New Tyres....

.......No - not the usual "what tyre?" thread! As some of you may have read in my last Running Report, it was time for new tyres. The Continental SportContact 2s had only lasted about 5000 miles on the rear, and although the fronts had plenty of life left on them, I didn't feel like buying the same again and getting the same wear rate. It's very disconcerting to be spending 20p a mile on fuel and 10p a mile on tyres!! Something else that had been getting progressively worse is that the car tramlined dreadfully, kicked off white lines, and was generally fidgety and jumpy on poor surfaces. We have more than our fair share of those in East Berkshire. I was beginning to think that something was wrong, and had a full 4-wheel alignment done just to be sure. There was a miniscule amount too much negative camber on the rear, but that's all. I started looking round to see what else was available as an alternative to the standard Porsche N-rated offerings. I spoke to my insurance company to sound them out about not using N rated tyres, and they were perfectly happy for me to use another brand, provided they were exactly the same size, speed, and load ratings. The problem I found is that there aren't many X, Y or Z rated tyres in the rear size of 295/30/18. After a bit of digging I found the Yokohama Advan Sport V103s . There are N rated sizes for the Gen 2 997, by the way. One of the chaps on RennTech has them on his Turbo and rated them highly compared to Bridgestones and Michelins. I found some good write-ups on other (non-Porsche) forums, so thought "˜what the heck' and splashed out the princely sum of £704 on a set last week. So far, I am hugely impressed. It really is like driving a brand new car, it has been totally transformed. The steering is lighter, and it tracks straight and true on even the worst surfaces in this area. The tramlining effect, which is common on 996s (worse on C4S and TTs) when driving on heavily worn roads, has disappeared completely. They are quiet too, have good rim protection, and seem to hang on very well in the wet. Of course, it remains to be seen how long they last, and I've only done a couple of hundred miles, but as long as they out-last the Continentals I will be very happy. Excuse the dodgy photos, and the state of the car: Not a very exciting tread pattern​ Good rim protection on the rear​

Richard, its very interesting reading threads on tyres as i have posted some myself in the past. I drive my car sensibly and posted that i could get no more than 4-5k miles on the rears of my 99 C2. These were pirelli P Zeros. Some time ago i also needed to consider all tyres being changed and after much thought, even though i was going through 3 sets per year, i did stay with Pirelli P Zeros. However, i can't seem to explain why, after purchasing my new set from Kwik Fit (different supplier to normal) i am now easily into 10k and still plenty of tread left. The only thing that has changed is 1. The new supplier and 2. I now am in the midlands and not london. I suppose my question is 'Does the quality of the tyre change dependant upon where you buy the tyres from?' An odd question i know!!!! Anyone throw any light on the subject.

Well done Rich for going out on a limb and trying something new and getting great results. This should help broaden the variety of potential tyres from the usual 3 brands and save people a bit of money. FIngers crossed you get much better mileage out of them too. David, if you were doing a lot of stop start driving in London compared to more motorway mileage (for example) now this will greatly reduce the wear on your tyres. Tyres do have date of production printed on the sidewall usually in an elliptical shaped protrusion eg 1509 (that would be the 15th week of the year 2009). There are rumours of certain tyre suppliers selling 'Stale' tyres at knock down prices to unsuspecting customers, so have a look next time you buy some. Anything less than 6 months old would be perfect, but I'd say up to 1 year would be acceptable.

Hi David. Did you get the four wheel alignment done every time you had new tyres put on? You say that you drive the car sensibly but only got 4 to 5K out of a set of rears: was the wear on the tyres even or on the shoulders? I only ask as it sounds as though you were driving around with a major wheel misalignment which has been corrected and now you're getting far more mileage out of the same tyres. I can't imagine that it has anything to do with you location or the compound of the tyre - especially as you're using the same tyre brand...?

Will be interesting to hear how they go - especially in terms of life. Back in Sept I replaced my rear Mich PS2's, which has lasted 2.5 years and 16,000 miles - the fronts still have plenty of tread. Although you have a lot more power than me, I would have expected the 4wd models to have a better wear rate on the rears and less on the fronts than a C2 - i.e. more even. Keep us updated, Richard.

I've always like Continentals on any car for their wet weather performance. The problem is the wear rate and that applied even to PremiumContacts on other cars. I use N2 Continentals on the 996 and like Richard, find that the rears only last about 5000 miles. The fronts hardly wear at all. Thing is as they wear I find the tramlining a lot worse. Good to hear that someone has taken the decision to try non N-rated tyres here. The Americans seem to adhere less to the N rating as evidenced on another US-based forum and report positive findings with other tyres

Thanks for thoughts guys. I have never had the alignment checked but as i am now getting good mileage it may well be that for some years i may have been being sold older tyres even though they were new. And yes, london is a bit of a start/stop area. Anyway....you learn something new everyday. I am more informed of what to check for in the future.[ ]

So how are these lasting?

I've only done 500 miles with them, so it's early days and they still look like new. The snow was a challenge, but if memory serves me correctly they performed similar to the Contis, if not slightly better. It still has a much lighter steering feel, and no signs of tramlining, so overall I'm very pleased with them. I'll try to measure the treads depths and keep a diary in my running reports.

Richard Your Conti's outlasted the rears on my previous 996!! I was getting only 3-4K on the rears.. Yes it went in for a Geo check and the next set lasted the same amount of miles [:'(] I enjoyed the Contis as they seemed to have great grip in all conditions and a good rim protector, but at that sort of mileage things had to change.. so I sold the car [ ] My next 996 was getting 10K off the rears like I do on this one... and I'm sure you know the cars seem very sensitive to geometry alignment issues.. not just on th handling but tyre wear aswell... [:'(] I hope these work out well for you.. garyw

My front Rossos look like they need replacing in the not too distant future. Was thinking of Contis, but not with that sort of wear rate. Might just go Michelin after all.