New Tires make all the difference...review update of F1 GS-D3

I recently had to put my second set of rear Goodyear F1 GS-D3�s (hereinafter F1�s). Here are some impressions and thoughts after living with these tires for approximately 14k miles: 1. The wet weather traction is fantastic and really does not diminish in everyday driving situation as the tires wear down. These are the best wet tire I have ever used on any car bar none. If you do a much driving in the wet then you should seriously consider this tire. Even on the wear bars this tire is better than the SportContacts were new. Dry weather grip is well above any public road driving. Grip under braking was very good for public road use. 2. While the treadwear was not as good as I initially thought I was going to get they were slightly better than my experiences with Contisports, Bridgestone S0-2s, and Pirelli P-Zeros. It seems initially they do not wear as quickly as other tires but then start to accelerate after a period of time. Overall I got approximately 14k out of them and could have gotten more if one tire had not worn dramatically different than the other (I just got an alignment to hopefully fix that problem for the future). 3. Initially this tire is very quiet but as time and wear goes on it does increase in noise quite substantially. The increase in noise is gradual. The difference in the worn tires and the new tires is dramatic, at which time I realized the worn tires were just down right loud. The increase in noise was very gradual and since the 996 is not a particularly quiet car so I just wrote the noise off as normal, however, at the end the noise was quite loud and somewhat obtrusive. The new tires reminded me that the 996 isn�t that noisy after all. This seems to be about on par with other directional tread patterns I have used. However, the real noise didn�t really seem to come on until the last 25% of life. 4. The comfort of the ride degrades proportionally with the wear. At the end of their life (actually past the end on one tire) the ride and handling of car was greatly impacted. Not only were they extremely loud but the ride was much rougher and really heightened the fact the roads I drive on are less than perfectly smooth. The increase in ride roughness was noticeable and was even more apparent when the new tires were installed. Overall I am happy with the tire' performance and will still consider it for a 4 wheel replacement in the future. The tread life was good and the wet weather traction was awesome. My car is a daily driver so real world performance is more important to me than absolute track times. Thus the traction in adverse weather conditions and grip under braking was important. The tires never had any tracking and/or tramlining problems and were easy to live with on a day to day basis. The front tires have shown little wear at this point. It is possible that I could go through 3 sets for rears prior to having to replace the fronts.

Several years ago I had a z3m with Contisports. I replaced with the tyres you refer to here, and the grip in wet weather was unbelievable in comparision. I agree with the noise aspects, but think they are an excellent tyre overall. This is the 1st time I've heard of someone putting them on a 996 (or even any porsche.) Got me thinking about trying these on my 996.... jon

Thanks for the write up, nice job. I've been thinking about the Goodyear tires for awhile now, although I've been really happy with the PS2's.

I have only seen good praises for the GS-D3's. I personally like Toyo T1-S and T1-Rs for the same reason that they do everything well: have good dry and wet grid, ride well and are quiet. They have a little less dry grip than the GS-D3's, but make up for it with a much lower price tag. Unfortunately for those of us with Porsche warranties, none of these tires are "N" rated and hence won't be seeing any time our cars anytime soon.

I may be wrong, but i do not think the N rating has anything to do with warranty. It is simply a performance issue. How could a tire possibly affect a warranty claim?

I've never seen anything to indicate that a Porsche warranty is dependent upon having N rated tires on the car. It would be real hard, for instance, for Porsche to deny warranty replacement of an alternator due to one's having Goodyear tires on the car. Can you elaborate?

Exactly. Also, I put winter tires on my car, they are not N rated... doesn't affect the warranty at all.

Depends upon the dealer as to how picky they want to be, but they can void certain parts of your warranty for not having approved tires per Porsche. This will include suspension and brake components. Porsche is the only manufacturer that does this. Hence why you have "N" ratings and the Porsche Approved list. "N" is not a load rating, it is the series the tires were tested to be approved. If you come in for warranty work for bad wheel bearings or a bad ball joint, they can absolutely deny your warranty if you have non-N tires. Obviously an alternator would not be related to this. FYI, for those who run track tires both Pilot Sport Cups and P-Zero Corsas are both approved by Porsche. Here is a link to information about Porsche and N ratings from Tirerack: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=26

When I bought my C4S used it had the Contisports as well. If all you do is driving around on the street they are a decent, relatively inexpensive option. I recently changed to the Bridgestone REO5O A Pole Position. It is also not directional, so you can swap left for right. It is a far superior tire on the track, as well as the street. At some point I'm sure I will get a spare set of wheels with track tires, as I had with my previous car. I just haven't pulled the trigger yet.

I think most of those in this discussion understand what the N rating is. By narrowing your warranty comment to wheel / suspension related items, there is certainly less to question on the basis of logic. That said, I carefully reread my Owner's Manual, and could find nothing more than the recommendation for N-rated tires. Still, I wondered about the actual practice .... so I checked with the Service Mgr of a major dealership. He laughed at the thought of denying any warranty work that is within his discretion .... and, consequently angering a customer while denying his shop income ..... in order to protect PCNA on such a nebulous issue as "approved tires". He could think of no example of a problem that could be legitimately traced to a properly sized tire solely on the basis that it is not on the N-rated list. Just for what its worth.

The Magnuson Moss Warranty Act prohibits a vehicle manufacturer from voiding a warranty due to an aftermarket part unless the manufacturer can prove that the aftermarket part caused and/or contributed to the failure in the vehicle. Since tires would likely be an aftermarket part under the Act, Porsche would have to prove that the failure to say the suspension was caused by the specific tire choosen. It seems highly unlikey they are going to make this argument over tires, especially considering the standard of the Act is rather high.

So what does it mean when there is an N rating for some sizes but not othes ? For example, PS2's are not N-rated for my 2001 C4, but are for other years and models ?? Is PS2 going to be so different for a C4 than a C4S ? Did they just not test a PS2 on this car ??

Getting back to the original topic, I have the GS D3's on my car, and they are awesome. I haven't worn them down enough to notice any noise yet, but they'll have to get pretty nasty on me before I start thinking about another brand for next time.

I, too, like my GS D3's very much. Handling is wonderful. At approximately 15K miles of daily driving, there is very little tread wear.

What alignment settings are you using? While my fronts after 15k miles of daily driving (no track miles) show very little wear, my rears were completely done.

Sorry to sound so uninformed, but my alignment settings are whatever was there when I bought the car. It was 4 years old, but the very thorough PPI made no mention of any problem with alignment, and the tires that were on it showed no uneven wear nor other signs of alignment problems. I do not track the car, but do have a lot of fun driving it.

In regards to the "Magnuson Moss Warranty Act", Porsche has a defense that has already held up in court. Yes, Porsche's formal position on approved tires was written with lawyers involved. Porsche contends that they design and build cars with specific tires matched to their components. There is a significant amount written about this in recent articles on the new GT3 that was designed on specially tuned MPSC's and Corsa's. I am sure they have all the data at their disposal that changing a sidewall stiffness can accelerate wear on strut or bushing.

02, That is truly unbelievable. It would really take some piece of work to try and use that excuse on me at a dealer. But, it definitely is worth considering. I'm driving the Pirelli Pzero Rossos now (came on the sport designs that I just bought) and they seem very stable and tight in the dry (hasn't been driven in the rain yet). However, they definitely have a little jet-like whine on concrete surfaces. Doesn't bother me too much though. After reading the review of the Goodyears though, I'm pretty keen to try them but it's worth mentioning that they don't seem to have a 285 for the rears.

My 18" Eagles are 225/40 front and 265/35 rear .... which is what I thought was called for.

The 265/35 rear is correct for your 2000 996, which has 7.5" front wheels. Porsche changed the rear tires to 285/30 in 2002 when the front wheels were increased to 8" wide.

And indeed, on buying the sport designs off a 2002 car, I'm now running 8 inch wide wheels up front with 225/40s and 10 inch wide wheels in the rear with 285/30s. It's incredible how much smaller the tire selection options are in that size. I'd really had my eye on the Goodyears. I guess one could consider the 275/35s, no?