Did a 300 mile round trip from Chicago to New Glarus in Wisconsin yesterday and there were parts of the journey that just made me want to trade my car in and get an SL500/SL55.

My car has 5000 miles on it with Pirelli OEM tires. The road noise and the expansion joint "thumps" drove me nuts! Road surfaces were mixed (this being the midwest). Tire pressures are 32F 39R.

Would Continental Sport Contact 2's make an appreciable difference in noise levels and ride, or not be noticable from the Pirelli's?

Any other suggestions?

 

le chef, no disrespect, but if you want a car that feels like a "real" sports car, the the porsche is probably it....if you want a car that is designed to be a luxury car first and then has borrowed sports car technology to appeal to the less than "real" sports car crowd, then maybe the SL is it.

i felt the same way on a 1000 mile road trip across the south where the freeways are horrible. but, i realized after getting onto curvy hilly two lanes in the arkansas mountains that, i bought a sports car with real sports car performance.

it's almost like reviewers and such that complain that a particular SUV rides like a truck. hello! what's it supposed to ride like? a mini-van. see it for what it is.

sorry, i haven't worn out my pirelli's yet, so can't compare to conti or other.

good luck.

 

It really bugs me on concrete and roads with expansion joints. Other tarmac roads, even with broken surfaces are not a problem, particularly on twisties where everything comes together just fine.

 

I agree with KW here. The 996 is more of a sports car than any MB and you should expect some degree of discomfort whether aural or otherwise. I drive a 993 and the 996 feels like a Lexus to me. Having said that, you already have a compliant Porsche.

As to the tires, the Pirelli P-Zero Asimmetrico is designed to perform better in terms of grip and handling. As such, it may ride a bit harsher than the Conti due to a slightly stiffer sidewall. But, don't forget that all tires will become noisy as they wear. IOW, you should always compare noise levels of two equally worn tires.

 

LeChef...

I had similar thoughts when I first got my C4-S, but as time went on it became less apparent. Maybe the springs wore in a little bit or I just got used to it. I DID lower my tire pressures in response to threads here but not as much as people recommended. It didn't seem to make a big difference.

I've had other sports cars (non-Porsche) that had a better ride on the highway. But then again I never got a chance to see their limitations at an auto-x or DE like I have recently. There are a couple M3's that run in my local PCA auto-x events and they exhibit a LOT of body roll compared to the 996. AND they ride about as hard.

I've lived in your part of the country and you do have very poor road conditions. If you auto-x or DE you can weigh the pros and cons. If you do mostly road stuff maybe another car would be a better choice.

Only YOU know for sure....

 

I bought a 99 C2 w/17k in the spring of 01. On the drive home from Portland the Pirelli's were horribly noisy, tramlined badly. I switched them out to Michellins and the noise and the tramlining were history. 27k now and still quiet.

My 01 C4 came with conti's. After being stored for the first winter and having accumulated about 8k miles we I started driving it the next spring they started acting just like the Pirellis, if not even noisier.

When I contacted the folks at Conti they seemed to "roll-over" to quickly, as if they knew of the problem. Gave me full credit and took the tires back.

 

Yes, they would. P Zeros get quite noisy when they are worn. Also, they have only about 4mm of tread on the outside shoulder, which is good for cornering performance but makes them wear out ever so fast.

Due to their harder compound and different tread pattern, Contis are clearly preferable in terms of noise level and comfort and you would also get a lot more mileage out of them. That of course comes at the expense of road holding and steering accuracy, which are *not quite* as good as the P Zeros', but IMHO good enough for most public roads. The difference is under 1 sec on a 1:15 lap.

Cheers,
Uwe