New tires (almost)
 

Bought a set of used 17" wheels to use for AX and track.

They came with Sumitomo HTR ZIII 255/40's on the rears and 2 brand new unmounted 205/50's for the fronts. The tires mounted on the fronts are toast

I was able to get a local tire shop to swap out the front 205/50's for 225/45's, a better setup for the Boxster. It will reduce the under steer a little.

Yes, I know the HTR ZIII is not a track tire, I plan to replace them at some point with RS-3 or something similar that is stickier. Since the tires based on what I paid for the wheels were essentially free, I will run them for a while and probably trash them from hard use. From everything I have read, they are actually pretty good street tires

On the rears, they were driven from San Francisco to San Diego and have around 1000 miles on them . The problem I have is I don't know which rear was on which side of the car. The guy I bought them from did not mark them.

I guess its a 50/50 chance i get them on how they were. They don't have a rotation arrow, just OUTSIDE marked. I guess I should be OK no matter what side I put them on.

I will mark them for future reference

Gonna use them for an AX tomorrow, so I gotta drive them a bit today to break-in the fronts. Too bad for me :p

Let me know how you like em. I'm in between a set of rears of my bf sports or getting all new kicks and likely going with the sumis.

I've used 18 inch HTR IIIs on the track and they get the job done. Not the best for the track but decent. Depending on track temps and how hard you are pushing they can get too hot and they get a bit greasy. For AX this should not be an issue. Doing HPDEs it is something I've had to watch for. It's weird that yours do not have a directional arrow. Mine do.

Have fun!

Double checked, no directional arrow, just OUTSIDE on them

I think the HTR Z II may be directional, and their performance all season is directional as well, my son has the on his Toyota.

I've just installed a pair on the back of mine as well. No directional arrows,which is odd as when you look at the tread, one tire will be rotating in the opposite direction to the rain sipes. I'll be on the track at Mont Tremblant next week. We'll see if these work better than the Nexens that they replace. Those ones had me experience an elegant loop-de-loop on the wet track in June! :eek:

'm bummed

The shop that was swapping my 205s for 225s was not able to get them today, it will be Monday when they have them.

As my rear hankooks are too worn , i am going to have to use the sumi's on the back and hankooks on the front for the AX tomorrow

Should be fine as they are both the same class of tire. I think you would have liked the 225/45 in the front though.

One of the fast guys at autocross here in a 2004 Anniversary edition 911 has different brands of tires on front and rear because he can't get the sizes he wants for both in the same brand. They are in the same class of tire, and he is faaaaast :)

My Kumho's have outside on the side facing the lug nuts. From what I could see, nothing was written on the other side of the tire. The are no directional or rotational marks on the tires.

My front Hankooks V12's are 225/40-18's, so I will be running the same width as the sumi's I am waiting on. Since the sumi's are 17's, they will be 225/45.

I would have just run the Hankooks on the rear, but one of them is at wear bars and I probably would not pass Tech Inspection with them. Glad I had the sumi's

+1 HTRZ III's
 

Just put on my third set of HTRZ III's. Love 'em. They're not directional.

Do you use them exclusively as a summer tire? I am looking at buying these to put on a set of 18's I just purchased but given that it's mid September I am a little cautious about buying a summer tire. Obviously I wont be driving them in the snow but I wonder how they do in extreme cold? Ohio weather is similar to VA weather.

I could always put the 17's back on as well when it gets real cold but I am curious.

Thank you

Being in San Diego, a summer tire is good pretty much year round. There may be a few days with temps under 40 and then its just for a few hours at most or the middle of the night. Hell I'm even top down in the winter.

Should it get too cold or we go somewhere where it is, I always have our 996 Targa that has all season tires

When I was in NC I kept my Sumis on year round - if it was snowy or too cold I just didn't drive it that day, but that was very rare.

Steve

How did it go?

Steve

AX went pretty well.
I was happy with the Sumi's on the rear, but since the tire shop was not able to get me the 225's for the front in time I had my ventus V12s on the front. I should be getting them today tor tomorrow. Probably wont be able to play with the new tires on for a few days as we are expecting a lot of rain for the next few days

Hopefully some of the rain will be in No Cal and put out the bad fires up there

Well after driving with a full set of HTR ZIII's for a few weeks now, I can say they are nice tires.

I have not done an AX or track day on them yet, I do have 2 track days at the end of Oct. Have driven a bunch of back road twisties and I have been very pleased with them. I did do some adjustments to tire pressure and have been running 32 f/34 rear and the car is very neutral.

Now I have to decide what to put on my DD 18's. While the rear Hankooks are toast, the fronts still have good tread on them, although they are beat up a bit from the track and AX. Do I just replace the rears, or get a set of Sumi's all around. The rear Hankooks will cost me around $350 and a set of 4 Sumi's is ~$475