champignon

I appear to be about to acquire a 2006 Cayman S with 19" Sport Wheels.

Taking the tire sizes of 235/35/19 and 265/35/19, the choices are fairly limited. With the major Brands one has only high performance summer tires to choose, with the addition of 2 "all season radials," the Conti DWS-06 and Goodyear Asymmetric Eagle.

The car needs new tires.

Normally I would just put Michelin PSS tires on the thing and be done with it, but it would be nice for this car to be able to run it in milder winter conditions because of where I will keep it.

Neither the Contis nor the Goodyear Eagles have terribly good ratings, either from Tire Rack testing or from Porsche or BMW sports car owners. The Contis are pretty good in wintry conditions but fall down severely when compared with summer performance tires on dry pavement; they also seem to have a very abbreviated tire life, especially on the rears. The Goodyears don't seem to be all that good, period.

What I would really like to buy would be Michelin AS/3 tires, which are not available in the size of the fronts. I even looked at Nokian WGR-3 tires, which are not available in the sizes needed.

Any comments or suggestions, or should I just follow my first instinct and go with the Michelin PSS tires and forget about mild winter condition use?

fnel1771

Any summer tire is useless below 5 celcius. If you want to drive in snowy conditions you should get the appropriate shoes. It simply is not worth saving the wrong dollar and also look at it from a safety perspective. The MPSS is a great tire though in the wet

champignon

5 celsius is about 40 fahrenheit, and I'm not sure that I agree with your blanket statement. Where I live, in the mountains, many spring and fall days start out close to freezing and then warm up as high as even 75 F or almost 25 C.

I have MPSS tires on several cars, and if I thought they were "useless" for parts of days of most of the year, I would not put them on a single car.

Better stated, summer performance tires are perhaps "mediocre" down to maybe 25F, and they risk being damaged if stored or used below 20F, is my understanding.

I have a couple of additional questions based upon the fact that the tire types available with the staggered fit of the 19" Cayman wheels is so limited.

One question would be whether one could reasonably mix and match tires on the front and rear, for example using Michelin PSS tires on the front, and the AS/3 on the rears, fitment for which is available. My assumption is NO, this would not be a good idea.

My second question would be if taking a tire like the Conti DWS-06, and overinflating it a little, might make up for some of the performance decrement noted when this tire is compared to many of the summer performance tires that the vehicle is most commonly fitted with.

Thanks for all comments and reactions.

Dr.Bill

Not sure where you are looking. Tire Rack lists 18 summer passenger tires in those sizes. I prefer to stick with the extreme performance summer tires and would go with either the RE-71R or AD08 R.

If you drop down to the maximum performance category, there are tons of choices, including the MPSS tires.

I would not mix tire brands.

Another option would be to get 18" wheels and some dedicated winter tires.

If you want the Pilot Sport A/S 3+, I'd go with:
245/35/19 and 265/35/19.
The overall diameter of those tires is almost identical to the OEM sizes and would cause no issues with ABS or other electronic gizmos.

Or, e-mail Damon at Tire Rack & he will make other suggestions.

champignon

These are great suggestions and I appreciate them. I will contact Damon and ask these questions. This is not a car that I would ever plan to do extensive winter type driving with, however where I will keep the car the winter is not terribly severe (normally) and it would be nice to be able to use the car a little from Dec. through March.

Thanks again!

olegd

For 19'" I would get the new Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. I would also get a cheap winter set on separate rims. These come up on forums and can be had for under $1K (rims and tires)

champignon

I appreciate the suggestion. I have cars coming out of my ears, and two of them already have dedicated summer and winter sets of tires. I have nowhere to store any additional tires, nor do I have the time, twice yearly, to take yet another car to a shop to have the tires swapped (I know some people do that themselves, but I don't).

I think I will just put dedicated summer replacement tires on the 19" Sport rims, and forget about driving the car whenever it is below 25 or 30F, or whenever there is snow or slush on the roads, like I do for my other summer cars.

Thanks.

champignon

I spoke with Damon just now and described how I drive and my desired usage pattern for the car. He agreed that the Pilot Sport A/S 3+ would be a good choice in the sizes you suggest above. I don't drive like your grandmother, but I'm a somewhat conservative driver. Damon didn't think I would notice a lot of difference between the Pilot Sport A/S 3+ and the various performance summer tires we have been discussing in this thread.

Not sure exactly which way I will go. I already have one car that lives where this Porsche will live, that I can't drive at all in the winter, and it is somewhat appealing to me to be able to drive this Cayman S on mild winter days. Something to think about as the purchase of the car winds through its process.

Thanks for all suggestions. Any other comments remain welcome.