Ok I cheaped out on tires. How bad of a mistake did I make?

I have mis-matched tires on the car now and my fronts are pitted and the car handles like poop. Well the divorce and being slow at the office has taken its toll and I cheaped out with new sumitomo htrz II tires all the way around. Back to the stock tire sizes also. I cant find anything bad about them, but cant find anything good. They were only $550 for the whole set. Anyone know anything about sumi's ?? Thanks K~

I had a decent experience with a set of Sumitomo HTR Z III tires. I'm not sure about the II's...

Kyle, I ran 2 sets of the lls on my '99 Cab. They feel slick for the first couple of hundred miles, then feel terrific. I could push my Cab scary fast in the canyon twisties with them and they were great in the rain as well. The Sumi lls may be the best kept tire secret out there. I needed tires over the winter as my Michelin PS2s were about gone and my busy season at work was a couple of months away so I cheapened out as well. I bought a set of the lls for my Turbo. I was literally blown away with the performance. They handle better than the Michelin PS2s on the street ever have since I've had the Turbo. To be fair the rears were at about 60% good and the fronts 80% when I bought the car a year ago. I've nothing good to say about the Turbos handling. It would step out abruptly without warning. I even spun out on the street once taking a 90 degree turn that I could have made no problem in the cC2 Cab. Now I know it was the Michelins, not the car. I have pushed the car really hard in slow turns, below 60 MPH and the Sumi lls stick like crazy and are very confidence inspiring. Its been a bit cold her and I've not tried them at much over 70 degrees, but so far I'm super impressed. We'll see how they do in the summer heat and into the triple digit speeds.

I'll second that strange mushy tires till broken in. The extreme contact dry wets did that to me absorbing bumps a lot more and feeling mushy when turning then now they are stiffened up. Strange..... As far as feeling like you got cheap tires they all pretty much burn out and taking the car to the limit unless on a track.....well.....just have fun with them.

I also run Sumi III and think they are very good tires. Can't comment on the IIs. Did you bleed your clutch Kyle?

Wow, not what I thought I would hear. Thanks a bunch, no Barn, havent had time yet.

I had Sumi IIIs for years. Aside from flat spotting, which goes away in about 15 min of driving, they were fine.

I am running the Sumi IIIs right now and don't have any complaints. They are great on the street and good so far with noob track driving.

Quotes source post: 9429523

I have the IIs on my car right now and they've been on both the track and autocrossing. On the street they are quiet and handle the rain sufficiently. On the track they are decent and start screaming for life before you hit the limit. Autocrossing I feel they haven't been the limiting factor. So they're not as good as the IIIs but for this set I knew I was going to rack up a lot of street miles so I figured I'd go with the less expensive option and see how they work out. No complaints so far and I'm having a set of IIIs installed later this week since my rears are now worn out.

Big difference between IIs and IIIs... The answer to your question is directly related to your expectations and your driving needs. With tires in general you do get what you pay for. Sumi IIs will get noisy relatively fast and will not provide the grip or feel that you get from better tires. But, truth be told, for the vast majority of owners this is not going to be a huge detriment. Enjoy the car... and in a year or two (or around 10-12k for the backs, whichever comes first) you can decide if they were a good purchase and buy them again or upgrade.

have III's here and like them alot

Quotes source post: 9430218

this is a good point. But in thinking... Last set of namebrands I bought were 2200.00 down the road... I could put a new set on every season and still be ahead. I do hate a noisy tire....

Also... If anyone is kinda local... I ordered a set of the htrz III, first by mistake and they shipped... But they were 17" whoops! I needed 18's So i ordered the II's if anyone wants the III's speak up, they were 480.00 for the set... Can you believe the II were 100$ more money?

yeah 18s are more money than 17s.

Quotes source post: 9430089

+1

Sumi IIs will wear great, but after 5 years (yea, I know, drive the car more), and 20k miles, lotsa tread, and even wear but suck in wet and have hardened, so greasy feeling on concrete. Might try IIIs next.

No experience with the IIs, but as others have said, the IIIs are a good bargain. I had Michelin PS2s previously, better tire, but twice the cost.

All I've ever purchased for my car were the Michelin PS2's, maybe I should look at other brands.

PS2s are great, they're just expensive.

Sumi III way better than Conti Contact 2s I replaced

Just put on iii s to replace really old pirelli p0 s ... car drives like new .. very happy. Go with michelin if you have money to burn .. sumis are great value for money if you are not trying to win le mans

Quotes source post: 9433068

Try the Sumi IIIs, I'd bet you'll like them. I know your wallet will.

Hankook EVO V12's are a another well kept secret in the $600 range. I ran two sets of Sumi iii's on my Boxster S before switching to V12's and noticed a great improvement. Not that the Sumi's are bad, but I've got a quieter ride, less flat spotting, and better feedback at the steering wheel when I do DE's at VIR. Plus they are wearing slower than the Sumi's

Quotes source post: 9433068

Rob, The Michelin PSS tires are awesme, even better than the PS2's and cheaper thatn the PS2's.

I've only used Conti 2's on my car and I have one more set of rear in my garage but I believe they stoped making them so next year I'm going to have to make a switch. I am having a hard time moving from the N rated tires. The problem with having a 99 is all the tire are old. I've been told P zero's are great on 996 but I'm worried they like the conti 2's will be stop being produced. (I believe the PS2 is a newer tire that happens to be in our size.) One local Indi recommended the Sumi III and a second the new Michelin PPS neither of which are N rated. Has anyone had or heard of a problem from using a non N rated tire?

Quotes source post: 9432339

This is my experience too with sitting flatspotting. I did get a defective rear tire one time, but otherwise good experience. I have grinded away several sets of III's now at the track.

Quotes source post: 9433106

Yeah, kinda like Porsches!

For street use you're in good shape. Had a set of Sumi III's last year. Used them up on a full season of AX, a Laguna Seca track day, and daily driving. They complained loudly, but wore well. For another $300 (I've got 18's) I just put on a set of Dunlop Star Spec's. 200 wear rating vs. 300 with the Sumi's, so stickier. Temps are pretty moderate here, so it was hard to get heat into the Sumi's on cold days. Now to see how they wear.

N- Rated is an additional Porsche spec - if I was running at Autobahn speeds I might worry about that - but for us US drivers - I think as long as the speed and load rating is the same - we should be good. Look at the 911 race teams that use Continentals, Yokohama's, Hankooks etc. These are race spec tires, but not n-rated - and that does not seem to be an issue when pushing to the limit.

The III's are a fantastic tire for the money. The II's are junk compared to the III's.

As you can tell from looking at them, the III tire is completely different than the II tire is. The III's represent more technical advancements are more universally liked among 911 owners. With that said I consider the II tire to be what I call a "no-news-is-good-news" tire. They won't handle dry like the III tire will, but are not bad. The rain traction is actually quite good with them. For the money they don't do bad. They should be run in a match set, and do need to be broken in. They need a few hundred miles to feel their best.

be quick ! http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...uhp-tires.html