tire noise
 

Tire noise from my Pilots is obnoxious. Any recomendations for a tire that causes less road noise?

Falken Azenis 615's for me....
 

3rd set on three different cars. They have great grip, last a decent amount of miles (for performance tires) and are good in the rain. Oh...and they are very reasonably priced.

I currently run Dunlop SP Sport Maxx. No, they aren't the top tire when it comes to response or ultimate grip, but they are a great compromise. They are quiet (at least when compared to the Pilot Sports that came off), comfortable, and still are sticky enough to let you have some fun.

My only issue with them is that they develop flat spots if they sit for a few days. It goes away in 10 or so miles on the highway, but still a bit annoying.

If you want something a bit more focused and grippy, I have Kumho SPTs on my other car, and they are decently quiet. Then again, they're on a Lexus, so it's hard to compare.

Wow - very interesting. I experienced just the opposite. I had Dunlop SP Sport Maxx and the racket was driving me crazy. I switched to Pilot Sport 2s and they are much quieter - and stickier. I wonder if there could something else that causes the noise? The Dunlops tended to flat spot after sitting and required getting them warmed up for a few miles to quiet them down some, but at their best they were still far noisier than the PS2s.

Huh, that is interesting. What sizes are you running? 205/50 17 and 255/40 17 on my car.

The Pilot Sports to which I was referring were the OE 2001 tires (7 years old and 12k miles!), so perhaps there is a notable difference between those and the newer PS2s when it comes to noise.

All of that said, I think I'll go for some type of Pilot Sport next time around.

Samson,

I am running 245/40/18 and 275/35/18 on 8.5x18 and 10x18 custom made CCWs. Admittedly my Dunlops were stock 225 and 265 on 7.5 and 9 turbo twists so maybe that was some of it.

Your location isn't specific but I am in So Cal so temps never go too low. If you are in a colder environment that may play a part.

http://i44.tinypic.com/9blztj.jpg

I went with Sumitomo HTRZ III's on the new 18's that I got. I am more than pleased with them. It rains a lot here and I have a race car so I didn't need DOT-R's. I wanted good rain traction, good wear, and cheap. I think I found a perfect balance of those. They are pretty quiet, too. I drive around 20K miles a year so I don't feel like going through $3,000 in tires a year. $600 a year is more like it. :cheers:
They stick better than Pilot Sport cups.... but that's only because I could never get any heat in them. Max temp was like 45 and I even saw some snow (scary!)

If I was back in SoCal and not commuting 70 miles a day I would go with Kumho XS or Azenis 615.

Sumatomo tires would be a lot better if they came in round.....

SumitomoHTRZ III
 

I put on a set of Sumitomo HTRZ III's about 1,000 miles ago and couldn't be happier. Solid traction and very quiet.

The stock tire for my 02 is a Michelin Pilot sport N. I think they only make a N2 now. My rear tires are 245/40/17 and the N2's run about $280 a piece. The Pilot Sport PS2 are a bit less expensive ($250 +/-). I dont know what the tread life is supposed to be on the N2's but the PS2's are summer tires - 10K. For me, I dont drive terribly agressive, so I bought the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S plus. These are all season tires and are new from Michelin. They were about $220 a piece. What I liked about them is the tread life is 45K. I have not noticed much noise difference, but with the top down most of the time here in Florida, I probably wouldnt. The traction for my kind of driving is fine. The guy at Tire Kingdom reccomended getting sumitomo's, but since I was only getting the rear, I wanted them to match the front Michelins. Just my 2 cents.

Just a sidebar, my dad has pilot sports on his Saab. One either slipped a belt or had some other related failure, when Michelin was contacted, the issue was resolved immediately. Pilot sports are expensive but it's nice to know if you are going to throw the big coin they are going to backup their product. Maybe someone else can weigh in here but I've heard the Bridgestone so2 pole position is a very good tire as well.

I'm gonna throw something out there and hope I don't get trashed too much for this!

Coming from a drag-racing Mustang builder, I have always been partial to BFG's for the best "all around street-tire". I even used these on my truck when I wanted an all-terrain tread. The only time I strayed was to use Nitto Drag Radials for a few years on my street/strip car, and these were outstanding. Cant say so much for their passenger tires though because I've been there with my work car.

When I bought my latest wheels for the Box, I shopped around for BFG's, but wasn't impressed so much with the price. I have read/heard tons of good things about other tire manufacturers as well.

Being that I only drive this car on weekend trips, or local errands, treadware was not an issue. I like to "floor-it" from light to light and haul ass around corners. I figure, they will dryrot before I ever burn them up.

After tons of research and consideration, I took a chance and bought the cheapest "crap" I could find.

Much to my surprise, these damn things stick like nobody's business!!! I ended up with Nankings. They were the cheapest and damn I am impressed. No noise, good ride and insane grip around corners. Wet traction (I live in Florida, lol) is much better than expected as well.

Just a thought. I'm sure you will be happy with whatever you end up going with.

I had Pzeros on really thought they were slippery and REALLY hydroplanned - scary tread pattern for wet.

I live in the PNW and drive the car as much as possible.

I needed the highest performance, highest wet rated tire. It ended up being between the Goodyear F1s and the Toyo T1Rs. I have T1s on my Subaru and found a great deal so went with them.

I love them. They hammer through puddles like dry road; check out the tread pattern.
http://www.1010tires.com/images/tire...oyo_t1r_lg.jpg

Break away is very progressive.

Great option.

Wish I had M suspension to take out a bit more body lean.

I will only put Falken FK-452s on my car... best value for the money. 215/50s in the front, 255/40s in the back. They handle better than any other performance tire I ever had on my car.

http://www.ctyres.co.uk/product/pic/falken_fk452.gif
http://www.productwiki.com/upload/im...52-200-200.jpg

Bridgestone pole position - very good
 

Heck, I'll chime in. I had Kuhmo's on my '99 when I bought it used. They were cheap hard tires that didn't have a lot of stick. They just didn't grip well. A tech told me they were cheap and lumpy. I replaced them with Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Pole position tires. They are great. Not noisey. They do well in wet. They are softer it seems and they really grip. They have done well with wear but I am not driving it a whole heck of a lot. I love these but I wouldn't mind a less expensive option if it was just as good. I think these were like $200 each. I'm going to check the threads.

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?

I installed Kuhmo XS tires on my car last month and I like them a lot. So far racked up about 500 miles, two autocrosses and one track day. They definately grippier than the PS2's and about 1-2 sec faster on a one minute autocross than the PS2's. Definately a great tire if want max performance on the street and want to run a street tire for the track.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Dunlop&tireModel=Direzza+Sport+ Z1+Star+Spec&partnum=635WR8Z1SS&vehicleSearch=fals e&fromCompare1=yes

I like these.

"Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec (Extreme Performance Summer): The Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec is Dunlop's Extreme Performance Summer tire developed for serious sports car, sports coupe and performance sedan enthusiasts looking for race tire-like traction on the street or for use in autocross, drifting and track events. The Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec is for drivers who don't want to wait as long for their tires to come in during initial runs, as well as drivers of lighter weight vehicles who are often confronted with the task of working tire temperatures up to the point of generating peak grip."

I almost bought the Star Specs as they seem to be a great tire and popular now, then I stumbled accross these XS Kuhmo's. Besides being slightly less expensive, the Kuhmo's seem to be slightly quicker for autocross and have have a bit more grip. Here are results C&D had at the Tire Rack track.

http://www.caranddriver.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/66969af538c4f7c233fc6814a5f2ed7d.pdf

Ling long.... :D