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Originally Posted by MikenOH
do you think this due to a softer sidewall? I haven't driven my car with PS2's enough to get a feel for steering response relative to the Kumho's I had on the '99' but when I went from the Michelin MXX3 to the Kumho, I immediately noticed the less immediate response to steering inputs.
The ride was softer in the Kumho's and it still had lots of grip, but the "hardwired" feel of the MXX3's was not there.
A good friend that used to be a Goodyear tire engineer explained all the compromises you have to make, depending what you want the tire to do for you. I'm wonder if the loss of turn in response is a result of getting a softer ride.
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In a nutshell, yes. The Kuhmo's are known to be a softer tire, that's how they were engineered. The PS2 has a very soft sidewall as well but to be fair, the sidewall in the PS2 is very sophisticated, it's not simply softer. It's designed to combine the softer sidewall with an outside tread density that should allow for very precise turn in and in the proper application the PS2 is a killer tire. I run a 17" version on my V70R and it transformed that car. The ride is superb and it can generate A LOT of corning force. To be fair, the suspension on the Volvo is geared for a softer tire so it takes the PS2's very well. The 986 suspension, OTOH is designed around a tire like the Yokohama AVS Sport, Pirelli P-Zero or the Michelin Pilot Sport 1 (derived from the MXX line of tires), all of these tires have a much stiffer sidewall and less tread squirm than the PS2 and certainly more than the Kuhmo's.
If you care about staying with an N-Spec 17" tire then the Michelin PS Rib (N2) seems to be the hot ticket. If you want to try something a little more geared for street/track then I would seriously consider bumping the fronts up to 225/45's and look into Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Positions or the new Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD07.
With all that being said there are a lot of people quite happy running the Kuhmo MX's in 17's on their Boxsters but I doubt they are tracking the car reguarly OR they do track it and got tired of paying $200+ per tire after destroying them on the track in one season.