What are you guys running for tires?

ghunt81

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I bought these 19" S550 wheels that came with a set of factory Pirelli P-Zeros on them...supposedly only with a thousand miles or so on them, I've put less than 10K on them and they're down to 2 or 3/32's. Not really impressed with them.

Started looking at tires, this car doesn't get driven in snow so normally I would look at summer tires. However I'm looking at Tire Rack and most of their Ultra High Performance All Season tires have better ratings across the board than the summer only tires, so maybe I should get all seasons? I want good wet traction and the all seasons definitely seem to excel in that area over the summer-only tires.
 

07 Boss

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You’re not going to get wet traction with summer tires.

Currently running NT 05’s on the back and they suck for my power level and driving style. I’m going back to DR’s, specifically the MT street SS, when these wear out a bit. Though they only last for a few thousand miles, and really suck when it’s wet out, it’s the only choice for me going forward.
 

WJBertrand

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BF Goodrich G-Force Sport Comp 2. Pretty good wet traction at the temperatures we have around socal. Probably not so great as temps drop lower. I Love them though.
 

Juice

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Cooper Zeon RS3-A's are my "street" set. Wet traction is great. Had to drive home in a snow storm last year, made it home just fine. (No abs/tc on car in sig) These are my first set of Coopers, and I feel they are excellent for the price. Have not really pushed them hard in dry, but they seem sticky enough.
 

Gabe

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Continental DW or their replacements, I think it's the Continental Contact Sport
 

MrBottleneck

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Nitto NT555 G2 -> 305/35/19R 285/35/19F
Great dry. Cannot speak of wet dont take it out.
 

JJ427R

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I've been running 275/35/20 Mickey Thompson Street Comps the last couple years, great for the street, good ride and traction when warmed up and great on wet. Also used em on track days but they wear pretty quickly when you get aggressive with em. But they are cheap in price at about $190ea.

I recently purchased the same size Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's due to some others responses on them, but will not get them on until spring so can't comment on them other than I like the tread pattern.

Also have a set of Mickey Thompson ET Streets 305/45/18 for 1/4 mile, great for that but dangerous on wet...
 
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nawagner

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I have been very impressed with the Firestone Indy 500's. Wet traction is very good and much better than any other summer tires I've run. It takes quite a bit of effort to break them lose on wet roads. No noise, awesome traction and cost is low. Hands down the best tire I've run. I've run Sumitomo, Cooper RS3 (the original), Cooper RS3-S, BFGoodrich KDW, Kumho
 

ghunt81

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I did see the Indy 500's but they had a lower wet traction rating than most of the all seasons. I did like the price on them, may have to give those a look.
 

Norm Peterson

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I bought these 19" S550 wheels that came with a set of factory Pirelli P-Zeros on them...supposedly only with a thousand miles or so on them, I've put less than 10K on them and they're down to 2 or 3/32's. Not really impressed with them.

Started looking at tires, this car doesn't get driven in snow so normally I would look at summer tires. However I'm looking at Tire Rack and most of their Ultra High Performance All Season tires have better ratings across the board than the summer only tires, so maybe I should get all seasons? I want good wet traction and the all seasons definitely seem to excel in that area over the summer-only tires.
Where are you seeing all-seasons having "better ratings across the board" than summer tires?

Don't rely on customer reviews here; most people don't look deeply enough into the matter of tires to make informed commentary.

If anything, use Tire Rack's own testing, and compare those results . . . keeping in mind that even their testing can't precisely duplicate conditions from one test to another.


As far as good wet traction is concerned, it's going to be pretty darn hard to find tires much better than Michelin Pilot Super Sports. Maybe the newer PS4S is a bit better, but that one does come with some very specific caveats concerning temperatures down around/below 20°F.

My take is that the MPSS is one of the best choices you could possibly make for a wet track day, and if it's that good at/above 100 mph think of the extra margin that means at 60 and slower.

Unless you've got a track day habit, you won't ever drive this hard even under ideal weather conditions, and that was on 285/35-18's on all four corners. About 2" of rain fell at the track that day.



Norm
 

JJ427R

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Don't have any wet video posted, I hate driving on a wet track though.... You did very well on that much water.
Here are the MT Street Comps 275/35/20 on dry at BIR last year on the 3.1 mile track. Pegging my needle at 140 on long straight, 120-130 into turn 1. Car is a 2010 Roush 427R.

 

rocky61201

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Nitto NT555 G2 -> 305/35/19R 285/35/19F
Great dry. Cannot speak of wet dont take it out.

I run NT555 G2 295/40/18 and they are great in the dry. San Diego got a lot of rain last week and they work great when it's wet as well. Honestly probably the best tire I've ever had in the rain.
 

06 T-RED S/C GT

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I've read nothing but positive reviews on this site and also from TMS about the Firehawk Indy 500's. I'll also be considering General G-Max RS tires along with the Indy 500's for my next set of tires. IMHO you can't go wrong with either choice. Also, General Tire is owned by Continental and the G-Max RS is half the price compared to Continental Extreme Contact Sport tires.
 
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07 Boss

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Whatever you do don’t cheap out on tires. Don’t make any compromises. Tires are the single most important performance mod you can do for your car. It doesn’t matter how much hp or big your brakes are if you can’t stay connected to the road.
 

JeremyH

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My next set of street radials when these eagle f1's die will be indy 500s.
 

nawagner

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Whatever you do don’t cheap out on tires. Don’t make any compromises. Tires are the single most important performance mod you can do for your car. It doesn’t matter how much hp or big your brakes are if you can’t stay connected to the road.

Sage advice.
 

JJ427R

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Whatever you do don’t cheap out on tires. Don’t make any compromises. Tires are the single most important performance mod you can do for your car. It doesn’t matter how much hp or big your brakes are if you can’t stay connected to the road.
I agree with this to a point, but not everyone can afford to pay $300-$400 per tire such as the MPSS and Dunlop Sportmaxx. There are many lower priced options that have been pointed out in this this thread that are still great tires. Also if only running on the street or daily driving, the performance part of it is not as much of an issue.

In my case I run 3-6 track days a year and don't trailer my car, it gets driven to and from track so I need a tire that can handle both options. I can't justify spending the money for Michelins when I'm just going to chew em up anyway. I think I average about 4 tack days on a set.
I can buy 2-3 sets of Firestones or Mickey Thompson's for the same money as one set of MPSS. Granted the MPSS is a great tire and would probably last me a bit longer than the others , but is that price difference per tire worth it????
 

JeremyH

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For sure everyone will personally weigh their cost and purpose of use options. No different then when buying anything else. The point is its a disservice to just look at cost vice performance. When you can find a good tire that suites your needs and fits your budget dont be afraid to spend the money. Overall buy as much tire as you can afford and makes sense.

Now that my car is summer use only 3k ish miles a year I'm leaning towards higher wear high performance. Otherwise the tires will age before actual tread is used up. That's what I think is happening to the current tires they were great for the first 2-3 years and they have a ton of tread left visually but are not performing any more due to age it seems. Was not happy with them this past summer. I may just go to a drag compound for the rear not sure yet.
 

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