Performance Tires

[37yrold911]

I need new tires for driving fun (not for concours, don't care about period-correct). My 205/55-15 Bridgestone Potenza S-03 tires are old, and one recently developed a slow leak.

My problem is that I cannot find much at Tire Rack in the 205/55 size. The only 2 tires I see for Summer, Ultra-high Performance are the Dunlop DIREZZA DZ102, and the Yokohama S.DRIVE.

That is their 3rd performance level. Extreme Performance is the highest, and Max Performance is 2nd highest. I expect I'd like one of those...

I don't see anything listed by Bridgestone, much less by Michelin or Pirelli.

I run 15" 6's and 7's ("good enough for the RS, good enough for me").

If I drop down to 195/65 then I see a Dunlop SP SPORT 5000 listed as Ultra-high Performance, but it is All Season.

There are some Kumho tires in 205/55 listed as Ultra-high Performance, but they are All Season.

I don't care about All Season - I hardly ever drive in the rain, much less snow (which is rare here). I just want great Summer tires, maybe with very progressive breakaway, don't really care about ultimate stick and I'm not on race tracks anymore. If I had to pick a 2nd factor to go by it would be noise. I don't drive the car so much that tread wear is important as they'll age out before I run the treads down.

Ideas??

Is Tire Rack giving me a good view into the universe of performance tires? i.e. are there other brands they are not listing?

[Chuck Miller]

Oh boy.........

In my estimation:

There is NOTHING in a 'street' tire on the market in your size anywhere near the performance of your old S-03's....

I was so spoiled by my old S-03's, I ran them on the street from the time they came on the market, to when they went away. I went from them (when years ago I couldn't find any, anywhere) directly to DOT TOYO RA-1's for street and track...

Unfortunately no RA-1's 205 x 55's......... It's been same problem for all of us who want the fastest performance 15" street tires for a long time....

I was getting about 7500 hard miles out of my S-03 rears... And get about 5700 street/track miles out of my RA-1 rears... I buy the TOYO's two sets at a time.

Good luck, sorry there's no better news......

Chuck

[blucille]

I've run the direzza's and the s.drives on various 911's and they do fine...they don't perform like an re11, but their cost is half and their tread life is double...for most applications, they will be good enough....I prefer the direzza's given that limited selection.