986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners - View Single Post

drsmith · 04-20-2009, 10:02 AM

I am new to the Porsche arena and to that of the USA to be fair, however, coming from the UK i am used to much worse weather than we get here in the PNW! lol.

Having been in the tuning and performance game for a while over there a few things come to light...

The tire choice of the sports enthusiast whether it be for light track use or spirited driving varies... but the consensus favors the following...

Goodyear F1's - they actually made 3 different variants so i am not sure if they are all available here in the USA. A good trade off between grip and wear rate.

Pilot Exalto's - the more expensive option even in smaller sizes but some of the hardcore tire guru's swear by them.

Parada Spec 2's - the new version of the old A539's, some people actually solely use these for track due to their grip and wear rate... i had these on an older Evo and loved them.

On lesser powered cars i have had the experience of having a number of brands, Dunlop Sports... didnt like one bit, Maxi's - cheap brand and it showed....

But as one person has suggested here, i also had a set of Nankang Sport II's fitted to my tuned BMW E39 5 series and they were every bit as good as any other tire on a non sports car based vehicle, and they were extremely cheap to boot. Had great grip and wore extremely well. Surprising for such a cheap brand. In the UK and Europe, the Nankang brand is now moving out of the 'really budget' bracket and into the more respectable range. The same can be said about Kumho, they were in a similar position as Nankangs a few years ago and are now regarded as a premium brand in Europe.

The falcons are a good tire too as suggested, but for me they were a little too soft. It is for this reason i do not like the toyo's.. i had them fitted to my tuned Evolution IV, they were pretty grippy in the dry but death traps in the wet! like having slicks on and they wore faster than any other tire i have used.... i had the older T1s's and didn't try the newer version of T1r's so i cannot compare the two, but the consensus in the UK is that they are grippy in the dry, bad in the wet and wear too quickly... something which is not a good thing on an all season Boxster!

I have some unknown brand on at the moment that are brand new, i will do some research on them later today, they have been siped and are really grippy! weren't too cheap though as i have the bill here! so they must be good.

Does anyone run a 'summer' semi slick road legal tire like the toyo R888?

04-20-2009, 10:02 AM	#56
drsmith Registered User Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: WA Posts: 9	I am new to the Porsche arena and to that of the USA to be fair, however, coming from the UK i am used to much worse weather than we get here in the PNW! lol. Having been in the tuning and performance game for a while over there a few things come to light... The tire choice of the sports enthusiast whether it be for light track use or spirited driving varies... but the consensus favors the following... Goodyear F1's - they actually made 3 different variants so i am not sure if they are all available here in the USA. A good trade off between grip and wear rate. Pilot Exalto's - the more expensive option even in smaller sizes but some of the hardcore tire guru's swear by them. Parada Spec 2's - the new version of the old A539's, some people actually solely use these for track due to their grip and wear rate... i had these on an older Evo and loved them. On lesser powered cars i have had the experience of having a number of brands, Dunlop Sports... didnt like one bit, Maxi's - cheap brand and it showed.... But as one person has suggested here, i also had a set of Nankang Sport II's fitted to my tuned BMW E39 5 series and they were every bit as good as any other tire on a non sports car based vehicle, and they were extremely cheap to boot. Had great grip and wore extremely well. Surprising for such a cheap brand. In the UK and Europe, the Nankang brand is now moving out of the 'really budget' bracket and into the more respectable range. The same can be said about Kumho, they were in a similar position as Nankangs a few years ago and are now regarded as a premium brand in Europe. The falcons are a good tire too as suggested, but for me they were a little too soft. It is for this reason i do not like the toyo's.. i had them fitted to my tuned Evolution IV, they were pretty grippy in the dry but death traps in the wet! like having slicks on and they wore faster than any other tire i have used.... i had the older T1s's and didn't try the newer version of T1r's so i cannot compare the two, but the consensus in the UK is that they are grippy in the dry, bad in the wet and wear too quickly... something which is not a good thing on an all season Boxster! I have some unknown brand on at the moment that are brand new, i will do some research on them later today, they have been siped and are really grippy! weren't too cheap though as i have the bill here! so they must be good. Does anyone run a 'summer' semi slick road legal tire like the toyo R888?