I own a 2002 Porsche 996 C4S coupe. It's a daily driver. I autocross it once a month. I've due for a new set of street tires, I currently have the oem conti sports in stock sizes, 225/40/18 front and 295/30/18.

I'm looking for a street tire that can also be a decent autocross tire.

I autocross in stock class so I want to keep the same tire sizes. I live too far from the nearest auto cross to run R compounds on the street.

Is there a tire that can be used daily in the rain, etc and still give a better autocross time than the oem conti sports?

I was thinking maybe the Yokohama AD08. Are they as good as conti's in the rain? Are they louder?

I'm open to suggestions.

please give me your opinions.

thank you,

Glenn

 

I have no direct experience with those two tires, but, from the Tire Rack tire test reports, I suspect that the AD08's will be quicker at AX than the Conti's. Another street tire that has tested well for autocross is the Bridgestone RE-11. I've used RE-11s on the road and in 4 autocrosses this season, and have been very impressed with them. They seem to provide grip somewhere between the OEM Michelin PS2s and my Yoko R888s (a R-comp tire) that I sometimes run on. You can check the tire test reports at www.tirerack.com. I think the AD08 and the RE-11 were in the same test, along with a couple of other comparable tires.

 

thank you for your input. Unfortunately the Bridgestone RE-11's don't come in my oem tire sizes, unless someone else sells them besides tire rack.

I need to stay with the oem tire sizes to stay in stock class.

 

There are a couple other recent threads asking pretty much this same question that you might want to look through, too.

 

thank you, yes i looked at the other threads. those other tires don't come in stock 996 C4S sizes

 

If you're talking about SCCA Stock class, you're allowed to run any tire size that fits on your rims. I think PCA Stock class restricts you to OEM tire sizes, though.

 

255/35R18 and 285/30R18 Yoko AD08, or 245/40R18 and 275/35R18 Dunlop Z1. I would take the AD08, due to the lower center of gravity.

These sizes will help reduce the massive understeer in the C4S, while keeping the AWD system check. Despite the smaller size in the rear compared to stock, the rear grip will increase massively compared to the stock Contis.

These tires are good for street and autoX. Do not use them for track days, as you will require a higher load rating for the track that neither the AD08 or Z1 offers.

These tires are strictly summer sticky tires.

 

You did not say - this stock class is class withing PCA autocrosses or SCCA?
Distance to autocross site is a relative thing. I live 40 miles away from my site and Hossiers A6 do take some damage from this distance but I tell you, I could not really measure how much rubber was taken off on that 40 miles drive (but it was loosing it, no doubt, even with 0 toe in front and 0.10 toe rear), it is really non-essential amount compared to how much thread gets lost during one single day with good fast 8 auto-x runs.

So I would not worry about driving to site on Hoosiers, I would worry about overall budget if you stick to A6 tires. Common knowledge/opinion is that if you use Toyo R888 you will be about of 1sec slower than on A6 Hoosiers on a 60sec course. A6 tires are good for 6-7 run days, in 10 days you will cord them.
R888 will last way longer and you can also run DE events on them as well. So choice is yours.

If you are limited to PCA stock class with no R-comps allowed - potenzas RE-11 are actually very good tires. But not nearly close to A6 hoosiers.

 

you can put 225 or 235 fronts with 275 rears, what is the problem? you use 18" rims, right?