Stock Conti's, wear pics/mileage
 

Here's mine in the middle of swapping them off the car for its first winter, see my winters stacked on top :-P (Dunlop Wintersport M3s)..

After 15,600 miles my Continentals looked like this:

http://i602.photobucket.com/albums/t...t/IMG_2677.jpg

i do not like these tires at all.....i had 2 where the sidewalls were coming apart.

My stock Conti's have about 16,500 miles on them and look like your pics.
I'll take pics once I get my new tires in.

Oh and by the way, these tires were rotated twice, so all four had an equal amount of wear. I would imagine that by not rotating, one pair would have worn much faster.

I got rid of my stock contis at around 9k miles. I'd guess by 17-18k they would have looked like yours.

If you want a tire that will last but still perform decent that I suggest the BFG KDW2 but if you want something that you can really have fun with then Id say get the Dunlop Star Specs.

Star specs will only last one summer as with most summer tires so keep that in mind.

That's pretty much normal wear for an ultra high performance summer tire. What is the wear rating on these?

280 but I plan on running something in the 140-180 range for my daily rubber next summer.

Do you daily your car?
If so i would suggest getting a set of track/strip wheels mounted with good rubber.
140 to 180 tw you'll be lucky to see 4-6k out of the tires before there gone.
There no point wasting good money of good rubber when most of the time your just gonna be in daily traffic.

What i do is get cheap UHPs. so far the best iv had experience with are:
Kumho Ecsta SPT they have a 320 tw but i could pull 2.2 2.1 60s with them at the track. and they were more than grippy enough on the street, and General tire Exclaim UHP. both can be found around 90-140 a tire. and offer a great balance of performance and longevity

I appreciate your opinions and knowledge phatnackyss, but my 280 rated Continentals (OEM) seem to spin like crazy with my tune through about 50 mph, it has to be over 85 degrees F outside before this is a non-issue, the colder it gets from there, the worse.

My logic is if I get something in the 160-200 range, then it could be 60 degrees, somebody wants to race me from a dig, I will not get roasted like I would if I had stock rubber...

I ordered a cheap set of Lexani LX9100 all season tires.
I don't drag race or auto-x, just daily driving, so these should work out good for me.

The manual states you shouldn't expect more than 24,500kms (or 16,000 miles) or something around there out of the stockers; so yours are wearing about as well as you could hope :). Those are pretty much done for.

I'd guess I'll replace the Continentals with a more aggressive tire... For igloo-dwellers like Perma and I, there's some value in having a high-po summer tire - we spend 4-6 months on our winter tires anyway.

Just remember you cant always judge by Tread ware rating , cause its not the same across all tire brands, use it only to compare tires of the same brand. my car came with pirelli P Zero Rossos they had a 220 TW but i couldn't hook with them for the life of me,when i went to the SPTs they had a 320 tw but hooked like glue.
Do some research on other car forums and she what they run.
As far as temp goes , that's going to be an issue with every tire. some tires will preform better at diffrent temps but that has little to do with the tread ware rating and more to do with tire compounds. And launching on the street in a high hp fwd car has alot more to do with the driver than the tire.



take a look at the description and read some of the reviews.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....odel=ECSTA+SPT

the BFG T/a KDW2 is also a great tire , the SRT4 guys know this best.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....ce+T%2FA+KDW+2

Exactly, even with a super soft compound you can likely get 2 seasons out of 'em depending on how much you drive. I still have a good season left on my stockers so I'll run them down and see what I replace 'em with, those BFG G-Force's phatnackySS linked to below are known to be excellent, and have a similar tread pattern to the Toyo's I can't seem to track down right now.

toyo porxes 4 i didnt know they still made them. they were what everyone ran back during the "import boom" or as like to call it , A.F.F. (After Fast and The Furious)
http://www.toyo.com/tire/pattern/proxes-4

I was thinking more along the lines of a Kuhmo XS - I figure I can squeeze at least a summer or two out of them.

Ya those are the ones my friend has on his SC as far as I remember. They're apparently excellent in the rain which is really my only complaint with the stockers. The Continentals have 0 channels to expel water; I got stuck in a near torandoe this summer, hit the brake and quickly realise the Brembos were drowning and I may as well have been on skis, it was NOT a comfortable feeling.

Those would do the trick as well; I'll ask Sean (Ninja44) which tires he went with since he swears by them, I'm pretty sure they were a Dunlop.

14K on mine and they look almost as worn as yours I have 2 with more tread left than that and two with about the same. Rotated at 6500 miles and 13000 miles. New tires this summer. ;)

I guess I am surprised that I am getting a solid 16,000 miles out of my 4 continentals, considering the fact that I have been tuned for 12,000 of those miles and I typically like to romp on it at the beginning of 2nd gear thus burning rubber from 30-50 mph QUITE frequently... lol

Dunlop Direzza Star Specs seem to be the king of street tires traction wise right now. A cheaper alternative to those would be Nitto NT05's, which have also been getting good reviews. One guy who had Falken Azenis RT615's in the past prefers NT05's and says they wear slower.

I've still got my stock conti's on and hit 20300 miles yesterday... too broke for new rubber, so driving on them through this winter too!

Using these tires in snow is suicidal! You're putting other peoples lives at risk also.

20,000 miles on them and snow? Not only are they going to be bald but you'll have 0 traction in the snow. They turn into hockey pucks in the colder temperatures...good luck with them all winter, I hope for your sake you don't get a bad year of snow. If you get heavy snowfall stay off the roads, you're asking for trouble if you don't. Your nickname might be appropriate attemtping otherwise....

Both the Nitto and Dunlop are on my short list :).

Nitto Invo's should also be on anybodies short list who cares about ride comfort. They don't have a crazy stiff sidewall like most UHP tires. I'm happy with mine and they didn't wear very much in their first summer. I should be able to get about 40 000kms (~25 000 miles) out of them easily.