^Mr. Danger, perhaps your ride is stiff partially because your car is dropped to the floor? :p

Thanks everybody,
I think after reading all the posts I'm going to go with the Falken 912s or the Sumitomo HTRZIII. Hopefully I'll get more than 10K from the rears this time. Some one mentioned that the centers of their rears wear out. I had this problem with mine also when I started to notice this, I started playing with the air pressure. My rears are 265/35/18s. I thought center wear=to high pressure, outside wear=to little pressure. As it turns out, now i'm told thats wrong, the construction on these tires is such that too little pressure=center wear. makes no sense to me but porsche reccomends 36psi for that size on the rear for the Caymen.
Ken

Kumho Ecsta SPT which came with the car. I found them to be great on dry pavement, great in emergency braking, in below 0 C temps and real steady in a heavy downpour/thunderstorm on the highway. I have never felt so stable during a heavy rain with NO hydroplaning. On 17" rims

HRTZIIIs. Great in dry weather,haven't had them break loose unexpectedly....complete **************** in the rain.(don't know if the hydroplaning is do to my alignment) :confused:

Ken, if they're wearing fast in the middle they likely have too much air. Alignment may be an issue as well, but the primary factor in wearing out the middle of the tire faster than the shoulders is over-inflation.

The center of a tire can wear even with correct air pressure if the tire is too wide for the wheel.

I have quite a few friends that autocross with the Bridgestone Potenza RE-11's, and I have completely and 100% determined that those will be the tires that I buy if they are still available in about 6 months.

Excellent performance tire, just not the best value out there. Cost no object these would be at/near the top of my list.

I just bought Bridgestone Pole Position RE050A tires front and back. Love them and would buy them again. Check out their dry performance rating on Tire Rack.

AKL :dance:

Actually, I was running the tires before any suspension changes or Viagra for that matter.
:D

Sumitomo
 

If you buy tires because you want others to think you're cool, then go ahead and spend your money on Goodyear Eagles, Potenzas, or Pirellis. If you're interested in a tire that will give you good dry and wet traction, wear well and cost half as much, go with Sumitomo HTRZ III's.

That's what I always thought also. The logic being that the more pressure would push out the inside of the tire more and the inside would then wear faster. maybe that's true with narrower tire, I don't know. Adding more pressure seems against everything i was always taught. But the tires are the Porsche option on the Porsche rims so i don't believe the tire is too wide for the rim. And this is the standard size for the Cayman & Porsche recommends 36 psi. the most I used to put in in the rear was 34psi. then started experimenting all the way down to 28psi.
Going less psi did not seem to bring the wear back to the sides. So with the new tires I'll start at 36psi.
Ken

Lol. Who do you believe in these threads?..on the Sumis, one guy says they suck in the wet while another says they're great.

I personally also run with Goodyear F1s, but unlike Danger, don't find them rough riding at all. Very smooth and quiet, great in the rain and dry, and very long wearing. No problems with wheel balance either. I run 18" wheels tho.

Everybody drives differently and thus they have found a tire that fits their needs. That is what I get from the posters here. My Falken's 912's are, so far, are a very good tire. Not many performance tires come with a 40,000 mile warranty like the Falken. My Boxster came with Kumho's, found them rough riding and thumbed a lot when cold...reminds me of the old bias tires from the 60's. :cheers:

Hey Guys,

Thought I would chime in on this one as I currently have tires on the mind as well.

I run 275/35/18 rears and 235/40/18 fronts on a daily driver only, in Florida. I've had Pzeros, Yokohamas, Kumho Ecstas, Falken ziex 912's and Michelin PS2 A/S Plus on my car. Imho I have experienced the following: the Pzero's performed really well but wore out by far and away the quickest. Yokohama's were ok performance, little better on tread life but really, really noisy. The Kumho's where in my opinion best over-all performance, tread life and the quietest tire out of those three. All that said, there is a lot of rain in Florida and none of those tires made me feel secure in a downpour. That coupled with the fact that I'm lucky if I get 3k out of my rears, I started looking at A/S tires. First I tried the Falkens. Reasonably similar imo to the Kumho's, performance wise, but, I got 2.5k out of the rears and about 22k out of the fronts. Those rears MUST have been defective as they have a 45k warranty. Falken & tire kingdom did credit me money on the rears but, it wasn't an easy process. Currently I'm running the PS2 A/S Plus all the way round. These tires have been impressive. Best traction in the rain I've ever gotten for sure. To date, I have 7k on them and the rear tread looks brand new. They're also reasonably quiet as well. But, I will say, they are of course, the least sticky of the bunch. It's not a lot, but you definitely feel it. I think it's an acceptable amount for what I've gained in treadwear. Out of the bunch, I would absolutely buy the Michelins again and the Kumhos. That's it.

Has anybody had any experience with Continental ExtremeContact DWS? They've gotten good reviews on Tire Rack but, many people have said they seem more squirrelly dry than PS2 A/S. That, to me, seems scary. They are so much cheaper than the Michelins though and their over-all ratings are really good. I'm really curious to hear how they handle dry...

On a side note, in the spirit of continuous tinkering ;) , I'm thinking of possibly switching my 18's out for 19's. Only because I'm loving this particular style of wheel that isn't made in an 18 size by anybody (RPK-038). Has anyone made the switch from 18's to 19's and have an opinion about the difference in ride stiffness? I would like my wife to still want to get in my car, haha.

For those of you who haven't seen these charts, here are a couple of interesting links:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=UHPAS

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=MP

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=UHP

Thanks guys. I hope this is helpful to someone =)
-ian

The CEC DWS is a great value in A/S tires. We have had them on the A6 for several months and I am very impressed. That said, they are NOT in the same class as the Pilot Sport A/S. If the PS is borderline acceptable in terms of performance, you don't want the DWS.

I think they just came out not that long ago. Newer than the Z1 Star Spec for sure.

The RE-11s have been out at least a couple years already.

2009 according to this press release.

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2009/03/13/453221.html

Interesting. A friend of mine (as well as many other participants) ran them in May 2007 for One Lap of America.