I have owned my Boxster since new it has just under 8,000 km (5,000 miles) and while the tires are not cracking, nor do I use the vehicle at highways speeds at all, the tires have long since "aged out". I don't track the car, and rarely use it for any sustained highway travel, rather I just use it for around town driving. It has never been in the rain, but I would like some rain weather capability. It is not ever driven in the snow. I use Michelin on my other Porsches, but am not inclined to get Pilot Sport PS2 as these are now ancient technology. I am considering Continental ExtremeContact Sport and Potenza S-04 Pole Position. I do like to corner carve in the Boxster, but I don't wan't something that will react harshly to bumps (the roads in Edmonton, Alberta are just nasty). It is also worth noting that the car is stored inside in cold weather, on antiflat spot devices, so the tire (Pirelli) can't be prone to cracking in the winter.

Using stock tire sizes 205/50ZR17 front, 255/40ZR17 rear.

 

Get round ones.

 

Sumitomo HTR ZIII

cheap as hell, but last long, good in rain, and pretty good grip (not quite michelin, but sounds like you don't need it)

 

I would call denny at the tire rack and ask him what it the latest and the greatest for the boxster ext 321

 

Thanks, I will give him a call. I presume you have had some good experience with him.

 

I put BF Goodrich A/S radials on my 99. Reasonably priced, quiet ride, sure footed in dry and wet conditions. When I need tires for my 2000 S, I'll be putting on BF Goodrich there, as well. Got caught in a light dusting of snow with Summer performance tires once, squirrelly as hell...never again.

 

I'm in a similar situation, just purchased a 1998 Boxster with 13,500km and still on original tyres...

Originals are Conti Sport Contact, so I'm thinking Conti Sport Contact 5 or Michelin PS4?

 

PS4 do not come in stock 17” sizes, otherwise they would be my default choice. I didn’t find the Contact 5 in the correct sizes either.

 

Ah yes you're right. Looks like it's PS2s for me then...

 

Its a little tricky.

Tirerack stocks more tires that will fit the Boxster than they show on their web site. For example, Bridgestone RE-71Rs aren't shown as being available for 17" rims. Turns out that the "problem" is that they don't have the front tires, which are 205/50s. HOWEVER, you can mount 225/45s on the front 17s, which all of us who do Autocross do. It actually helps slightly reducing under steering to go a tad wider on the fronts.

So unless you do independent searches for the fronts and backs instead of the 4 wheel packages they default for, you'll never see all of the choices. The other option is to call them.

 

For my 2002 I just bought factory sanctioned tires at first Pirelli tires which is what the car came with from the factory, then later when prices dropped I tried some Michelin tires. I don't recall the model of tire but they were factory sanctioned. Michelin tires were a bit better -- longer life and not as noisy when worn (but still plenty noisy) but only when the price difference compared to the Pirelli tires was nearly nil.

Then at some point the Michelin tires were back ordered -- Michelin was changing over to a new model of tire -- and I went back to Pirelli. What impressed me was even after years and year the Pirelli or Michelin tires still performed the same as the sets of tires bought years earlier. While the 'N' number went from '0' to '1' then '2' the tires were still the in terms of performance. Impressive consistency. Tire life was very consistent. 20K miles for the rears, double that for the fronts. Set after set after set.

My experience in over 300K miles of driving is the tires are fine for around town driving, can handle some rain but with the Boxster the tires are wide and the car light so I still have to slow down. Even had the car in some light snow once shortly after I bought it and while I managed to get around town ok I would *not* recommend you drive the car in the snow with any tires on it other than real snow tires.

Reaction to bumps is a function of the side wall dimension which is a function of tire/wheel size. The 17" tires on my Boxster were better in this regard than the 18" tires on my Cayman S or Turbo. But not as good as the 16" (or was it 15"?) tires on my VW Golf. Over the same roads the Golf (about the same weight as the Boxster) rode like a magic carpet.

While I no longer have either Porsche for my current cars a Dodge Hellcat and Mini JCW the larger tires of the Hellcat (20" diameter and wider) roll over potholes the JCW 17" tires fall into with a bone jarring jolt. I alternate between the 2 cars and in the JCW I have to watch out as there are several sections of road that if I'm in the Hellcat I don't even notice the potholes but in the JCW to avoid them I have to remember to change lanes.

 

OMG! Tires should not 'age off' a car! You're killing those cars. Get them out and drive them!

 

I ended up purchasing the Continental ExtremeContact Sport as I wanted the stock size, the reviews were good, Tire Rack recommended them over my other choice and the original tires were the previous iteration of these new Continentals. If the Michelin PS 4S was available in the sizes I needed, I would have bought them, but they are not. The two remaining N spec tires have issues. The Pirelli has horrible cracking issues in cold weather and PS2 are very outdated tires and have been surpassed by a number of newer tires. I get the new tires installed in the next two or three weeks.