Time for new tires, Suggestions please , summer tires or so cal tires Options

[thelogo]

Narrow or stock body fenders Car , 4 bolt real fuchs or 2liter wheels

Has 195/60r 15 on it now
Netto touring front (still tread enough but are like 8 years old )
Continental touring rear ( tread is pretty low also old but in good shape)


I beginning to realize a tire failure on these cars could be especially dangerous



Cause lets face it a 914 gets driven harder then
A toyota



I dont want to roll the fender lips and the clearance with current tire size is already tight


Budget pretty wide open since i want something reliable or high quality ?

[Superhawk996]

3 pages of discussion on tires? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/lol-2.gif) No debate here!. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stirthepot.gif)

There is no right answer and getting useful technical information on tires is near impossible unless you have access to a flat track tire measurement rig like the OEM and tire manufacturers use.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ME_I5s-gQ


I've found large disparity and information between Tire Rack (or any of the on-line tire retailer) reviews and what I know to be the case from flat track data I have access to. Not to say they aren't worth reading but don't take them as gospel but general crowd sourced data.

To compound matters, any particular tire brand or model can have several different compounds, tire constructions, and manufacturing plants. Even though externally they appear to be the exact same tire, they are not. Coefficient of friction (mu) varies, stiffness of the side wall (i.e. cornering stiffness) can all vary to a large degree even though the tires look the same.

Three bits of information that can be highly useful:

1) DOT codes. This is like the tire fingerprint. A unique code is assigned for each unique tire construction.. When I have to go get tires out of our tire storage areas, I'm looking at DOT codes to make sure I have the right tires for a given test. The DOT date code also tells when it was manufactured. Beware of local tire dealers if they don't move volume. No sense in buying a "new" tire that is really 4 years old and has been sitting in a hot warehouse. Likewise, verify the DOT code is the same on all four tires. I've seen tire stores deliver 3 of one code and the 4th of another. This is not good! It took about 1/2 hour of argument with the tire store to get them to address it and only then it was after I had to explain to them what a DOT code is. Scary!

2) UTQG codes.
Pick tires with Traction and Temperature grades A, they will be better tires than those with B or C as a generalization.

2A) Treadwear code is a part of the UTQG code. The lower the Treadwear number, the less life you'll get but likewise that typically is due to the tire having more GRIP. Summer tires will be quite low, but the grip is amazing. I used to Run Bridgestone RE-71 as a DOT legal autocross tires which at the time were rated Treadwear= 71. I used to get about 12,000 miles (i.e. two summers). They were so grippy and picked up so much road debris they eventually sandblasted the rockers on my Miata.



Here is a good Tire Rack primer on what UTQG codes are.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...p;affiliate=HM5

Here is how to read the DOT Date code.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...e.jsp?techid=11

Decoder of DOT code manufacturing locations
http://www.tiresafetygroup.com/tire-dot-pl...d-manufacturer/