JJB236

Hmmm I wondered why my avatar is small compared to others. Let me see what I can do about that. Topic of cars and women can never be separated lol

jw1977

I would think 15k is great.

JJB236

What about Hankooks? My tire guy are raving about these brands. How do they rack up compared to Kumho's? Reviews are pretty good on Hankooks.

Alstoy

15k is very good for the backs. I believe the average is about 10k w/o track. I've actually heard a lot of good things about the Hankooks. They are very cheap, so you could try them out and would not stand to loose much. Let us know what your experience is if you do decide to do that.

Edgy01

Tires are all you have between your Porsche and the road. You will greatly impact the performance capability of that car by putting inexpensive tires on it. If you have to skimp on tires then you should have bought a Camry--really. I know that's a bit rough, but I honestly don't get buying an expensive sports car and then putting inexpensive tires on it what will never deliver the performance the car can give you. If you're a grandmother--disregard.

russo

Funny how some people go out of their way to skimp on tires when they own an expensive performance car. I guess some people don't get it? The car and the road meet at the point of contact at the tire. If a 911 owner gets 15k out of their rear tires, IMHO, they are driving their car no different than a Camry. Getting 50K out of a tire, ridiculous, I can barely get 15k on my Cayenne. I guess to each his own.

Nugget

I guess the part you don't get is this: there is only a loose correlation between price and performance when it comes to tires.

Hankook and Kumho both are aggressively priced but that doesn't mean they're bad, unsafe, or non-performance tires. Both enjoy a strong reputation among enthusiasts and I know plenty of people who have been happy with them for street, track, and autocross.

Just because a PS2 or a PZero Rosso costs twice as much doesn't mean they're better tires. It doesn't mean that at all.

boolala

I have gotten 20 K out of the rear tires and 40 K out of the fronts with Contis SC2. The rear PS2s have just worn out at 20 K and it looks like I still have good tread left on the front PS2s. And I do drive it agressively.

Ucube

I've heard good things about the PS2s, which is probably what I'll go with next (that or the Bridgestone Potenzas). I find the PZero Rossos on mine to be fairly noisy.

Nugget

I'd go with Bridgestone RE050 N1 spec (the new one) over the aging PS2. The PS2 is not on par with more modern compounds.

If you're not married to the Porsche N specification, the RE11 is also a good choice. A bit more aggressive than the RE050.

I hated the two sets of PZero Rossos I ran on my C2S. Any track at all would ruin them and as Ucube mentioned they get crazy loud as the tread starts to wear.

Edgy01

And just to make the original poster feel better, a buddy of mine got only 5,000 miles out of his first set of tires on his 1985 930 Turbo.

Edgy01

I agree that you should not necessarily overlook the others, but each of us have slightly different requirements for tires. For some it's all about the tire wear rate. For others, it's all about performance. Still others are seeking something that helps them to deal with their climate issues.

However, everyone should go forward with their eyes open on this stuff.

Skibum

PS-2 N1 vs. N2 spec? Does anyone know the difference? Is getting the N2 a no brainer?

sjfehr

Sure, you could put the same 50,000 mile all-season tires on a Porsche that you would on a Kia, but why the hell would you? You'd cripple the performance! Our tires only last 15,000 miles or less because that's the state of the art right now for grippy street tires. Longer-lasting tires don't perform nearly so well. Racing tires wear out even quicker. (Grippy street tires wear out quicker if you race them, too... my last set of tires only lasted 3000 miles. Dragging tires sideways hurts tire life, whodathunkit!)

If you need them for weather, that's different; just be aware what you're putting on your car will hurt dry weather performance. You probably will need to do seasonal tire changes.

Hankook RS3s are excellent tires, good wet and dry, and like the heat. They make good DE tires. Kumho XSs are awesome grip on the track, but have very poor wet weather performance and need to warm up before they give their best grip. I would not DD Kuhmo XSs, but they'd be at the top of my list for a dry-weather competition tire. Dunlop Star Specs are another excellent tire; great wet and dry performance and better in cold weather than the Hankooks- the Dunlops are a very good autocross tire and DD tire. (Hankooks need to warm up, but not nearly as much as Kuhmos do.)

If you're not competing, though, I'd just get Sumitomo HTR ZIII which are very good tires and very cheap.

Paying extra for N-rating is a waste of money, IMHO. Far better tires out there for far cheaper.

jcnesq

You're in L.A., go to Wheel Enhancement in Culver City. They will give you totally honest advice about what you want or need, their prices are actually very competitive (think Tire Rack prices), and they stock our sizes. Or just call Dave and discuss with him first.