Tires: Bridgestone S03 or Contisport Contact 2?

Which is the better tire? Bridgestone Potenza S03 or Continental Contisport Contact 2? Thanks

It all depends on what you are expecting from them. What are you priorities? Dry grip, wet performance, high mileage, comfort, steering response, etc.?

Good point Viken. I want a tire which is good in both dry and wet, but since I am unlikely to approach the dry limits, I woud rank wet performance 1st. Steering performance and dry grip would be =2nd. Mileage 4th and comfort 5th. I have heard good things about the Potenza S03 wet performance, but not much about the Contis.

neither get some sp2's or pirelli asimetricos.

I had the Continentals, now I have the SO3s, I personally prefer the SO3s. On the road the SO3s are quieter and generally rode nicer. The Continentals felt "choppy" on the freeways around LA. On the track, the SO3s were more predictable. The Continentals, blistered and volcanized (outer two ribs) on me. The SO3s performed great. No blistering, some volcanization (on the outer two ribs) but overall the SO3s held up much better.

Hands down... S-03's!

DITTO for SO3's. Had both and will stay with SO3's

OK, given the above, here's what I suggest for the 996: 1- PZero *Rosso* Asimmetrico: Excellent dry and wet performance. Close to excellent steering response. Very good comfort and mileage. 2- Potenza S-03: Excellent wet performance. Above average dry performance. Above average steering response. Excellent comfort and mileage. 3- Sport Contact 2: Above average to very good everything.

I've ran pilot sports, S-03s and pirellis and by far the S-03s were the best in the wet and at the limit. But they wear alot quicker than the pilot sports! Go for the S-03s you will love them.

With those priorities...SO3's!

Go for the Bridgestone S02-A... it is Bridgestone new and improved S02 with wet weather technology from the S03. They have a harder sidewall and much better steering response and feedback as well as being performers in the rain. I have these on my 996 and absolute love them. I have had bad experiences with S03 and know others who also have as well... will never buy these tires again. As for P-Zeros.... I've talked to too many people who say they flatspot (including my own Pzeros that I removed) and that really sucks. Peter 1999 996 Silver/Boxter Red 6spd

Hmm... How long did your car sit when the pzeros flatspotted? I just took my car out of storage (14 months, not on jacks, never moved car). Granted, I am both lazy and an idiot for not jacking during storage, but my pzeros were smooth as silk on new freeway. I was concerned that they would flatspot, but it appears they didn't.

I'm curious, what bad experiences?

I as well am curious as to C70petes bad experiences with the S03's?

Here is a list of S03 -ves: Bad experiences with S03... weak sidewalls... car is squirmy in corners and steering response sucks. i.e - doesnt promote confidence for high speed cornering and maneuving... Also, noisy when they are worn down (not a big problem as most tires get this way anyway) Have heard from many others who don't like the S03 as well... but hey some people love em... as for the PZero (Gialo NOT Rosso)... I've heard from too many people about the flat spots as well as experiencing the problem myself... if they didn't have the flat spot they are a great tire case closed. It appears to be a quality control issue at Pirelli... a local tire dealer here in Toronto will recommend either Michelin Pilot Sport or Bridgestone S02-A for your porsche and they do a lot of work for Pfaff porsche - he steered me away from the Pirelli's and concurred with my remarks regarding the flatspoting of the PZeros and the squirm and steering response of the S03. but heck... maybe I got some bad tires... I would be tempted to try the PZero Rosso if I hear the flat-spoting issue has been solved. cheers Peter

Please do not conclude that the pzero flat spotting issue has been solved, as I was not aware of the further classification (Rosso, Gialo, etc.). I do not know which I have, as my car is back in storage , and I won't see it for a few days (perhaps weeks).

Hey Phil, I don't believe I concluded that the flatspotting issue has been solved... I know it is an issue but I certainly have no conclusions about it... especially on the Rosso model which I have never tried. regards, Peter

What flat spotting issue? I have had dozens of PZero Asimmetrico sets on various cars with no such problems. Flat spotting is cause by parking under inflated tires on a hard surface for prolonged times. This can happen with any tire.

Hi Viken, what tyre pressures do you recommend for a 996 with 17" rims... just curious to see what your running them at... I've heard a ton of complaints about flatspotting with PZeros... maybe we are ALL running then at too low a psi??? let me know please. regards, Peter

I would say 32 and 35 is perfect for aggressive street driving and occasional track driving. However, that might be too low for occasional driving if you are concerned about flat spots.

Thanks, interestingly, under the front hood Porsche recommends 36 and 36 hmmm... makes you wonder I'll try 34 and 36 just to keep the pressure up there... although with this change of weather up here in Toronto there must be a pressure drop within the tire itself.... does anybody know how much pressure drop is associated with a 17" Porsche tire when there is say a 10 and 20 degrees Celcius change in temperature? Peter

Since we are talking about of round Pirelli's... check out the following thread: https://rennlist.com/forums/showthre...161#post825161 cheers, Peter

Well I will say this. the problem with the assimetricos is not flat spotting. However they do something wierd when you drive them extremely hard without a nice cool off. The go out of balance it seems. I dont' know if they move on the rim because of heat or what it is attributed to but it is annoying! It can be alleviated by driving in a straight line for about 1 mile or a little longer after some seriousl canyon killing. I would have to agree with Pete though the new s02-A's are a great compromise. so3's are too heavy, contintentals are too heavy and don't grip well. It really amounts to what you want. If you want best wet and dry then so2-a's. Personally I give a bit on wet and go pilot sport sp2's as noted before. but I am sick.

S03's are heavy? SPR Pilot sports don't even come close to the S03(IMO) having owned both tires. As for S03s squirming thats a kroc of _hit!! I've pushed those S03's to the edge and back many times and have never felt squirmish or anything unnerving!!! C70 pete what type of driving have you done on S03's or Pzeros, it seems as though you're painting broad strokes pertaining to certain tires! Every test and survey ever performed has always ranked the S03 as the King of the hill!!! Check the Tire racks owner survey and see for yourself. Also pilot sports get real greasy after only a few hard laps!!!!!

King of the what? LOL! For what it's worth, tires do NOT perform the same way on different cars. What may be the king of the hill on a BMW may be the bottom of it on a P-car. Just because you liked the way they performed on your 944, it doesn't mean they are as good on a 911 with completely different weight distribution and dynamics. The S-03 is just about as crappy as performance tires get, as far as I am concerned.

Point taken!! But if you check, you will find overall on many different types of vehicles the S03 is the best all-round tire period!!! Besides how long do tires last on the back of your 996?? Maybe 20,000 miles??? If that??

Also that squirmish feeling C70pete is talking about, probably has something to do with the motor being behind the rear axle...

There is nothing to check. There are several "maximum performance" tires that surpass the S-03 in every way. I don't read reviews which are mostly biased for a reason or another. I go out and place my butt in the butt dyno. BTW, what does tire wear have to do with performance? Are you saying that longevity is a good thing?

Over 7,271,695 miles have been driven on S03's , about 1,000,000 more than its nearest competitor and its ranked 95% vs best in its category!!! Hmmm is Vikens butt more telling than 7,000,000 + miles of hard data?? I don't think so!!!!

i have been quite satisfied with my conti sport contact 2's for nearly 20k miles. my p zero asyms were hopeless in the rain and pirelli refused to replace a tire when a bleb formed on a sidewall with NO evidence of damage to the wheel or the rest of the tire. i have no experience with the so3's. they won"t fit my c4s anyway. just stay away from pirelli's. poor quality control and non existent customer service. pirelli sucks!

Hey Jsonnen, chew on this: I've been on the tireracks site MANY MANY times... I've looked through the S03 reviews over and over again... for cars that matter that is... for people with a driving style like us... look carefully and you'll see how the M3 guys have bad things to say about steering response and ultimate grip vs their original Michelin mxx3 pilots.... also break up the data sets into groups and you will see that there are a statistically significant number of users who rated 7.5-8.5 and 0-7.5 (I'm BIG on statistics)... then go over the the Eagle F1 -GSD3 section and see how mostly everybody (beyond the 3rd standard deviation that is...) has rated it a 9+ Viken is right... on some cars maybe the S03 performs well... but I think Bridgestone realized the complaints it has been having and produced the S02-A = a combo of S02 dry and S03 wet technology. Maybe your car doesn't squrim cause its a 944 911's have REAL horsepower... bahhahahah just teazing... cheers Pete

What "hard" data are you referring too? The review on Tire Rack? Do you think that all performance tires are equally represented there. Is this a true scientific test?

Are you freakin' kidding me? You drive a 944 and trust the user reviews of max performance tires on Tire rack and how they perform on a 996? Then you come over here spouting this crap? LOL! Its people like this that make life so enjoyable. Thanks, DTR

Ok you guys win!! I guess i will take my lowly 951 (280rwhp) butt back to 1987 and forget that i also run a M5 with S03's and have no place to post in the Godlike 996 forum!(lol). Anytime one of you 996 boys feel like getting spanked by a 87 951 , let me know!!!!

LOL! I can't believe you are running those tires on an M5. If you think they are that great on that car, you cannot be possibly driving that thing close to its handling capabilities. Sure!

Yo, chill guys... its just a tire choice, there is no absolute right or wrong here, so there is no point in going behond offering each of our personal experiences, to each his own...

I have P-Zero Assymetricos on my car and love them in the dry. I don't drive in the rain so wet grip doesn't factor into the equation. Viken, what is the word on the new (I think) Pirelli Corsa? The tread looks very aggressive.

The fact that they are being used on a car like the GT3-RS makes me think they're really great tires. But, I have yet to get some feedback from first hand users. I just emailed you Pirelli's press release which does describe the tires pretty good.

Thanks Viken, great reading! They may just be my next tires!