Need a Smart Choice on Tires
 

Hey guys im just lookin for opinions on tires for our cars. I really need a tire thats gonna last longer then the stock conti's cause they only gave me around 15000 miles and now they are scary in the florida rain. But i do autocross and drag race the car so i want the best performance and for cheapish.. i was hearing awesome things about the star specs but im not sure how long theyll last. the other options ive been lookin at are=
1. Falken ZIEX 912 BL $531 set installed
2.CONTI DWS Extreme contact $156 each
3.Nitto NT850P $126 each
Those three have 40000 mileage warranties on them so they sound good i just want some insider info on them if possible, and any other opinions are welcome

I've had a great experience with my Bridgestone Potenza 960AS Pole Positions. I've done tuned pulls in second without slippage, and they grabbed 1.00g lateral with my coilovers/OTTP Street Bar. Also, being all-seasons, they handle very well in rain and in cold weather.

Didn't see them on your list, but they have by far lasted the longest for me so far, and for the performance I've been getting out of them, it's a really hard deal to beat.

I've had good experience with contiextremecontact tires on some of my rides. I'm sure they've updated that line, but they seemed to offer good grip and longevity.

My Balt came with Goodyear eagle GT tires, they are pretty good so far.

well if you want great performance tires, your going to have to sacrifice mileage. The Tires you listed are definitely not autocross tires.

If you want great autocross/track tires look into Nitto NT-05s, Kuhmo XS, and Dunlop StarSpecs. Those are the best bang for autox tires, not really for drag though.

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At the end of the day you're going to have to decide what's more important to you, grip or treadlife. Some seem to have a good balance.

Considering I tend to be more on the grip side of things over treadlife, I'm getting a set of NT05s soon for road course and auto-x use. Others may think treadlife (read saving money) over grip is more important to them.

I have the Kumho XS they probably won't last very long but once they're warmed up they're sticky as hell. I love them

Nitto 555's are a good middle of the road tire that will handle autoxing better than the tires you listed.

go with the Falken's

I don't know how long they will last, but I've got Goodyear Fierce UHP's. They have way more grip than the stock conti's had, but the best part is, I paid $287 for all 4, and $60 to get them mounted/balanced.

the conti dws's have a soft sidewall. i am in the process of switching mine out for the dw's.

I love my DWS

They ride and handle about like stock and are wearing much better than stock tires. Probably get two years out of them instead of just one.

General Exclaim UHP (made by Continental tires for General), I use these on my HHR SS. They have been a great tire, especially considering the price they are. Also they are light snow traction rated, M&S right on the sidewall of all 4 of mine. Don't know why tirerack doesn't list them as a M&S but they definetly are. :twothumbs

Also I did alot of research on tires, best tire all around tire for me (not just dry traction only) for the money and it came down to the General Exclaim UHP, and the Continental DW's. At the time the DW's were hard to find and more expensive (and not very many reviews on them). I've also heard stories of people needing to replace a Continental DW and not being able to find one locally or the tire being on back order for a replacement (they might have stock on them now).

Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus comes with a 45k warranty. Great all around tire IMO.

click

i have the Hankook Ventus V12 Evo 235 40 18 and i like them so far, hook nicely and grip pretty good

havent done anything too aggressive but some launches and so high speed canyon runs :D

Have the ventus k110 here also. Have 7k and not too bad. Don't hook my 2nd gear hit worth a shit but neither did my contis

nitto nt-05 for me, only had them for 3 weeks, dry they are great, wet traction's about a 3 out of 5.

I have a set of Dunlop Direzza Sport Star Spec Z1 on my car right now and love them. They're a great auto-x tire and work well out on the street. They seem to be wearing pretty well too for my type of driving (lots of highway miles with some occasionally drag racing and track time). They're not bad in the rain when new but like most of the super high performance summer tires with large tread blocks and minimal water channels, when they start wearing down I'm expecting them to degrade in that regard.

My plan will be to keep the Dunlops on the stock wheels for track duty and pick up another set of aftermarket wheels for daily driving. Right now I'm leaning towards the Hankook Ventus V12 evo K110 as they've had some nice reviews and appear to be a better tire if you have to deal with occasional rain.

Just find a high performance summer tire that grips and will take the occasional auto-x and not chunk or wear out extremely fast is going to be tough enough, but needing it to also provide three-season (rain) capabilities is asking for a lot. You can find tires that will meet your needs but some things are going to have to get compromised. It might cost a little more initially, but a second set of wheels/tires may help get the most life out of each and be better than a one-size-fits-all tire trying to do it all.

By the way for comparison sake, I got about 30k miles out of the OEM ContiSportContact2 tires and probably could have made it to 35k with better rotations. That was mostly daily driving and a ton of drag racing. The Dunlops have seen more auto-x laps than drag racing to go along with daily driving and I'm guessing they should be good for 20-25k miles with that type of use. I'm guessing slightly less service life than the stock Continentals but not unreasonably so.

WOW, looks like the star specs are gonna be what i get... i got used to replacing BFG Drag radials on my mustang every 5-8k miles lol

If you only get 10-15k out of the stock tires don't expect the Dunlops to last any longer (or even make it that far), but for their price/performance I've been more than happy with tread wear so far and they don't look to be wearing significant worse than the stock tires for me. If you do try to daily drive them and stretch out how many miles you can get out of a set, keep up rotations as the fronts will wear down significantly faster and also keep in mind that while rain performance is fairly good when new, as they wear down that can degrade quickly.

thanks for all the input guys im gonna start researching the other tires listed and see what the best tire will be for me

i have nitto 555s 119 each from discounttire, love these tires great traction all the way around, hardly ne road noise(trust me i just put 4000 miles on em drivin from florida to boston) 235/40/18

Thanks again and after doing the research it looks like its gonna be either the Conti DWS xtreme contact or the Bridgestone Potenza RE 960 AS Pole position as they are the highest performing all season tires i can find. So once i get them on ill let you all know how they feel and grip.:cssNET:

NT05's Are BEASTLY

In that case, go with the Bridegestone's. I have the xtreme don't-contact-shit tires on my wife's car. I hate when she has to drive in the rain because they don't contact anything.