Tire Recommendations for Florida
 

I am new member to these forums and also to the Porsche family. I just purchased a 2000 Boxster S and absolutely love it. That being said I live in Florida and am ANAL about tires, whether it is for my daily driver truck or my wives SUV. We have serious thunderstorms here and I want a tire that works great in the rain (buckets of water being thrown at my front tires). Currently the car has Michelin Pilot Sports (18" Rad Sport Wheels) with about 7K miles of wear and I am a little nervous about driving this car during the afternoon thundershowers. This car does not have the traction control option so I am completely at the tires mercy. Any recommendations from Florida Boxster owners would be appreciated. I am not too concerned with tire wear during hot and dry days as long as the tire sticks well in both dry and wet weather. Currently I am spying the Bridgestone Potenza S03 tires. Does anyone have any positive or negative feedback on these tires or any recommendations? I dont trust Tire Rack's readers comments, as these do not represent my car and conditions. I would prefer to hear from "real drivers of the Boxster S"

Thanks!

Tire Recommendations
 

I can't comment with specific experience on the Boxster yet as my '06 Boxster S is still on the boat at the moment. I do, however, have a MB C32 AMG and Subaru WRX and have tried a number of tires over the years. I had Bridgestone S03 Pole Postions and they were very good in the rain. They have very stiff sidewalls and seemed to tramline a little more than other comparable tires. They also became rather noisy towards the end of their life.

I recently put Goodyear F1 GS D3's on my AMG and am very happy with them. They are very confidence inspiring in the wet unlike the Michelin Pilot Sports that orginally came on the car. They also have a fairly stiff sidewall for quick turn in unlike the Toyo Proxes T1-S I tried.

I believe the Goodyears are known for their wet weather performance and they are reasonably priced compared to Michelins.

I love my Yokohama AVS Sports... http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Yokohama&tireModel=AVS+Sport&pa rtnum=24ZR8AVSSSN1&partnum=635ZR8AVSSSN1&vehicleSe arch=true&place=0&index=0
$240 each for rear 265/35ZR18
$180 each for front 225/40ZR18

I was also going to say my Brodgestone S-03's are pretty good int he wet. We don't have the kinds of storms here in Buffalo that you guys get in Florida though...

FWIT - one more data point -

I've got Sumitomo HTRZ IIs. Observations: They do fine in everyday driving. I have one track day on them. They were "ok" but mushy at the limits - may be a pressure problem. I plan to play with pressures next time out (Sep.). I got to drive them on a soaking wet track right after an afternoon thundershower. They had excellent grip in the wet. However!!! when they did finally lose grip, it would break abruptly and you really needed to be ready to catch it. This is in the context of "extreme" driving, and pushing it way hard until I found the limits. I would run at posted speed limits on any wet highway with them and never worry for a minute. I would not horse around heavily with any tire on a wet road. (A wet track - that's different).

They're cheap. Front $75 and rear $97 each at Tirerack.

But, in the end I will try a different tire next time around. The wet reviews I've read seem good on the OE Bridgestones, and I may try them next. People also seem to like them on the track. I've read some bad reviews on Pirelli's in the wet (good in dry). But these last two opinions are just "internet" knowledge, not first hand knowledge. There's a difference.

Lastly, any brand worn tire = no good in rain. If your backs get worn before the fronts as they tend to do, it could produce a suprising result on a wet corner or sudden evasive manuver.