Yet another tire thread here, Sumitomo HTR review

[Jrsully]

Getting ready to put some skins on the 15x6 flat Fuchs and have researched the Sumitomo HTR A/S P02 (V rated) They seem to get very good reviews in general and a great bang for the buck, trying to find out if anybody is currently running them and has any pics.?

1. Will be running 195/65/15 on stock 71 T
2. Car will see no track use, pleasure drives primarily in warm weather, very limited winter
3. would like to see any pics of this combo if any out there.? Heard that they tend to be a "thinner" profile.?

Thx for the help/advice in advance

[Dougal Cawley]

This is what Porsche say

http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/page...-porsche-tyres

I would suggest; don't spoil the handling of your car for the sake of saving a few quid on tyres. they are the wrong shape and designed to be fitted to a wholey different kind of car

here are some more views on here http://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/vie...3a0f7f89959d58

[Jrsully]

Thx for the reply Dougal. This 911 will be primarily a winery mobile that my Wife will also drive, no track use or aggressive driving forcasted for its immediate future. The Sumi's got pretty favorable reviews by a bunch of different venues and if I find they are not what is needed, I'm not out that much $$ and will replace

[Mrzoop]

What I've found is that the tire issue for these cars can get quite political. Everyone has a different perspective - the track guys, the alt guys, the boy racer guys, the show car collector white glove guys. Sometimes I feel that we forget that these are just cars. I would have preferred to put Michelin's on mine a month ago, but I couldn't convince my wife to find a better paying job in order to afford them. My primary objective was to replace my dried out olde Vredsteins. I finally settled on the non-original 195/65 15's. There are tons of options in that size range. The only drawback is that they are a 'modern profile' vs. the vintage appearance/stance of the mich's. My car sees about 20 shows a year and a few back roads now and then. The tires will rot off, way before they wear out. I was searching for something that had 'the period look' at a reasonable price. What I mean by that is that all the 'sumi's and kuhmo's' out there kinda look like they should be on a non-European car (ricer). So the 'eastern' tires were out of the running for me. I finally settled on Dunlop Sports. The price for 5 of these from Amazon with shipping and local mounting was the cost of buying ONE Michelin. Yes they are made in Japan, but they don't stand out as 'modern' and they say DUNLOP which is sort a of period correct brand. Oh and one other thing, they are round and black, and they roll like all the other tires out there. I won't track em or take above their speed rating. I don't think they'll ever see snow or rain or even 2000 miles per year.

[Dougal Cawley]

The difficulties are:

• Quality branded tyres cost
• High performance tyres cost
• the real crippler is the small volume

These http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/page...o-cn36-n4.html & http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/page...helin-xwx.html are made to the highest quality with very high specifications by one of the worlds best tyre manufacturers, in relatively very small volumes.

And in all fairness how much do tyres for a modern Porsche cost. When i buy tyres for my modern Mercedes they cost a similar price to the Pirelli.

I often find myself in a similar discussion with Jag XJ6 owners. the price has no relation to the value of the car, and the price of a tyre cannot be decreased because a car is not driven much. just because a car is only used a bit doesn't change the power of the brakes or the engine or the characteristics of the car. It just make spending that money more difficulty to justify.

[Jrsully]

Thanks for the continued theories here. As Mark mentioned above, there are many different opinions for sure. I'm just trying to keep things in perspective as I have done complete frame off, nut and bolt correct resto's and have regretted some of them. This car will probably drive through a puddle or 2, get caught in the rain at some point, may hit a few shows, but will not be judged for "correctness". If the Sumi tires ride nice, hold up well with "mildly" aggressive driving, I'm good with that. They may not look period correct, but I like them on the flat 6's and I prefer a little wider wheel/tire stance, again, just my taste.