Different Tyre question

[Guest]

Hello, All

I am after some opinions on tyres - but not the normal "what is best for the track day?"

My 964 is a practival car, that will cover about 12000 miles a year all year round. I am finding that the rate of rear tyre ware alarming. It had Toyos on when I bought it. These were down to the ware marks with 5.5k miles. I replaced them with Continental Sport Contact 2 N2, (suggested as "comfort" tyres for the car) and these are not going to show much more than 6k before they will need to be replaced. That is without any track use nor Autobahn blasting.

I don't hang around, and I am not looking for 944-like tyre ware (30k!). But I'd like to get more miles than I am now.

Can anyone suggest a good road tyre that offers reasonable performance and reasonably good life? I never approach the dry-road limit of grip, and if I am going to go on the track, I will buy a set of wheels/tyres for the purpose. The car is a 1991 Carrera 2 Tiptronic, with 17" Cup wheels., 205/50-17 F and 255/40-17 R. I use 2.5 bar all round (rather than the extraordinary 3.0 recommended by Porsche on the rear).

Any opinions from experience would be most welcome.

Regards,
Alistair

 

[Elliot Davies]

Bridgestone SO2 is the tyre to have.
Excellent grip wet or dry, reasonable wear miles but im afraid you will only see around 6k for a set of rears if driven very carefully.
The SO2 is hard to find now being an old 'not made tyre' but still available if you hunt around the tyre garages. The SO3 is the replacement but dont mix with other bridgestone models as the N spec number is different.
IMO 6k is the max for any 964 tyre with grip.
The SO2 is the tyre i had on mine, i now have a Box S with Contis fitted and i dont rate them at all, they seem very hard with little grip in W or Dry.

Someone else on here might add more for you []

 

[Guest]

Summary in response to Elliot: Bloody hell!

At 6k miles for the rears, means that I am looking at about £1000 a year on tyres! Two sets at the back and a good part of a set on the front. Wearing tyres at that rate is just plain stupid. I cannot see any justification for it: it is expensive and an environmental outrage.

My 944s gave 25-30k miles front and rear and they were absolutely thrashed. My 3.2 gave about 10-12k for the rear, and they cost a lot less to replace.

Sure, the 964 is faster, but how can it be so much as to wear out bigger tyres twice as quickly? I don't drive it much faster than the 3.2! It handles better than the 3.2 (very much indeed) but no better than the 944, so the cost cannot be justified on that count alone.

I knew the car was going to be dear to run, but I had put that down to the elaborate rigmarole that had to be done for a full service. I had not bargained upon a it being a tyre-eating machine as well!

I am also the owner of a set of the original Design90 16inch wheels. I hate the look, but would they be easier on the pocket?

All my previous Porsches have been really easy and not too expensive to run as my main car, but this colossal tyre wear has really made me wonder if buying the 964 was an expensive mistake.

To my mind, in terms of performance in a practical car, all that really matters is wet-weather grip. I think that in the dry, grip is so great that only a loony would ever approach its limit on a public road. The wet weather grip of the Continental is very good. Full-throttle in Tiptronic first gear just gives a little squirm from the back on a moderately wet road; no drama at all. I trust wet-weather performace of tyres destined for the German market. If you doubt this, you will see the point the first time you are on an Autobahn in excess of 200kph and hit a patch of standing water!

Alistair

 

[Elliot Davies]

Yes, a tyre for a D90 will cost less as its a 16" rim.
There is also another route if ecconomy on tyres is your thing............Toyo tyres were recommended to me by my specialist, they are a lot cheaper and the grip is also very good.
Ive never tried them myself, if you had them fitted before,were they ok ? if so check out the price of them new and you could save a bit there.

I tend to agree a bit with you as to the wear rate, I went to lemans, covered around 500 miles in total and when i got back i had lost a good chunk of tread from the SO2 rears []

The correct tyre pressure on a 17" cup 1 rim is 36 psi all round for road use.

 

[Melv]

S02's (N3 rating), despite contrary information, ARE being made and readily available from Wraysbury Tyres in Chertsey (tell 'em I sent ya) and Elite Tyres in Horsham. Silverline in Warwick, maybe nearer you, could possibly also get/stock them. But, will wear out faster as softer compound.

Try Goodyear Eagles or Conti's for better wear rates. 6,000 from the rears is good!! Poss 10,000 from fronts. But also make sure you have a full four wheel alignment done every couple of years, at least.

Mel

 

[Guest]

How much are you paying for your tyres? 6 tyres a year for a grand?

I've had my 964 a year and I thought 6,000 miles was good. Have to say I also own a T5 Volvo, which has broadly similar spec tyres, had it for 8 years now and I have always got through a pair of front tyres every 5,000 miles without pushing it to hard.

 

[Guest]

ORIGINAL: Elliot Davies

Yes, a tyre for a D90 will cost less as its a 16" rim.
There is also another route if ecconomy on tyres is your thing............Toyo tyres were recommended to me by my specialist, they are a lot cheaper and the grip is also very good.
Ive never tried them myself, if you had them fitted before,were they ok ? if so check out the price of them new and you could save a bit there.

I tend to agree a bit with you as to the wear rate, I went to lemans, covered around 500 miles in total and when i got back i had lost a good chunk of tread from the SO2 rears []

The correct tyre pressure on a 17" cup 1 rim is 36 psi all round for road use.

Hi,

The Toyos were fine on the rear in terms of grip. I think that I was put off them originally because I had assumed that their rate of wear was unusually high. I will have another look at them. Tony Greatorex also recommeded them to me, so maybe I am on to something! Frankly, if I ever came close to the limit of grip of this car at the rear, it would have been as a result of a major error of judgement.

Way back, when I was commuting into work by car, I ran several 944s, and did 25-35k miles in a year. (I reakon that I have done at least 90k miles in 944s!) They gave 30k from my preferred N0-marked GoodYear NCTs. Some people accused me of not driving fast enough, but that was before speed cameras and the fear for life that approaching 40 gives - so they were wrong! With the 944, they all wore at the same rate, so I got a sudden bill for all four. At £100 a corner, that was not at all welcome in the early 1990s!

When I grumbled at getting the bill, my tyre dealer told me how much owners of a then state-of-the-art Peugeot 205 GIi woud pay and how long their tyres lasted: that put my tyre bills into perspective!

As always with these cars, look at the bills for servicing, tyres, insurance etc., and then look at the depreciation - or rather the lack of it. Some poor sod will buy a new BMW 735 tomorrow, that will be as dull as ditchwater, and over the following year loose the whole value of my car and my tyre and my servicing bills put together. I get an almost-super-car that I could sell for not much less than I bought it for.

Having thashed the car today over our fabulous roads here in North Wales, almost all is forgiven. It was not raining today, so I could have done as well in the 3,2 on far cheaper tyres. However, it does rain here occasionally ;-) and when it does,the tyres are worth every penny!

Alistair