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Old 08-17-2010, 10:30 AM   #1
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Tires?

The ContiSport 2s on the front of the Boxster are nearing the end of their useful life. I think that they are the original tires--33K miles isn't bad, but they are pretty cooked by now.

The rears are PS2s of some indeterminately more recent vintage. They don't need to be replaced yet, but they aren't new.

So, I could go with PS2s for the front, and leave the rears...but that probably means a set of PS2s for the rear next year. I'm happy enough with the PS2s, but they are crazy expensive.

Alternately, I could go for a full set of Advan Neovas AD-08s. The Porsche won't really get driven when it's very cold, and I'm on track to put about 6K miles a year on it (maybe), so going with a more focused tire makes some sense. Are those any good?

Other options in the stock size according to Tire Rack are the Potenza RE-11 and RE-050A, the Conti 3, and the Eagle F1 Aysmmetric. Any thoughts on those? Any other choices?
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Old 08-17-2010, 10:55 AM   #2
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That's where I expect my fronts to die, they're going strong at 25k. I replaced my rears around 17-18k. They still had plenty of tread but felt hard and the car was a bit loose on aggressive 2nd gear turns. And that 18k was a with a good bit of hooliganism (but no track/auto-x).

The thing with PS2's is that they actually last really well on the street. Planet-9 might have some info. A lot of folks like the f1 asymm's. Are the re11's available in the right size?
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Old 08-17-2010, 10:59 AM   #3
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I'm just a sucker for PS2's and on a car that's driven so little, I would buy them. Hell, I bougth them for the V70R and I love them.

The 987S has plenty of life on the original fronts (Conti 2's all around) at 18.7K miles and the rears while not quite at the wear bars, probably only have 3-5K miles left.
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Old 08-17-2010, 11:18 AM   #4
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RE-11s. Really awesome tire in the rain.
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Old 08-17-2010, 11:33 AM   #5
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I can never bring myself to buy the uber expensive street tires. I just don't see the point.
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Old 08-17-2010, 12:24 PM   #6
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Well, to be fair, the PS2's fo rthe V70R were pretty cheap, like $170 or so, so I jumped at the chance. The OEM (POS) Pirelli's were $200+.
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Old 08-17-2010, 12:30 PM   #7
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I've been really happy with the RE-050A tires. Plenty sticky enough for everything I've thrown at them on the street.
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Old 08-17-2010, 01:10 PM   #8
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We have RE-050As on our Mazdaspeed 3. They are some of the loudest tires I've ever encountered. The wear has been great so far, and even as they wear they're good in the rain. But man are they noisy. Noisier than the snowtires!

Bren, I think Josh sometimes autocrosses on his street tires, so he might want them to be decent. I may be wrong, though.
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Old 08-17-2010, 01:30 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John V View Post
We have RE-050As on our Mazdaspeed 3. They are some of the loudest tires I've ever encountered. The wear has been great so far, and even as they wear they're good in the rain. But man are they noisy. Noisier than the snowtires!

Bren, I think Josh sometimes autocrosses on his street tires, so he might want them to be decent. I may be wrong, though.
Yeah, my initial plan was to get a new set of 710s, but the number of days where it's been unambiguously not rainy enough to risk driving to FedEx on R comps has been, to date, 1.

The autocross thing cuts both ways; on the one hand, I want decent tires. On the other, autocrossing tears the shit out of your street tires, so spending a monster premium for PS2s is hard to justify. I was thinking that made the AD-08s attractive, but I have no experience with them.

I can't keep the various Bridgestones straight, but I didn't really care for the OEM Bridgestones on either our WRX (RE070s?) or our 335 (but those were RFTs). I'd be willing to give the RE-11s a shot, I suppose.
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Old 08-17-2010, 02:11 PM   #10
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Bren, I think Josh sometimes autocrosses on his street tires, so he might want them to be decent. I may be wrong, though.
Right. That's different.

From what I've heard of the PS2, they are pretty terrible with regards to abnormal wear from track/autox use.
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