TIRES

[Bill Shaw]

Hi Ben,

In my opinion there is no tire that will give good dry traction,  good 
wet traction,  and passable snow traction.  It just doesn't exist,  the 
materials requiremrnts are so vastly different to be good in each area.  
On my 2 cars that are slated for winter duty (the Z28 and the A6QA) I 
have opted for a good high performance summer tire and I have a spare 
set of wheels with dedicated snow tires.  We don't get much snow here in 
southern CT but I want to hedge my bets as much as possible when it 
comes to winter transportation.  The Ferrari only gets high performance 
summer tires. 

The 928 is a different story though.  It gets Hoosiers for summer 
traction :-).  On the street I don't care about high performance tires,  
you can't begin to get close to using  the car's performance potential 
on the street,  you very quickly over power any high performance street 
tire you could buy.  I opted for a good rain tire for my 'street' tire 
since this car's street tires do double duty as my wet track tires.  
After reading endless reviews I ended up with Bridgestone Potneza G009 
225-50/16 front and 245-50-16 rear.  One track day and about 6 month 
street driving and I'm happy with them,  they're MUCH better than the 
ones they replaced!

hth,

Bill
> Message: 4
> Date: Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:14:42 -0500
> From: "Ben Swann" <benswann at verizon.net>
> Subject: TIRES
> To: <200q20v at audifans.com>,	<quattro at audifans.com>
> Cc: benswann at verizon.net
> Message-ID: <005201c872ad$f44991f0$0201a8c0 at swansong>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Which are best?
>
> I?m not trying to compromise on price this time since a good set will last me several
> years, I don?t want to skimp, especially on safety.  At the same time, if I pay more, I
> want to make sure that what I?m getting is worth it.  I don?t need dedicated track tires
> or summer tires.  I need all around the best most forgiving tire available for a tire
> that get driven hard all year round.
>
> I?m looking for 225/50ZR16? to fit on 8? BBS wheels.  I need a tire that will handle
> very high speed in the dry and pretty fast in wet and no surprises in winter conditions.
> Don?t get enough snow to get dedicated snows, but enough dicey weather that I need it to
> be M&S rated.  So basically if I have to compromise, it will be in paying more.  What is
> the best tire or of top two or three that suit an all around purpose and might even do
> OK on a track, but moreover be good safety-wise and handle all weather conditions for a
> generally aggressive driving style.
>
> I seem to have narrowed selection down and am looking at Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS
> Pole Position
> <http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Potenza+RE960AS+
> Pole+Position&partnum=25WR6RE960PP&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&place=3&speed_rat
> ing=V&speed_rating=Z&speed_rating=W&speed_rating=Y&speed_rating=(Y)&minSpeedRating=H> ,
> Michelin Pilot Sport A/S
> <http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Michelin&tireModel=Pilot+Sport+A%2FS&p
> artnum=25YR6SPORTAS&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&place=7&speed_rating=V&speed_rat
> ing=Z&speed_rating=W&speed_rating=Y&speed_rating=(Y)&minSpeedRating=H> .  safety-wise. I
> currently have Avon Tech M550 A/S
> <http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Avon&tireModel=Tech+M550+A%2FS&partnum
> =25WR6M550&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&place=0&speed_rating=V&speed_rating=Z&spe
> ed_rating=W&speed_rating=Y&speed_rating=(Y)&minSpeedRating=H>  and they were not too bad
> at first, but as they aged got rather noisy and even with some tread left aren?t the
> best in all-weather.  I heard about the same of Continental ContiExtremeContact
> <http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=ContiExtremeCont
> act&partnum=25VR6CEC&vehicleSearch=true&fromCompare1=yes&place=4&speed_rating=V&speed_ra
> ting=Z&speed_rating=W&speed_rating=Y&speed_rating=(Y)&minSpeedRating=H>  .   I did not
> like the Yokahama DB series, and Pirelli P6?s just seem kind of hard and boring, and I
> hate Dunlop GT Qualifiers..   So even though there seem to be some pretty good rubber
> for the money in the$ 80-100 range, it would be nice to get the best I can.
>
> So which are best?
>
> Ben
>
>