Advice needed... search for new tires
 

got 24K miles out of my potenzas... need new tires for sport package.

looking at michelin super sports in stock sizes... about $1280 for tires

looking at nitto nt-05 in stock sizes... about $970 for tires

also going to check nitto invo and bridgestone s-04s

any other recommendations?

michelins worth the price premium? how about Nitto tires? decent tire?

thanks in advance.

say no to Nitto

also check out continental DW's.
S04's are definitely good too, but heavy compared to the DW's by ~5lbs each.

1. Pss
2. S-04
3. Dw

Thanks
Still looking at super sports, conti dw, Bridgestone re760, hankook v12, and the s04. Guess you guys have had bad experiences with nitto?

Hard to justify the high price of the super sports or s04 with these other tires that seem to have great reviews. Super sports seem to be great though. Opinions on the hankooks?

Huge help guys!

the S04's are overall better tires than the DW's for sure. but the DW's are much cheaper and lighter weight so if those are attributes on top of comfy quiet ride (and great wet traction), something to think about. im happy with the DW's i have right now on my Z but this will be the last set for conti's for me. i just wanted to try them out.

next up for my Z are supersports. ive been a fan of Pilot Sports so im sure the SuperSports will meet or exceed my expectations. :)

I would go with the Pilot Super Sports. That's what I'm going with when the summers come back on in the Spring.

A handful of guys here have them and absolutely love them. All of the reviews I've read and owners I have talked to have given me quite a positive impression on the tires. They are supposed to be quite a bit better than my Pirelli PZeros which are fantastic tires themselves.

Stay away from the Hankook ventus v12s... I've had them on my car for about 6k miles and they aren't very good at all. I bought Contis earlier this week to replace them.

the continentals are awesome for the price, lots of good reviews on them. the super sports are probably a little better but that's marginal compared to the difference in price. they will probably ride a little better and be a little quieter. it's all in what you want and what you have to spend. if you have the coin to drop on the SS' you'll love em, definitely. if you don't want to spend so much on tires, the DW's are a great 2nd choice imo.

Yeah, if you don't want to blow too much on tires but still want the best street performance you can get for the money, DWs are a good choice. I think Ken raves about the S04s but they might be more expensive.

The PSS seem to be the best street tire out there now, but also one of the most expensive.

yea tho they are a tad cheaper than the older PS2's that they replaced so that's always a good thing. they are tested/rated better in almost every category to boot

May I ask what your grip is about with them? I've done some research and the majority of the owners love these tires. I have them myself but I know they aren't the best and they aren't good for the track, but for the price they are awesome.

Perhaps you can provide some insights as to the cons of these tires so we are all informed. Thanks!

thanks for the info... I got a fairly good price on the Pilot SS... $1400 installed... looks like the conti will run a bit over a grand installed. Interested in hearing about the hankooks and still havent heard anything specific about why nittos are undesirable...

thanks again...

Re-11

ive had nittos in the past i forget which model numbers they were but they were both summer tires and were suppose to be their best sets. nitto's problem was they break free with no prior warning when you reach the limits of the tire.

most performance tires will send feedback through steering and throttle and tell you it's approaching the limit. but nitto was like on/off. no gradual warning.

Mchelin
 

For what it's worth the Michelins are made in several plants here in the US.

Since the Z is a sports car price isn't a factor.

Michelin for me.

Dude that is scary. Some of us like to test the limits but you make it sound like its more of a sharp drop off a cliff.

I was wondering recently about the Hankooks. They seem pretty well rated on Tire Rack. What's the general consensus? TypeOne, why dont you like them?

How do the DWs compare to the BF Goodrich g-Force T/A KDW NT? I was thinking of going with the BFGoodrich tires, but all this rave about the DWs has been second guessing...especially since they're cheaper.

The V12s have very soft sidewalls. You lose a ton of steering feel with them. When you turn into a corner the tires roll over and then grip (they have decent grip) which lends itself to a mushy feel overall.

They are fine for many people that drive only on the street and don't push hard too often, but there are definitely better options out there for more enthusiastic drivers.

The pricing is hard to ignore, though.

The DWs should be much better.

The KDWs are a very old and tired compound. They are very loud and the grip/performance is only average. The only selling point is that they look really cool!

DW is probably one of the best values for a street-only tire right now. The sidewalls are softer than the stock Bridgestones, but they are better than the V12s.

The DWs look like they would be a great option, but the only problem I see with them is they don't make 'em in 19s over 285... I was looking to go with a 295 or 305 on the stock sport wheel... They make the 295 for the 20s and If I were running 20s I could see picking them up!

Are the DWSs not an option? I believe the S stands for snow, but would it not be a good idea to run them down here in FL?

Don't do the DWS if you live in FL. Go with a straight up summer tire.

Here are a few reasons...

#1 Sidewall strength. You come from a stock RE050A and go to the Ventus V12 and it's night and day. The RE050A isn't really considered an awesome performing tire, but compared to the V12s.. they are awesome. You can feel the rear end sway and when going faster than 100mph it makes the car feel somewhat seriously unstable. Wet weather drive ability was also a little scary.

#2. Life. I had mine on for 6800 miles before they needed to be replaced. Never went to the track... just normal driving, with a few slides. I got 22k miles out of the stock RE050As.

#3. No rim guard. because they don't have it, it makes them look much larger when compared to the RE050A.

#4. Noise. These are terribly loud. Much worse than the stock REs.

For people that don't care about spending money on good stuff... I've learned my lesson the hard way with tires. $500 down the drain on these suckers. I bought a pair of Continental tires and am getting them mounted today. I'll let you know what I think of those.

:iagree:

Guess the DWs it is then.

jmo the v12"s have worked fine for me. just put them on last week no issues
at all. just drove home it a rain strom and i felt safer with these tires than i
did the oem bridgestones. by reading some reviews i was hoping they would be a bit more on the quite side. but i'm not feeling that. anyway for the price
very much worth the investment if you are a daily driver.

Sounds like you may have had an off alignment with the v12's. The soft sidewall and low grip levels are definitely noticeable, but they are definitely quieter, and should last a lot longer than 7k.

why's that? I noticed the DWS has a much longer treadwear grade, what's the trade off?

Performance.

The DWS is an all-season tire designed to work in all conditions, so by definition it's a compromise. It sacrifices grip because it needs to utilize a harder compound that will work in winter temperatures, and because it needs a tread pattern that will help provide grip in the snow.

A summer tire like the DW or the OEM RE050s or Advan Sports is designed for warmer weather only (i.e. any season but winter). Summer tires feature softer compounds with an emphasis on grip. They generally have larger tread blocks with emphasis on maximizing contact patch because they don't have to consider grip in snow -- only dry and wet summer weather.

The softer compound summer tires generally wear much sooner than an all-season, but the summer tires significantly outperform all-seasons in dry/wet summer conditions.

Typically if you have to drive your car in snowy conditions it's best to have two sets of wheels/tires. One for spring-fall with summer tires and another set for winter with your snow tires. There's a saying... "all-seasons are no-seasons." It's true because all-seasons are mediocre at everything, great at nothing. :tup:

I <3 my RE-11's...... A bit pricey in my opinion but worth it.

Seriously. Not trying to praise the V12s but they seriously deserve more credit than 6.8K miles...

TypeOne,

What was different on your suspension setup when you had RE050as vs the V12s?

22k on RE050as almost sounds like you had a stock setup or near a stock setup majority of the tires life.

6.8k on the V12s sounds like you had a major suspension switch.

I also got 22k out of the stock tires. It was a stock suspension and I made 12 passes in the 1/8th. The insides of the tires wore out first and threads were showing. If the stock alignment was adjusted to get rid of the negative camber I could have gotten more miles out of them I think.

For what it's worth, I'm a little over 27k miles now and still on my stock RE050s.

looks like the conti's would be great tires...

I'm searching for a good local price on those.

Got a price for the super sports... we'll see how much of a premium they are versus the conti's

thanks for all the help.

i really like the DWs i bought. lots of grip and quiet compared to stock.