36f/44r as recommended by Porsche, don't use those for track though

 

36 front/44 rear

 

Never mix and match. I would recommend running a 245/35/18 on the front. These cars tend to understeer a bit, and aside from suspension upgrades/tweeks, a slightly wider tire will help. I run Pilot Sport Cups as my Daily tires. I can'T stand a normal tire anymore. I don't spin my wheels (W/ LSD) and I actually wear the fronts out first due to a track alignment. They are shot at pretty close to the same milage - 10-12K. If I can get 2 years out of a set, I'm happy!


PS - IF you drive alot in the rain, this might not be the best advice

 

so what about tire noise after about 5k miles? It seems a lot of tires get quite noisy after some wear-in. I know the pirelli's, mitchelins are pretty quiet- Any opinions on the others? I'll be needing tires soon as well.

 

The bridgestones are not that quiet but the grip is awesome!

 

I use the Falken Azenis RT-615 on mine. Its as close as you are going to get to a R compound style tire without breaking the bank. Many autocrossers use it. No complaints whatsoever and look forward to replace them with the same!

 

i'm at the same crossroads as you. the sumitomo HTR, in my book, is probably worth a try given the inexpensive price. i don't ever track the car, and the car's handling limits on the street are beyond my personal limits.

the "N" rating thing is curious though. didn't know that Porsche had any special rating for tires. where do i find the N rating for a tire?

 

where do you find the N rating?

 

Here is the only approved "N" rating list I could find. http://www.lsrpca.com/misc_web_stuff...ed%20tires.htm

I'm going to give Tire Rack a call to see what they say.

 

I have a broken control arm and bent rim that say you might regret this decision. There are are 4 little patches that hold these things to the ground, dont skimp on tires...

 

I tried sumitomo's htr once and it wasn't good...cheap tires but too soft for me...I also tried the Kumho spt's & mx's the quality was way better than the sumitomo for sure...bridgestones and michelins are better though. so it depends onyour budget and driving style

 

Thanks you!

and thanks again!

glad i bought that compressor last week - me tires need a bit of air

 

I have the Kuhmo Ecsta Spt.

They are super in heavy rain.

They offer the same if not better grip at the track in the dry when compared to the pirelli pzeros I had on before.
The tread depth I think is deeper then the pirelli's because they seem to be wearing very well considering the amount of time I've spent on the track. The pirellis would be down to the wear bar by now in the rear.

They are directional but they are not asimmetrico. Which means I can remount the tires to the other side of the car when the inner tread is worn down lower then the outside of the tire due to the negative camber. This is great for the life of the rears and in my case I also need to do this in for the front tires as well because at the track I spend most of the time on , one side wears more then the other side. You can't do this with the majority of the other tire brands.

The $$ savings are big, really big and I don't believe there is a sacrafice in performance. If anything I get the same performance with better performance in Heavy rain.
They are not Z rated or N rated, they are Y rated. But I never have gone over 230km/hour at the track and Y rated goes beyond the top speed of the car and way beyond anything my car will ever see.

 

After burning through 3 sets of P-Zero Rosso's I switched to Sumitomo HTR ZII's. Although they are not N rated I've had great experience with the HTR's.

Pros; The HTR's are priced very well, last twice as long as the Rosso's, and are even in the freeway noise dept. So you can run em hard and not worry about wasting tread as you can go through nearly 3 sets to match the Rosso's one. Both have wheel lip guards.

Cons; can be a little slick in the rain (but so are the Rosso's), have a tendancy to flat spot in cooler weather until they warm up and lack the rail like lane changes that the rosso's are capable of due to the non N rating (stiffer sidewall, but still predictable), and last but not least do not sport the ultra expensive red "P-Zero" logo on the sidewall.

I am running 285/30 18;s on the rear and 225/40's on a 996 C4 Cabriolet. I wanted to run the new Goodyears, but they do not make the tire in a 285/30, only the 265/35 which when placed side by side to the 285's are a huge difference.

Hope this helps!!

 

Very interesting! I finally got around to calling tire rack yesterday and they would not recommend the Sumis at all! They said to stick with either the Michelins; Contis; Pirellis or Bridgestones. Also said to completely ignore the tread wear ratings as they are determined by the manufacturer and mean absolutely NOTHING. I asked about the Kumhos and same answer. Said if I was just going to go out and burn off the Sumis that would be okay but wouldn't recommend them otherwise.