bdiamond001

Been lurking out there, since buying my '02 Targa in Jan. I have recently become a member. I have read many of the posts on tires. I liked the handling of the Pirrelli P Rosso but the wear on the rear tires is terrible. Damon at Tire Rack suggested the non N rated Potenza RE5o50A. Any comments, I am a daily driver who is not hard on car. Hope to post pictures soon.

newport996

In my opinion..the N rating for most tires is not a big deal...My first porsche a 97 Boxster was bought from a Porsche dealer with new Kumhos on it. They were great tires...not N rated. My 996 now has the NON N rated Sport Conti's and it never handled better...got a CRAZY deal on them and I couldnt pass up on them...what's the difference? who knows....maybe Porsche hasnt certified this compound...maybe no difference except they know they can charge more for the N rating. This wouldnt bother me especially if Damon recommended the tires.

Dr_KarlB

I had OEM N-rated Dunlops, and these were a real POS.
I didnt realize how bad until they were gone.
I got the RE-050 Pole Positions as they were a great deal at the time on Tire Rack.
They have about 2000 miles and two track days on them now.
They look about 20% worn at a guess, so if i get 10k i'll be happy.
They are good at the track for a novice like me and much better on the street.
Ive never really understood the road noise issue.. PSE and Cab make a lot of noise anyway, and its not like i need to talk on the cell phone when i drive.

Also, the Bridgestone N rated offerings for 996 will all be obsolete next year, and replaced by RE050's and RE750's. A lot of people like the 750's for the long wear life

TamiyaGuy

I currently have the Pirelli's on my 03 996. After the compound has hardened over the years, they're slippery beyond words. Twitchy on freeway on-ramps and in the rain... well that's another story totally.

I have the Bridgestone tires you mentioned on a 2005 G35 Coupe and they are amazing so far! Absolutely phenomenal traction on high speed on-ramps and decreasing radius turns. I'm very impressed and will be getting a set of them for my 996 soon.

Thanks,
Peter

Kims996Cab

You will find this subject has been beat to death if you do a search. No one here is likely to change his mind. Some think N rated tires are mandatory; some think N rated tires are required to keep warranty in force, and others (I among them) think the N rating means nothing.

I bought Goodyear GS D3's, and they have been terrific. Worth of the #1 rating that Road and Track gave them. Great ride, great wet & dry traction, low noise, very little wear at 20K miles.

I suggest you pick a tire and buy it. You won't find any definitive answers to this question here.

LiveNupe

I never got a good answer to the question of "What's the difference between the N and non-N version of the same tire" question. On the surface, it appears to be a great marketing ploy to extract a few extra dollars from a Porsche owner's pocket. The cook book answer is that the N-rated tires were tested and certified by the factory. However, I've yet to hear of any evidence to support the notion that the N-rated tires have any structural or chemicial composition differences from their non-N rated brethren.

Go figure.

bdiamond001

After inspecting tires it looks like I only need rear tires. I can't get over difference in wear in front and rear. So I'm sticking with Pirelli this time and will switch to the Bridgestone non N on all 4 next time. Thanks for the replys and to a patient Damon at Tire Rack.

TamiyaGuy

The N rating was purely a "stamp of approval" by Porsche. It meant that the manufacturer of the tire took the tire through a series of tests specified by Porsche, and passed. The original tire submitted for these tests would be designated N0. Subsequent revisions or enhancements to that tire would be dubbed N1, N2 and so forth.

Should the manufacturer submit a brand new tire design for consideration and pass, it would restart the naming convention and the new tire would receive N0. The testing sprung out of Porsche's awareness of how important tire performance is to their car's behavior.

Thanks,
Peter

gota911

I had the same issue with the P-Zero rear tires. They wore out in the center of the tire at 9,000 miles but the inner and outer 1/3 of the tire still had decent tread on them. When I replaced the rear tires, I lowered the pressure to 38 PSI and got about 25% more tire wear on the new set.

Since the 996 is my daily driver and I put 17,500 on the clock per year, I went through two sets of P-Zero rear tires per year. Once all 4 P-Zeros needed to be replaced, I switched to the Bridgestone RE 750 tires because I was looking for longer tread life. The RE 750 tires are NOT an N-rated tire, They have a tread rating of 340 versus 140 for the RE 050 versus 220 for the P-Zeros.

Unfortunately, the widest rear tire available for an 18” wheel is 265 in the RE 750. I would have liked to keep the 285 size. The other thing about the RE 750 is that the rear tires are a “harsher” than the P-Zeros and I notice the highway expansion joints more than I did with the P-Zeros. I think this is due to the harder rubber compound, which obviously, gives the longer tread wear. I have driven 5,000 miles on the RE 750 tires and have not noticed any appreciable tire wear to date. FYI.

LVDell

Tamiya.....not exactly correct.

Here is an except from the N-Spec explanation:
It is also important to know that while Porsche N-specification tires have been fine tuned to meet the specific performance needs of Porsche vehicles, the tire manufacturers may also build other tires featuring the same name, size and speed rating as the N-specification tires for non-Porsche applications. These tires may not be branded with the Porsche N-specification because they do not share the same internal construction and/or tread compound ingredients as the N-specification tires. Using tires that are not N-specific is not recommended and mixing them with other N-specification tires is not permissable.