 with Y speed rating). They are 235/40/18's, but this tire is pretty much the same width as the P2's I had on - odd, cause the backs were so much less wide vs the same sized P2's.

Am I ok to run these slightly less performance-based all-seasons in the from with the ZIII (summer tire) in the rear or should I go back and see if they have the ZIII in my size? I assume they are only around $10-15 more per tire, so if they have them, I will get them, but if they don't, will I be ok with that set up?

Oh....and I drove the ZIII's (in the rear) this winter (we had a very mild winter here in Nova Scotia) and did get caught in 2-3 centimeter snow a couple times and these summer tires still got me home - and they actually hold pretty good grip at cold temps.....just in case anyone in a colder climate was curious.

Wilder

I wouldn't mix similarly rated tires and I certainly wouldn't mix all-season tires with performance summer tires. That could induce strange handling characteristics at speed and/or during hard cornering. Tires are not a good place to cut corners. If you can afford a Porsche, I'm sure you can afford a complete set of these inexpensively priced tires. And while on the topic of safety, may I suggest that driving a high performance car with performance summer tires in the snow is putting other people's lives at risk? Not to sound like your mother but you may want to consider calling a cab next time you "get caught" in the snow or better yet, use proper tires in the winter.

95 C4 993

I own 2 sets of the Hankook Ventus---my 2nd set arrived with the 2nd set of Cup II wheels I purchased a few weeks back.

Good tire, no complaints.

Dr. No

My buddy has these on his RS4 and is very happy with them.

Jeff928S4

Thanks for your reply.

I called the shop to check and see if they had the 235/40/18's in the ZIII and they do not. He said the ones I have (The HRT A/S S1 UHP) are "ultra high performance all-seasons" and will do fine with the ZIII's. The speed rating on the front will be a W, so I am limited to 270klms/hr - which will never happen - the most the car had been up to has been 220 and that is rare to happen. The tires have the same tread pattern/sidewall pattern, etc. Hummm.....

I don't go to the track or even drive on the highway that much. The hardest corners I take are in fast-food drive-thru's. These tires will not be pushed. I traveled home from the shop on the highway for about 15 minutes at speeds in the 120-160 klms area and the car drove great. For what I am using it for, I haven't noticed anything different in how it handles/stops or anything like that - it, of course, seems to handle better because I now have new tires on all four corners.

I should have been a tad more clear on what I used the car for this winter. I work about 3 football fields from my home, so my commute consists of a 2 minute drive down a service road (where no cars travel). I never used the car in snow, there was just the odd time it did snow while I was at work and I had to drive the car to the house on wet/slushy roads. 2-3 centimeters usually doesn't accumulate enough to leave snow on the roads. If there was snow on the roads, I would just walk to work just or leave it at work if I took it with me, but that only happened once - it was a mild winter - I shoveled only twice the whole season.

I guess I was just pointing out that the tires will still hold grip on wet/cold roads.

Leander

WRT the XL Hankook Ventus V12 evo K110s, tirerack gives this warning:

"The following tire you have selected has a higher load rating than the vehicle's Original Equipment (O.E.) tires. This typically results in increased ride harshness, which some customers may find undesirable."

cgfen

just ordered a set of 235 - 55 X 17's for my Subie wagon, will let you know how it goes.

goofballdeluxe

I bought a set of HTRZIII's about a month ago when Tire Rack ran their special.

I was running Conti SportContact 2's before, and the only downside I can see so far with the Sumi's is a little more tire noise than I had before. Other than that, they have been just as good as the Conti's in every way.

95C4VanIsle

Hi Tim,

I have 9,100 miles on mine, including having done two DE's. I am out of town right now so I can't check tread depth. I have been pleased with the tires.

See you at Mike's on Saturday .

matt777

Just put on a few hundred miles on my new 18" Sumis. They are quiet enough and the ride is more than acceptable. I had 17's previously. I might test them further at a DE in July unless I decide to run my old 17s.

Ed Burdell

Speaking of different tire sizes, here's a cool tire and wheel size visualizer - even allows you to adjust the offset to see how that works (If you're like me, I never can remember how offsets work.)

No affiliation, etc.

http://www.rimsntires.com/rt_specs.jsp