RoninC5

So I just discovered my newly purchased 99 C5 garage queen has 12 year old Khumos. Not ideal. I don't track nor do I "snow" (on purpose) as this is not a DD. However I do drive on clear days that may be close to freezing in the morning (like today) but 70 later.


Michelin A/S 3's are backordered till at least mid March (1st choice)
I can get Conti DWS 06's. Not a terrible choice but the A/S 3's may be better.
Got a great quote on Comp 3's but not sure a pure summer tire is best for this climate.
Kuhmo's "seem" ok i.e. tread depth, no cracking etc. but 12 years is a long time so I may purchase vs. park it till Michelin decides to produce a tire. In the meantime I'm driving it sparingly.


Anyone running strictly summer and just adjusting/limiting their driving habits? (Staying out of the canyons till May)
Running DWS or?
Thanks!

shreded1

I have the A/S 3's on my C7 and really like them. I had summer tires and cold mornings were not pleasant. I would go with some sort of A/S for safety and piece of mind.

RoninC5

Yep... That jives with current thoughts... A/S it is. I got summers now and the tread compound + the age has me concerned.... Even on days like this. Thanks !!

W52

Hi RoninC5,

I purchased a set of the new Continental DWS 06's for my C6 back in July of this year. I have been totally impressed with them. They have excellent ride quality, are very quiet and I don't feel that I'm giving up very much in cornering and traction (if at all) compared to the Toyo T1R Proxes that I had on it before (I don't track it). I regularly drive it in cold weather (single digits) and the grip is excellent........ actually amazing! I've been very impressed with these tires.

With the Toyo's I had some traction/grip problems in very cold weather, which is to be expected. However, It is was easy to adjust my driving to take that into consideration. If you don't want to wait on the Michelins these might be worth considering. Either tire is going to be an excellent choice!

RoninC5

Thanks for that feedback. Another recommendation has been the Goodyear F1 asymmetric A/S. I have heard the road noise on the DWS has been mentioned here locally due to the aggressive tread pattern? Not sure. However it looks like I have options other than waiting a month or more..

7LitreC5

I don't drive in snow either but it does see some cold weather driving late spring and early fall. I currently run Nitto NT05s and had Michelin Pilot Sports before that.

1984Z51auto

My C4 is an occasional driver, on good days in the winter it may be out. Not in snow. I have Continental DWs on it and have been happy with the ride and handling. I wouldn't want to use the DWs in real cold or snow however. They are basically 3 season rubber.

tommypenguin

I'm actually comparing these two tires at the moment while leaning toward pilot super sports. What's your take on which is better for hooking up in second and doing some canyon carving on dry weather?

7LitreC5

The NT05s hook up much better than the Pilot Sports did. Part of that though is the difference in going from a 295 to a 335 tire. They both are great tires for the curves.

mrm13

If you want the best balance between performance, price and longevity, there is no better way to go than Nitto Invos. Especially if you are running wider that 305 tires at the back.
Michelins will give you more grip, but are almost twice the price and will last you half the miles. Not to mention that the small advantage they will give you grip wise can only be experienced in conditions that only very few Vette owners drive their cars at.
The Ventus V12 are close behind the Nitto Invo in grip, but are also a little cheaper.
The Continentals are a good alternative.
Stay away from Pirelli.

RoninC5

Looks like after ordering tires and realizing (all of us = store included) that my wheels are indeed Z06 AND those are an inch bigger that I will be staying with 275's ft and 295's rear which is on it now. A/S is really out. Michelin's, at least my PS2 quote, was ridiculous $ wise in these sizes. However Conti's seem to rate well and meet my criteria. BS Potenza was available too but I'd rather not go there..

5280Racer

Have some Bridgestones on my stock wheels they are fine..

RoninC5

Thought I would follow up... Just got Conti EC DW's on the car. Not many miles yet but the first thing I noticed was a remarkable reduction in road noise from the Khumos's that were on it. That alone is huge so far.

Rky Mtn C6

I got the factory Goodyear on my 2012 GS. When it's time to replace, I'm going with Bridgestone.

RJ-19

After having my car go badly out of alignment over the winter and destroying both front tires within 1000 miles, it forced my hand to replace the original Goodyears that came on the car from the factory. At ~25k miles, they still had plenty of tread left. However if I was going to have to replace the fronts it didn't seem to make much sense to leave 14 year old factory rubber on the rears.

I was initially shocked to find just how few options there were for C5Z OE tire sizes, even from national companies like Tire Rack, Discount Tire Direct, etc. I wanted to stick with the rim dia and tire profile to avoid problems with traction control and other systems. I would have been flexible with the width if necessary, but in the end I just stuck with the OE sizes.

I considered tryng a set of high end Michelin tires, but in the end lack of OE sizes, lack of inventory, age of inventory (some sellers had tires that were DOT coded in 2011 being sold as "new") higher cost, and my desire to drive the car year 'round in CO** caused me to bypass these options. Also as another poster noted, unless you're going to drive on the ragged edge and in warm weather, one is not likely to get the benefits these high end tires were engineered to provide. While I do run some track days, I don't use my street tires. I run another set of OE rims with Toyo R888 in 275/40/17 and 305/35/18 sizes for track days.

** Pretty much every supplier I talked to about the Michelins (or any ultra performance / summer tire for that matter) gave me the standard warning about running them at or near freezing. While they said that off the record I would likely be fine for street driving, if I did have an issue with a tire and there were signs of sidewall problems, it would give the supplier a reason to deny any claims against them.

In the end I just went with another set of Goodyear Eagle F1 Supercar in the OE sizes. Many posters have stated they are not the quietest tire out there, but honestly for me tire noise is not an issue. I'm happy to drive hundreds of miles and hear nothing but tires on the pavement and a sweet exhaust note out the back.

Also along the lines of noise, I think what many owners forget that if you are replacing old tires which have hardened over the years, pretty much ANY new tire is going to seem to produce less noise by comparison when they are initially installed.

I will try to follow up later this summer after I have put some miles on the new set.

Ryan

RoninC5

I just took my older F1's off and replaced them with 760's. My bet is even in <40 degree bright sunny mornings I'll be fine albeit not aggressive. Could not justify what they wanted for F1's or Michelins. I do have Michelins on my DD and they are terrific. Road noise did get better (which I like-I can hear the exhaust better lol) and a benefit I did not expect- I don't "scrape" as much. The F1 and Michelins are killer tires, I'm sure you will love them...

FX VETTE

Subscribed. Just gonna lurk here and soak in all of the opinions. Pretty sure the 03' I bought this year still has the original F1 tires, so I know I have a large expense coming. They aren't cracking at all and have quite a bit of tread left, but the thought of riding on 13 year old tires makes me nervous.

Leaning toward the Michelin run flats at the moment.

JEH03Vette

I just replaced my 10 year old Michelin run flats with Conti Extreme Contact DWS non run flats. Car rides and handles a whole lot better but that is probably due to the 10 year old rubber I was running before.

JoesC5

I have the Bridgestone RE050A run flats on my C6 Z06 and love them, but they are a summer tire. They have no traction at temps around freezing in Colorado.

tommypenguin

I ended up going with the NT05R, couldn't be happier. No more slippage.