John McM

Check out Design 911 as well as the currency moves may make a difference. They arrive just as quickly with the same import process, except you can use Paypal.

996tnz

MPSS will outperform them (and pretty much all else) in the dry but if you can live with giving up another second or two, Tirerack's Sumitomo HTRZ III UHP summer tyres may be worth a look. Great in the rain (Neil can vouch for them ), and good for a road tyre on track too - but more on a par with the likes of RE050As. If the Sumis are available in your sizes, they're about 30% cheaper landed and should have close to double the tread life of the Michelins. I'm on my second set - now half worn after about ~10,000 kms including a couple of Sprint days, the Ecolight tour and the NITT. The rears of my first set did die with a quarter of the tread left (big bubbles inside the side walls) but by then they had been subjected to an Ardmore gymkhana and a 100 kph 360 dry spin during a Hampton Downs Sprints event so had some excuse. They are asymmetric but non-directional, so if you care about such stuff you may notice the tread pattern is not quite mirrored across the car. In 996 Turbo sizing the rears are rated for the XL loads we put on them but may need to check for your sizing. BTW, both times mine arrived within the week, as Mark said.

Maxem

hot ******* it with the idea of having door pockets

Macca

Yip the Sumis are cheap as chips at $512 a set in 225/40/18+265/35/18 fitment right now from Tirerack. Not worth ordering ex USA IMO as freight would be $400 USD odd and seems like being Asian rubber youd probably be better of buying locally.

They are 300 treadwear by the way same as MPSS.

If you are going to the trouble of importing the MPSS are about where it starts to make sense at $880 USD a set same 18" sizes above and $400 off for shipping means under $1900 NZD on your door step tax and freight paid within 7 days. Same tyres in NZ would be $3000 on a best deal basis.

General rule of thumb from my experience with USA tyres (UK would be sam) is if Japanese or Korean then NZ special deals often same or less. if European then offshore deals cheaper (worth noting many Euros like Michelin make tyres in USA hence such low price). If you want N rated Porsche tyres add 35% to "normal" version of the tyre as N rated tyres made only in French plant and are always more expensive (Porsche owners "tax").

Other options include Hankook RS3 and Nitto Nevo

Macca

Door pockets = good! Like the second design most...:-)

996tnz

Couldn't find any local supplier when I was hunting them.

Maybe not much difference in longevity then. Could only see Michelin PS2s (220 TW) in 285 rears though in Tirerack's matched sets. Some tyres may perhaps be no different bar the Porsche N rating but others (some earlier Michelin's included I believe) have an extra reinforcing layer in the sidewall for instance versus their non-N cousins. Porsche World, I think, had a sidebar article on it.

Maxem

Me too, might de bulk it a bit and taper it in towards the back end to match the armrest. Will be aluminium.

Macca

MPSS all 300 UTQG for what its worth (which is very little from what I have learned).

Porsche N rated tyres is a whole another debate. Lets just say my position is that at the time the vehicle was manufactured the advantages of Porsches recommended tyres out weights the other options. A decade or more later tyre tech for non N rated tyres is no doubt better (in some models) that the original fitment N rated tyre. I think there is some fact and some fiction in the N rated thing. I have run non N rated tyres on the 993 for 10 of the last 14 years and in fact we are all (mostly?) using non N rated at the track where loads are greatest.

Doug will have a fair idea if the MPSS work ok in a few weekends time over 7 days of the Targa as Richard has just fitted a new set to the GT3 for this event and Im very keen to understand how he finds them.

As per the OP my single recommendation would be MPSS through a combination of personal use and general RL, Pistonhead etc feedback however I accept that landed these are likely $500 NZD a set landed more than the Sumis which are obviously a lower cost proposition. I cant comment on if that tyre is better than the MPSS but for $500 I personally don't think Id bother finding out and rather err on the side of popular wisdom.

My general thoughts on tyre brands/models for the 911 from around 60K km of driving on them are:

Bridgestone - cheaper, last well, grippy but noisy and heavy carcass (Have had SO2 N rated & RE11 on 993+993RS).

Perreli - expensive noisy and hard (not progressive). May have got unlucky had them removed after 2000km as I didnt like them at all (PZero asymetrico N rated on 993)

Michelin - expensive (until I found tirerack, 911 design etc!), good drip, quiet, light weight carcass, good lifespan (PS2 N rated & SuperSports on 993, PS2 on 996 GT3 and Sport Cup 2 on 991 GT3).

Macca

Yes the design is more cohesive than the reverse taper and more practical to. The smaller holes more homage to lineage rather than the cheese cutter holes a bit too modern retro perhaps. They will work very well IMO and are a no brainer as an old 911 has even less luggage consideration in it than a 964! You may need to internally brace these however...

ChrisB_NZ

Good luck Graeme, very jealous here as well.

Sean, when are you down? We should all have a night out living Targa through Graemes stories!

964X33

Thanks for the quick info guys. The more I read the more I realise how diabolically technical this area is.

I currently run 285/30/18 and 225/40/18 SO2A on 10" and 8.5" rims. If I limit my tyre initially to MPSS I appear to have a choice of the following (size, rim range (design rim) and revs per mile):

275/35/18 9-11" (9.5") 814RPM
285/35/18 9.5-11" (10") 804RPM

225/40/18 7.5-9" (8") 829RPM - have option of 88Y and 91Y
235/40/18 8-9.5 (8.5") 819RPM

Does the diameter and therefore RPM difference matter much? How close is close enough? All these options seem to fit in the rim size bracket but is there merit in going for the design rim size? Is 88Y sufficient or should I go 91Y (both appear to be well in the load limit but do you go stronger (and heavier)?

John, what are you running on the 3.6? Design 911 appear not to do Michelin??

On importing, do you need to get the importer code prior to ordering?

Cheers

John McM

MICHELIN 265/35R18 MICH PSPT2 93Y N3
MICHELIN 225/40R18 MICH PSPT2 N3 88Y

About $2,000 delivered from Design 911.

John McM

No need to get code beforehand. From my recollection you put the form in when the tyres arrive and then get a number. You keep the number, but need to use it within 2 years.

I don't expect to ever have to replace my tyres as age would likely get them before I wear them out. I like N-rated but accept that the premium may be inflated.

John McM

I bought the same type for the 996TT. In that case I bought 4 rears and 2 fronts. It was designed to allow for eventual full replacement as the rears wear 2x faster than fronts. I got a screw in one rear so replaced one early. Nice to have matching tyres so quickly.

O2GO

I just imported a package from Design911 which was about $800 from memory so had GST applied and the freight forwarding company called me for the GST payment and looked after customs. So, didn't run into any "importer code" issue. Maybe there's a different story for importing tyres?