AHH!! Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs are my favorite tires!! Ahh!!! If you autocross in cold weather (Like i do), they are THE BEST street tire... The work amazing cold unlike a lot of street tires! (Hancook RS3, Toyo R1R's, etc). So if you aren't burning them up on the track, or have an autocross league in mild weather (50 to 68 degree weather, like me :( ) Then these are for you!!

Almost TOO good for the street :P lol

I agree the Star Spec warms up very quickly, don't think any tires out there can do that.

Thank you for all your replies!

It is interesting to see that no one mentions Yokohama - Why is that!?!
It is also interesting that many of you are driving around with non N rated tires. Porsche seem to scare people into the must of having N rated tires!

I went and did a big service on my Boxster the other day and while I waited I had a look at the cars they had for sale. All Ferraris and Porsches were fitted with either Bridgestone or Michelin...

I will probably go for the Michelin again...but if you would have said the Yokohamas are great then I might have given them a try...

The choice of tires seem to be more limited here in Portugal than in your country.

The Yokohama Advan Neova AD08 is an excellent tire both wet or dry but they are very expensive in the states as are Michelin PS2s. You can get Dunlop Star Specs for 30-40% less with very similar levels of grip and comfort.

I still have the Bridgestone re050a on my street set and am having difficulty wearing them away. They have performed brilliantly on/off the track (I use these when it rains), and am going to replace them because of the age of the tire than wear. Overall, I would say I have at least 10k miles on the 050a's.

I am with you on this one...better yet Hoosier A6/R6 scrubs!!!!!:cheers:

The Star Specs are the second best tires I've had and I'm still running them now with over 10k. the rears still have 4/10 but they are noisy and I'm looking for some all seasons for the winter. I have a brand new set of Kumho Ecsta SPTs but the rears are 295 30s on 11 inch rims. i tried putting them on last weekend but they rubbed the shock tower. The calculator said they would fit but it wasn't even close to fitting. I could barely get the wheel bolted on. I tried a wider spacer but it stuck them way out past the fenders.

The best overall tire I've ever had on a Porsche were the GY Eagle F1 GS D3 but I don't think you can get in them in our sizes any more. I still have a good pair of fronts, but can't replace the rears so I guess I'll get rid of them.

Hankooks ?
 

Just stay away from Hankook V12's. I am sending mine back to Discount Tire for a full refund. I can't get them balanced. Tried 3 times. Even Road Force balanced and still a shake at 70 mph. I am convinced they are just bad tires. You get what you pay for. Discount Tire has been great to work with so I am not knocking them just the tires. They did a complete free swap for a different brand and paying for the shipping both ways.

Does anyone have any experience with Nitto tires; namely the Invo or the NT05 ? Both appear to have an interesting tread pattern .

Yes the NT05 has a ton of dry grip and is pretty good in the rain. I have a pair on the rear now and I like em. They compare very well with Hankook RS3 for grip. The Nitto Invo is a goto tire for Corvette drivers and it is available in modern low aspect sizes. One of my friends has them on his 2010 Z06 and we spent the day running Chuckwalla race track together back in May. My impression is that the car is amazing and the tires are good but not great. Between the two I would choose the NT05.

Good to know . I currently have Goodyear Eagle F1's on my vehicle . Interestingly, they no longer offer the sizes that I need. With that said, at some point I'm going to need to replace them with a good alternative . I've also looked at the Conti Sport Contact series as well . Any thoughts on those ?

Yep, my brother has a set of those on his Boxster. Very good all around tire similar to the PS2. Nice quiet ride and good road manners but not as much ultimate grip as the NT05. An excellent summer DD tire . Not cheap though.

All i've heard are good things about these tires... Was planning to get a set for my rears... are you running aftermarket rims?

I have had Hankook V12 on 2 other vehicles, no issues and very good wet/dry traction. Not saying Fullthrottle didn't have the balancing problems, but I have had good luck with V12's.

Does anyone have any experience with the Yokohama Advan Neova ?

C6 - I love the look of the Hankook V12's but just could not get them to work with my Box. I'm very glad you are having luck with them. I wish I would have had the same experience. I repalced them today wiht Yokamohama's all season tires and what a difference. They run smooth and straight. I think I just got a bad set of times. Interesting thought is I took them to UPS today to ship them back and they weighed the tires for shipping. There whas a 1.5 lb difference between the 2 front tires and a 1 lb difference between the back tires. ??????

Is that normal???? I thought that in today's world and production products like these should be very similar!

Don't know but I would consider this as not good at all.

I'm about to give these a go....

PROXES T1 Sport | TOYO TIRES - United Kingdom

Whoah!!!!!! You definitely got a defective set with a 1.5 lb difference.:barf:

Which Yokohama exactly did you replace with?

That's what happens when you buy from second-tier tire company, bad QC means you will never get perfect tire balance.

When the tire guy put my Z1 Star Spec on, he said they need very little wheel weights to get a perfect balance.

HI
Just purchased a 2002 boxster from Stratstone UK dealer. Picked up the car and found that the car had not been pre checked prior to handover. Although the front discs and brake pads had been changed. After sales very poor and would not recommended to use this dealership.

Anyway the car was handling awfull in the wet and very light steering in dry weather. No grip on the rears at all in the wet.

On further investigation found cheap brand of tyres on vheicle. Non N rated.
Yaskowa and Yokohama.

Just fitted new Cont SP Contact 2 on the rear N rated and this has totally transformed the vehicle. The whole set up has changed and the steering is now positive and the rear now gives me confidence in the wet.

The car drives a lot quieter and the ride is a vast improvement.
I had to bite the bullet . Gladly it worked

Reposted from another thread
 

Just put on new PS A/S Plus. After reading all the years of threads and posts about tires helped me decide to stay with Michelin Pilot Sports. My old PS had run out of tread (legal amount anyway). I spent weeks looking at everything and, not surprisingly, the Michelin PS A/S Plus came out ahead of everything. Bang for the buck, "great for the money" and good deal mean nothing to me when safety, quiet and tread wear mean everything. I've driven several tires over the years on Porsches, but none out perform Michelin tires. Every pro I spoke with over the past month agreed when you want the best it had to be Michelin. And, so it was. Thanks for everyone's input on the dozens of tire threads.

When everything is rated as compared to the Pilot Sport series, it was an easy decision.

Here's my quick Pilot Super Sport review. I have 200 miles on my new set, and finally got a chance to lean on them a bit. I'm impressed. The roads were clear and dry, on a sunny day, but the temperature was only 25°. The grip available was comparable to my old PS2's on a summer day, they felt that good. Granted, my old tires were 2 1/2 years old on the rear, and 5-6 years old front (originals on my '06). As most of you know, the PS2's are a bit slippery below 50°.

FWIW, I purchased 245/40-18's for the front, and stock size 265/40-18's on the rear. My theory being, I can reduce understeer without having to use an aggressive front alignment (or making expensive suspension changes), allowing alignment for maximum tire life. My tire wear was actually quite even with the factory alignment, except for the inside of the RF tire .I'll have my alignment checked, though it may just be from "dragging" the inside edge on right-hand turns (ramps). I can have my cake, and eat it too!