Best Tires

jpo4IS300 · October 2, 2004

any suggestions on the best brand of tire for this car? friend tells me michelin race tires?

steviej · October 2, 2004

that is a loaded question. May factors come into play when trying to decide on what is the best tire. These include road surfaces, types of weather, level of importance (handling, noise and treadware), driving style, price, etc.

I suggest you go to www.tirerack.com and at least try their automated tire selector to find out what fits your selected driving/area pattern. Mind you, this will only give you suggestions of tires that TireRack sells. I suggest that you also find other tire sales websites and try their tire selector options. I think another site is www.discounttire.com (maybe off by a letter to two). Look in the back or any MotorTrend, R&T or C&D magazine to find a couple.

good luck,

steviej

lilbaggie · October 3, 2004

i just replaced my Nitto 450's with a set of Yokohama ES100.

quite nice in the dry, haven't had a chance to test them in the wet yet...

tread design is cool too.

msugi07 · October 3, 2004

Well many things come in to play when buying tires. It does not matter what brand you go with cause every brand says that they are the best. So you need to be looking at the facts. Look for the Treadwear, Traction, and Temp.

The treadwear is a numeric rating that describes the life of the tire or wear rate. You should also consider how soft or sticky the tire is. The lower the number for treadwear the stickier the tire. The stickier the tire the less treadwear you will have. A tire with a rating of 300 will wear twice as long as one with a 150, but the 150 will stick to the ground and be more fun.

The traction is a letter grade. ( AA, A, B, C with the AA being the best ) Now remember that rates on the tires traction capability during a low-speed ( 40 mph ) straight-line braking test on wet pavement. This does not address the cornering ability. Also note that the grade of AA has been in place since 1997 and applies to tires that have been introduced since then. An A grade on an old tire is the best you can get.

Temperature is another letter grade. ( A, B, C with A being the best ) The temperature represents the tire's resistance to the generation of and its ability to dissipate heat. Heat is the tires worst enemy. Speed ratings are as followed

Rating MPH KPH

H 130 210

V 149 240

W 168 270

Y 186 300

ZR >149 >240 and so on....

Any thing that was faster than a V got a Z rating

"Remember everyone," Tires are the only thing that is keeping your car on the ground and to me is the most important factor you need for your car. Hope this helps.

SKperformance · October 4, 2004

moved to tire section

SCdriver · October 4, 2004

The best tire depends on what your needs are and what compromises you want to make in terms of wear, performance and weather ratings. The best tires I've owned (and I've had high performance tires from most major brands) are the ultra high performance Goodyear Eagle GS D3 F1's. They stick like glue in the wet and the dry and are very quiet. I expect the soft compound will not have super long tread life but it is worth the trade off for the added saftey and comfort.

Mr. Curious · October 5, 2004

there is no best brand of tire. plain and simple.

Lexusfreak · October 5, 2004

What specifically are you looking for in a tire......such as long tread life, snow traction, wet traction etc & what is the exact tire size your looking for? :unsure: