SteveJ

I got on the phone today to order new Pilot Sports from Tire Rack. They were in stock according to the web site. The salesman said that the fronts they had were generic Pilot Sports, but the rears they had were only Mercedes specific or Ferrari specific and he didn't recommend mixing them. I asked when they would have matching rears, and he said he had no idea, and tried to sell me Goodyears. I didn't buy anything and am investigating. Comments?

wireless

As far as I know there are 3 kinds. The regular summer tire, the All-Season and the All Season Zero-Pressure.

connellyh

There are different Pilots for different OEM applications. Pilots are not the only tire that has this. The Pilots I have have a "C" designation and are the Viper OEM tires. There is also a Porsche OEM tire. I talked to Michelin about this a year ago and they told me not to mix any of the different Pilots. However, I could not get a reason why. It would be interesting to find out why.

till

To my knowledge, there is the older design (I have those):


And the newer design.

In the US the newer design is also called PS2, in Germany they are just called Pilot Sport. This had me confused recently, because I wondered why my tires looked different from those tested in a magazine. It turned out I had the old design.

Then there is also the "Cup" version:

Those are street legal track tires.

I have no clue if the vehicle specific tires are really different.

Till

CR555

Tire Rack has some very interesting information about those tire specifications: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete...al/porsche.jsp :)

IMQUIK

I have these on my C5 & love'em!!

sasunlover

I just replaced the run flats on the rear with the new tread design Pilot Sports. Already had the old design on the front. Now I'm getting a very noticable lack of stability above 70MPH. The least little turn if the wheel and the car seems almost uncontrolable. Anyone else notice anything like this?

connellyh

I would suspect the problem is caused by mixing tire types. However, there are few other things to consider. Were you on a road with ruts? What are your tire pressures (from a hand held gauge, not the sensors)? What seemed out fo control, the front or rear of the car? Did you change anything else?

sasunlover

Tire pressure is 30PSI with new hand held guage. Only thing changed were the rear tires. Fronts are also Pilot Sports, but a different tread design. I wouldn't think that would matter, but it only started after the new rears. Happens on all road surfaces. Just a lack of stability feeling. Seems to be from the rear.

connellyh

My guess is that it is the different tires.

SteveJ

Just to put some closure on this, I ordered the Pilot Sports today from Tire Rack. They said the Ferrari spec tires were almost identical to the generic, and there wouldn't be a problem. That is this particular case, and mixing tire types front and rear has to be done with caution. They said the tread pattern was the same. The salesman consulted the Tire Rack expert before selling me the tires. None of this was apparent from looking at the Tire Rack web site.

Steve