Thoughts on tyres

[NeilBplymouth]

My tyres, which came on the car, Nexen Rodian, been OK but a bit noisy and soon need repalcing. Looking at the N0 and N1 rated tyres, they seem a bit off the pace specification wise compared to more recent tyres eg: Dunlop SP Quattro max (http://www.blackcircles.com/catalogue/dunlop/sp-quattromaxx/275/40/R20/Y/106/f?returnurl=%2forder%2ftyres%3f%26width%3d275%26profile%3d40%26rim%3d20%26speed%3dY%26reinforced%3d1%26wintertyre%3d%26minpricerange%3d0%26maxpricerange%3d0%26displayall%3d6&tyre=32108992), A rated for wet grip and only 68db. All the N rated are B rated at best and over 70db.

How tuned to the cayenne are N rated? I imagine the Dunlop will be much better than the current Nexen in any case, but better than the N rated?

Neil

 

[gdavison]

Nx ratings, its a constant area of debate - What do the tyre companies do to get a rating ? There has been a number of good articles on this in Porsche Post and Christophorus over the years - To simply summarise, the tests cover a number of things - firstly the "easy things" ie Speed rating : Noise : Wet Grip .. All good tyre manufacturers have to provide this info any way and you can make your own assessment on this

The last area is more difficult : Handling .. there is no manufacturer code for this, so you can't do your own selection and no one really knows what / how subjective the approval methodology is .. My personal thoughts are going with the big names is a start point and steer clear of unknown names / cheapies. Probably a much bigger requirement is to have 4 tyres of the same make / model on the 4 corners, of similar thread depth AND at proper inflation. I would offer up that Nx rated tyres at the wrong inflation would not handle at the requirement the test had

Having a quick scan of the "Porsche Approved" tyre lists
http://www.porsche.com/uk/accessoriesandservice/porscheservice/vehicleinformation/tyreapproval/
I cant see a Nexen Rodian tyre on the approved list. There has often been a debate on the subject of not using "Nx" rated tyres and how it affects insurance. We perhaps can assume, you have been comfortable in this area since buying your car without N rated tyres.

The Dunlop you link to hits the load & speed ratings, has great wet grip rating ... I think you know what your going to do

 

[tscaptain]

I have 2 sets for mine - both Pirelli. PZero Rosso for Summer and Scorpions for Winter. Both N rated and not noisy. Also we get a £50 cashback from Pirelli as club sponsor! Non N rated has no effect on the insurance, btw, only Porsche extended warranty, if you have such a thing.

 

[Chrism1820]

I run my Cayenne on Michelin Latitude Sport with an N1 rating, they are great tyres with lots of grip (it's been on the track with these on) and the wear life is also very good.

I am just about to sell a set of unused Pirelli Scorpion ice and snow tyres, on new genuine Porsche rims ( with tyre pressure valves fitted) £600 if anyone is interested, probably £2000+ from an OPC. You could follow tscaptain's lead and run different set up over the year.

Regards Chris

 

[oliver]

I prefer 'All Season' tyres - for year round use.
My experience is with the Continental Cross Contacts (20" wheels) over 6 years/70k mls.
They are very quiet and compliant, handle very nicely in all conditions, wear evenly, and last 30,000mls (only just on my third set).

 

[vitesse]

I an email on Friday stating that Nexen have now become an Approved Porsche Tyre supplier-for Cayennes-having used them for years on BMW's I've found them very grippy & reasonably hard wearing.

Post not necessarily relevant but for information.Khumo's on Macan's as well.

 

[NeilBplymouth]

Thanks for all the input, I'll be switching to the winter 18in rims with pirelli winters soon, but not a N rated one if memory serves. So I'll have a good bit of time over the winter to get the summers swapped out. As gdavison suspected I'm leaning towards trying the Dunlop for the wet grip and noise ratings, unless I get some substanciated poor feedback on them, or they test badly in published comparative test in the meantime.

No extended warranty so no worries there.

Interesting the Nexen have been approved, they have been fine nothing bad to say about them (apart from the noise but I haven't got a real comparison yet, so that may turn out to be not so bad though I believe they are 76db so at the noisy end) but nothing really positive either.