With your 17x9.5s front and rear, you could. But why would you? They are taller, they're a pinched fit, and they won't improve your grip. And to top it off, there are few choices available. Chevy fitted these on 93-96 base models to ride softer, not to improve performance. Their performance option (Z51/Z07) used 275/40/17 front and rear. Why would anybody stray from that size if they have 17x9.5 wheels?

Crazy to think their F1 tires are still on 13" diameter wheels! But only for one more season. In 2022 they will move to 18s. Even F1 is skipping over C4 drivers!

 

C4s are unfairly treated in the tire war.. Its a shame.
F1 cars will look better with the new tires I have seen on their prototypes. The cars are so advanced to be using small rimmed tires. But, I gurantee the engineers have exploited the tire wheel combos to the nth degree. F1 is a marvel in technology.
The 285 was an odd tire. But, tire rack has your Contis and P Zeros. Interesting tire to say the least, the P zero. What car had this size? Must have been an exotic which still requires perelli support.
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireS...40&diameter=17

 

I feel for the difference between 285 & 275 is not worth the money

 

To barchetta1, a smaller contact patch will yield less traction and that is proven on the track and the street. All anyone has to do is measure the tread width and it is obvious the MT Street Comps are significantly narrower (about 0.4" narrower) than the Goodyear tires I mentioned in the 315 35R17 and the 275 40R17 sizes (on the 17X11" and 17X9.5" rims respectively).
But these comments are only my 2 cents if you want to purchase the MT's more power to you.
Although the tread width doesn't lie!

 

Actually it does lie. Its a package deal, its not all about width of the tire. Just because its narrower doesnt mean the contact patch is smaller. Tread design, tire pressure/belt design,,weight of car (full tank of fuel?) and tire width make up a contact patch. Dont want to get into a p!ssing match, I just dont see enough data to substantiate your claim. Besides you point out that you lost it in the rain. I'll take the .4" less width in the rain given the same compound, temp, sidewall design and tire pressure. In the rain you need the water moved and right now and what does touch the road better be gummy bear compound. Lots of guys used to run dirt track tires in the rain for road course racing for that reason. You cant even begin to compare a tire you hated in the rain to its performance in the dry.. I have continentals on mine with 285's in the rear on wheels that are too wide for them but they are damn sticky.

Not saying you are wrong about the tires, they are probably crap, I hardly doubt MT has the R&D to compare to any of the main players.

And here is one more important factor.. when were the tires made? When I went to get my conti's installed I looked at the manufacture date and one was like over a year older.. I said no thank you, order me a NEW set, I didnt pay $900 for a shelved set.. How old were your MT's? Guessing you dont know but maybe Im wrong. If they sat somewhere for a few years it would explain a lot.

Im just saying a lot goes into this whole good/bad tire thing that people dont think of.

 

From what I read 2022 is when f1 becomes competitive again.I wont watch until then otherwise I might as well go watch a train go by.

 

No pissing match at all! The forum is here to help people and since I have owned the three tires mentioned I wanted to help enthusiasts make the right tire purchase.
If you have owned any of these tires I have mentioned then I would like to hear your experience with them too.
But going back to your question, I purchased the MT's from Summit Racing at the beginning of 2017. When I received them I did look at the DOM they were all from 2016.
After mounting them on my rims I was amazed how much narrower they were compared to my worn GSD3's. Even the tire tech made a comment.
Did my ego take a dive after I lost it in the rain? Absolutely, by no means did I want my pristine GS going to the body shop.
Could Lewis Hamilton have saved it? I am sure he could have. But none of us are Lewis Hamilton 😉 especially not me!!
But I also lost it twice in the dry in the summer time during heavy acceleration (I did save it both times). I have owned the car since it was new, I know what the car's limits are on familiar roads. This lack of traction never occurred until I installed the MT's. Traction is not the MT's strong suit that is all I am saying.
I get it most driver's will never use half the performance a C4 (or any sports car for that matter) offers. For those driver's the MT's will be fine. Although I would recommend taking it slow in the rain.
By the way I have had very good luck with Continental Tires.
My current daily driver 2016 Lexus RC300 originally came with Bridgestone Turanza tires stock. After a year and a half all four tires' sidewalls were cracking. The tire had a DOM of 2015. The dealership was not surprised at the cracking but wouldn't do anything for me other than prorate the tire and sell me new Bridgestones. I said no thanks. I replaced them with the Continental Procontact DWS tires, and have been very pleased with them.

 

Some tires are good enough to get to a car show, not much more..
And like grandspt said, C4 (most sports car owners), will never exploit the potential of these cars..
Blue pill or red pill, the choice is yours.

 

" I have owned the car since it was new, I know what the car's limits are on familiar roads." Now this is the most substantial thing I heard you say. If you repeatedly ran the MTs over a course of time on familiar roads under all the different environmental conditions and compared that to other brands then we are talking. Your driving abilities, same hardware, roads and I would think over time environmetal conditions. The way I read your post was you lost in the rain the MTs and that was that. And if you mentioned this earlier, please accept my apology right now, I have ADD and miss stuff.

Yeah I like the conti's even though I couldnt get a set to fit my wider rear wheels.. unfortunately every time I go to the garage I I smell is tires.. its been 5 yrs since I put them on I bet.. when I dont smell the chemicals leaving the tires its over and I have maybe 1000 miles on the damn things. Oh well, if they are dried out when I get my 3.73 in in the coming weeks it will make it all the more fun. Everyone tells me my tires are gonna be toast anyway after I get the 3.73 in and I bet I will not have the self control to prove them wrong.

By the way. after a respectable amount of time racing road courses in the dry, to me, when Im driving in the rain and pushing it I relive all those experiences.. you quickly find out if your car is neutral in the rain at very low speeds.. I very much like driving hard in the rain when there are no cars around.... but I wont take my c4 out in it because its hours and hours to clean. Ive not driven all that many cars in my lifetime but usually own BMW's and the most neutral car Ive every street driven and raced was a mazda miata... go figure. Damn japs (yep Im not a millenial).

Thanks for not turning this into a head bashing contest, just two people with differing opinions and experiences. I could be wrong just as easily as you can but makes for good conversation. Many times things turn personal here. Like I bet you are sick about hearing about "all my racing experience" lol.. I think I reflect often on that because quite fankly I have very few good things in my life to reflect on but that era is one. It has been the only time in my life where I was able to forget about my troubles without a chemical substance. The feeling of being one with the machine YOU BUILT is something. Its like its you and me, here we go, f it! Just got chills thinking about it. It also made me safer on the road.. I still do stupid things yes, but only when I cannot hurt someone else because I know things can get out of hand when you dont know your machinery on a very intimate basis.

Again, I do like my conti's though have spent very little time at limits unless I made a mistake on the street. At 55, Im hoping for one last road course "school"..and Id feel ok on the conti;s. I dont think my brakes will hold up though... but thats another subject.

 

By the way, did you go from run flats to non run flats on your rc300? Now there is a difference in tire!

 

No my RC300 came with non run flats from the factory. And no apologies are necessary . I didn't get bent out of shape. Again I am just trying to help out fellow Corvette Forum members. I like the Corvette Forum, learned a lot and still learning. I enjoy most of the technical posts. When I can contribute with any of my experiences I try, that's what it is all about.
Oh and Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!