tires for the beast

[Roger M. Woodbury]

My '93 V8 came with a practically new set of Pirelli Sport Veloces and so
far, I have little to complain about.  So many of the roads that I drive on
are rough, that all tires make a fair amount of noise but on the smooth
interstate, the tires are really quiet.  Wet weather...well, here in the
northeast, we haven't had much since last spring, but winter is coming, and
I will wonder how these tires work in snow and slush.

When I had my 1990 V8, I felt that the car was not really terrific in
slushy, semi-frozen snow, simiply because the tire foot print is so large.
Clearly, for maximum winter traction a narrower tire would be superior.

My wife's 100 CS Avant came with a completely new set of Continental Contis
of some sort.  Since they were new two months ago, or so, and are an all
season tire, on that car, I expect winter driving to be a snap.

On the 200 Avant that was the precursor to the 100CS, I had used two sets of
Firestone LH Touring Radials, and I would buy them again in a heart beat.
They were very quiet in all conditions, and were really outstanding on the
200 Quattro in bad weather.  I buy tires locally, simply because there is no
where that I can get my own tires mounted by people who I would trust to
touch one of my cars.  I go to a Firestone dealership in Bangor, about
thirty miles from here.  The owner is a former Porsche-Audi service manager.
The prices they charge for the tires I buy are very close to any of the
on-line tire outlets.

On my Porsche 928 while I had it, I used two sets of Dunlop 4000SP's. They
were all season, Z rated and I found them to be the quietest tires available
for that car (according to Tire Rack's data), and a bonus:  they last a long
time and were the cheapest Z rated all season tire available.  The rears on
that car were 245-45/16, so not terribly common.  The car was used all year
long, although there were about six weeks when it wouldn't get out of the
garage due to the ice.

Roger