Need tire (or tyre) recommendations

[AdamK47]

These are the tire sizes:

245/35/ZR19 - Front
275/30/ZR19 - Rear

I currently have General Exclaim UHP tires on there now. Good tires. Don't excell in any one area, but they do very well on warm/dry roads. The sidewall is very soft, which gives a good ride, but they wear fast. The rears are nearly worn down to the wear bars after 15K miles. Surprisingly, the front seem to be doing much much better. I've been looking at the Nitto 555s. How are these? What else should I look at? I don't drive the car in the rain or snow at all.

 

[satyajitmenon]

What car/budget? From your tire size and preference, I'm guessing some sort of sportscar/sedan?

Potenza RE760 Sport
Yoko Advan S4
Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s (stupid expensive)

 

[onza]

I roll around in Nitto Invo's.

I've had zero complaints with them to date.

 

[RKS]

I have the Michelin Pilot Super Sports in those exact sizes. I love the grip but hate the price. They are an awesome tire for spirited daily driving. I switch over to 225/50/18 X-Ice2 tires around Thanksgiving.

 

[Imported]

I haven't had any complaints with the Hankook Ventus evo K110. I had them at 245/35/19 and 275/35/19 on my G35 before I sold it.

 

[AdamK47]

It's a 2006 GTO with 19x8.5 front and 19x9.5 rear wheels.

I didn't see the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s listed for 275-30-ZR19.
Michelin Pilot Super Sport = $286 front / $314 rear
Nitto NT 555 Extreme Performance = $191 front / $210 rear
Nitto Invo = $215 front / $267 rear

So far I'm leaning towards the Nitto 555s. Excellent traction and even tire wear. The only negative I keep seeing is that they perform bad when wet. That's a non-issue for me.

 

[Apex]

Nitto NT-05 is a good choice if you want great grip. The sidewalls are pretty stiff though.

If you want soft, sloppy sidewalls, go for the Invo. They don't get much softer than that.

 

[JCH13]

Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08 are available in your sizes. So is the Bridgestone Potenza RE-11.

If you're willing to go a tiny bit taller you can get Hankook Ventus R-S3s.

These are all extreme performance summer tires, might be overkill unless you really like having fun with your car. Just thought I'd mention them in case you were looking for some really serious.

 

[Apex]

Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08 are available in your sizes. So is the Bridgestone Potenza RE-11.

If you're willing to go a tiny bit taller you can get Hankook Ventus R-S3s.

These are all extreme performance summer tires, might be overkill unless you really like having fun with your car. Just thought I'd mention them in case you were looking for some really serious.

I have the AD08 on the wife's car. Really great tires with excellent feel. SUPER stiff sidewalls.

 

[KentState]

The Conti ExtremeContact DW are very popular with the CTS-V owners. Those and the Invo are the main ones outside the Michelin which are crazy expensive. I would assume they make them in your size.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...toYear=2012&autoModel=CTS-V&autoModClar=Sedan

 

[Drako]

http://www.caranddriver.com/compari...mmer-performance-tires-tested-comparison-test

Michelin Pilot Super Sport

 

[AdamK47]

Well, I went with my first choice, the Nitto 555s. I'll have them installed tomorrow.

 

[Railgun]

Eagle F1 Asymmetrics

 

[Imported]

http://www.caranddriver.com/compari...mmer-performance-tires-tested-comparison-test

Michelin Pilot Super Sport

Of the comparison, the RS-3 is handily the best dry performance tire. If you have to worry about rain, I'd go with the PSS too. Though I've found the RS-3 to handle pretty well in the rain.

 

[JackBurton]

Of the comparison, the RS-3 is handily the best dry performance tire. If you have to worry about rain, I'd go with the PSS too. Though I've found the RS-3 to handle pretty well in the rain.

They say the RS-3 is a budget priced tire but it's tread wear rating is horrible at 140 AA. The PSS is more expensive but has a MUCH better tire wear rating at more than double the life of the RS-3. No way would I choose the RS-3 over the PSS. The PSS offers great dry performance and great wet performance, with a pretty impressive tire wear rating (~30K miles) for a Z rated tire. If I didn't care about wet performance, I'd just get some Nitto's.

 

[JCH13]

They say the RS-3 is a budget priced tire but it's tread wear rating is horrible at 140 AA. The PSS is more expensive but has a MUCH better tire wear rating at more than double the life of the RS-3. No way would I choose the RS-3 over the PSS. The PSS offers great dry performance and great wet performance, with a pretty impressive tire wear rating (~30K miles) for a Z rated tire. If I didn't care about wet performance, I'd just get some Nitto's.

Well, it's all a trade-off, generally between grip and heat tolerance and tread life. RS-3 will blow the PSS out of the water in performance, virtually anything with a treadwear rating of 200 or less will. There's way more to a tire than the speed rating. Consider the following TireRack tests:

RS-3 type tires
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=118

PSS type tires
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=162

Edit: note the wet braking and wet slalom performances.

 

[JackBurton]

Well, it's all a trade-off, generally between grip and heat tolerance and tread life. RS-3 will blow the PSS out of the water in performance, virtually anything with a treadwear rating of 200 or less will. There's way more to a tire than the speed rating. Consider the following TireRack tests:

RS-3 type tires
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=118

PSS type tires
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=162

If someone didn't really care about wet performance, why wouldn't they just get some competition series Nitto's?

 

[JCH13]

If someone didn't really care about wet performance, why wouldn't they just get some competition series Nitto's?

Not that it had anything to do with my post...

Competition series tires are generally much more sensitive to stuff on the road. A little oil or coolant might ruin the tire. Parking your car in the sun on a regular basis can cause that type of tire to dry-rot and crack prematurely.

Competition DOT tires also come with much thinner treads than 'street' or 'summer' tires, which is great for performance, but dramatically shortens their life, regardless of how they wear.

The soft and sticky compound also means that competition series tires pick up EVERYTHING on the road surface. Rocks, sand, nails, etc, will get flung around like crazy when driving on tires like that.

For the record, I own these sets of tires for my Miata:

S.Drive - 300 treadware
RS-3 - 180 treadware
Toyo Proxes RA1 - 100 Treadware (DOT competition tire)

Edit: from a quick search I can see that an RS3 has nearly 50% more tread than a Nitto competition tire.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

What tire do you guys recommend for the 'casual' sports car driver. I seriously don't care about .088 versus .085 g's.

I take the car up to the mountains a few times a month, but I'm not trying to lower lap times or whatever... My current continental contisportcontact feel so hard/stiff, I'd much rather have something with a soft sidewall if I can retain good driving 'feel'.. Note that I care more about overall feel than absolute grip.

The car very rarely sees rain but is driven often.

225/45-18
255/40-18

 

[JCH13]

What tire do you guys recommend for the 'casual' sports car driver. I seriously don't care about .088 versus .085 g's.

I take the car up to the mountains a few times a month, but I'm not trying to lower lap times or whatever... My current continental contisportcontact feel so hard/stiff, I'd much rather have something with a soft sidewall if I can retain good driving 'feel'.. Note that I care more about overall feel than absolute grip.

The car very rarely sees rain but is driven often.

225/45-18
255/40-18

Yokohama S.Drive

Would have to get 255/45-18 though. No big deal.

Edit: IMO the best way to get a slightly "softer" feeling is to get a wider tire. This bends the sidewall in a bit and makes it more compliant, regardless of tire selection.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Why don't they make a 255/40..?

I would prefer to stay stock sizes if possible.. Mainly OCD and just want them to match, but also haven't had great experiences the few times I've done it. Note that the car has stability control etc.

 

[JCH13]

Why don't they make a 255/40..?

I would prefer to stay stock sizes if possible.. Mainly OCD and just want them to match, but also haven't had great experiences the few times I've done it. Note that the car has stability control etc.

They don't make the size because there's not much difference between 255/40 and 255/45, it's less than 2% of the overall diameter. I would be stunned if you had any stability control issues at that sort of speed differential. If you were really worried, you could also up the front tires to 225/50-18.

 

[AdamK47]

I got the Nitto 555 ZRs on. Good tires so far. The only problem came from installation. The bone heads that mounted the tires nicked the edges of my Ruff 280s pretty good. The owner of the shop gave me a discount. I'm taking the car to a wheel repair place tomorrow to have them fixed.

 

[RKS]

I got the Nitto 555 ZRs on. Good tires so far. The only problem came from installation. The bone heads that mounted the tires nicked the edges of my Ruff 280s pretty good. The owner of the shop gave me a discount. I'm taking the car to a wheel repair place tomorrow to have them fixed.

I heard that there is a shop in Blue Ash that does a good job with quick turnaround.

 

[AdamK47]

Yeah, I went there yesterday. The Wheel Doctor. I need to have the wheels done before mid-day Friday, so he couldn't do it. His brother owns another shop a little further north. I'm getting them repaired there today.