New Hancook tires
 

My Bridgestone Potenza SO-2 As were past the wear bars in the rear, about 1/3 left on the fronts and it was time for new tires. So after much research, I got a set of Ventus V12 Hancook tires since they seemed a good compromise, good performance at a low price.

On the first drive, I though I was in a 60s Cadillac, I was wallowing all over the place. The turn in was very dull, it felt like my old tires at 25 PSI. Driving straight on the freeway and turning the wheel back and forth, the steering lagged behind the input and then the back end would go way out, not slide, just move outwards. Checked the pressure and it was 36 square, so it wasn't underinflation, but thats what it feels like.

So is this the nature of the beast? Do I have to live with this or is this just new tire squirm because the tread is so thick.

I was equally disappointed when I experienced my first drive with the V12s. Hang in there, you need to spool a few heat cycles and scrub 'em around for a few hundred miles before they become predictable. New tires have a certain number of weak molecular bonds, break in heat then cooling will make those bonds stronger and more stable.

That makes sense. I will say the tires are very quiet and much less jarring the B-stones.

So I have to drive em hard and get them hot? Poor me.

What rim size?
 

Hi San R, I put V12 on all corners about 5 months ago. The V12's are on 18" rims and they really do work well. No issues. They track well and when pushed a bit appear to perform well in the curves. I'm just curious of your rim size... I also did a four corner alignment which I'm sure helped.
Good luck, I hope the V12's work out for you.
John

I have 17s. I checked the tire pressure again and in fact the shop had put only about 30-32 PSI. I pumped the tires up to around 40 PSI and it feels much better in the city. Tomorrow I will try it on the freeway to see how it handles.

Oh, I just did an alignment, so I don't think thats an issue.

Thanks for the info. I hope it works out for you. Tires are like shoes, they have to feel right. Cheers,

I've had my four 17" V12's for about 150 miles now and I experienced the same mushy feel at first but they are now starting to firm up nicely and as such I am correspondingly pushing them more and not getting that much mushy wallowing feel. A few hundred more and they will be perfect.

Ekam's Tire Rack article says 500 miles to break a tire in so hang in there and you will not be disappointed.

Thanks. After putting more air in the tires, they got better. The shop had left them underinflated by quite a bit.

I know a lot of guys that run these Ventus tires on their 911's. Great tires at a great value proposition. But, the one caveat is crappy traction the first 1,000 miles and crappy traction and noisy the last 1-2,000 miles. The middle 7-8,000 miles are great.

Not sure how this will relate to an Boxster's ability to have tires last a little longer.

Personally, I'd rather run a more expensive tire for 12,000 miles (on my 993) and hammer the tires from start (after about 300-500 miles to scrub off the mold release) to finish.

PS2's on the Boxster, for over 52,000 miles (on 3rd set) have always been excellent. Next set will either be Super Sports or Yoko AD08's.