Well, tough decision ahead. My car currently has Nitto 555's on it, front and rear. The fronts are about 1/2 worn out, the rears are at the tread wear markers. Funny how that works... Anyway, should I get another set of rear 555's and run them until the front's wear out? Is it OK to mix and match different brands front and rear? Should I sell the half worn fronts and get four new tires? The 555's have been OK, but not what I'd call great tires, that's why I'm thinking about possibly putting on 4 new, but I'm not sure if buying the more expensive Goodyear, Michelin, etc tires at about $300 a piece is worth doing versus the cheaper $170 or so apiece tires like Kumho, Nitto, Falken, etc...

Let me know what you all think and input about the tires you're running or have run in the past would be great!

 

Goodyear GS D3's $882 before shipping... I don't personally consider that expensive for a set of tires... considering it's one of the best tires available in the stock sizes.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Compar...m=1&pagemark=1
Good luck with your decision...

GUSTO

 

Regarding whether you should mix and match brands front and rear, you shouldn't , at least not for very long. I was running the old Goodyears on the front and new Michelin PS's on the rear and depending on the road conditions, the handling was horrible, the car would jump all over the road at any imperfection in the hiway. Recently I added the Michelins to the front and its like a different car. Other people on this forum have made the same observation as well.

 

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...7&forum_id=103

Regarding mixing, I don't think that mixing all non-runflats is that bad, as long as you don't mix them side-to-side. You may get some comments about the cosmetic issues (tread pattern differences), however.

 

Which 555's did you have? If you havent tried the "good" ones, i would give them a shot. That's probably what i'll use. Nitto 555 R2's. full set will cost you around a grand sadly.

Another i MIGHT consider would be the Kumho Ecsta MX

The good thing about this tire for Z06 wheels it that they offer 275/295 combo, while most others offer 275/305. I would prefer a closer stagger than stock for 2 reasons

First reason being
The rear rim size (10.5 inch wide) is optimal for the stock tire (295mm)
The front rim size(9.5 inch wide) is optimal for a 275 which is 10mm wider than stock

Going past the limit makes the sidewalls bulge and makes them softer than they should be



Second reason being that the factory stagger causes too much understeer on turn it. This should aid that problem a tiny bit, but ideally i'd run a 305/315 with aftermarket rims which i have no money for.

The MX will cost around 800 for a set


Another tire i would consider would be the Kumho V-700
Will cost closer to 900 for a set

Also they have the Victoracer V-700 which is an r-compound version
but not available in 18inch..

Toyo RA-1 R-compound also

will run about 950 for a set.



These are the tires i would personally consider for myself. I dont care TOO much about wet traction, with all this traction control nonsense available on our cars. I've drove around all last year in the rainy season with bald RA-1's, so i got used to hydroplaning on the freeway (in my nissan 240sx no traction control or abs)

My reasoning is that even with the greatest wet tires, the traction simply isn't there, so i'd sacrifice it more to have the BEST possible dry traction. If you dont drive your car in rainy season, then i see no reason to compromise. Some guys dont really use their cars too much. If that was the case with me i'd have Hoosiers. But i drive too much which means a new set every month.

 

Thanks for that link Dave. My car is a daily driver, and I live in
Washington, so I need something that is great in the rain with
winter coming on. I've got a 4X4 $uburban that really sucks down
the gas in case it snows... Looks like the GSD3 is probably the
way I should go and see if anyone needs a half worn set of 555's
for the front.

 

They're the 'regular' ones. I don't think they had the R2's three years ago when I got these ones.

I guess I should have specified more details about my car and driving
habits. It's a '99 hard top/FRC with fake chrome Z06 wheels in
stock '99 sizes with stock size tires, 245/275. It's a daily driver, mostly
freeway miles, and I'm currently putting between 80 and 100 miles a
day on it. I need a set of tires that are good in the rain at 70-75 mph
for regular freeway use. I am currently thinking that I will buy a set of
real Z06 wheels and stickier 'dry weather only' tires for autocross or
more agressive daily use in the 'dry season'.

I was playing around on the way home last night, road was a little wet,
but not raining. Good thing for traction control, because when I
dropped it to 3rd and got on the gas at about 75, the car quickly lost
traction in a big way and would have probably sent me spinning donuts
down the freeway without the TC... No one around, just me, but it still
could have been bad...



[QUOTE=Var]Which 555's did you have? If you havent tried the "good" ones, i would give them a shot. That's probably what i'll use. Nitto 555 R2's. full set will cost you around a grand sadly.
QUOTE]

 

See Car and Driver's December Issue or read some posts in the tire section about it...

They are all summer high performance tires

They rated the tires as follows.
Gave highest performing tire in each catergory 100, all the rest scored as mathematical ration relative to that.
-dry lateral grip highest weighting 2x (skidpad)
-tred wear 0.5x
- price 0.5x
rest at 1 x
- wet lateral grip (skidpad)
- braking
-autocross seconds
dry-performance score
wet-performance score

Yokohama was best dry performance tire but worst for braking and skidpad
BFG best at skidpad and autocross and braking but second worst wet
GoodYear best Wet performance,




#1 GoodYear Eagle F1 GS-D3
2.Continental ContisportContact 2
3.Yokohama Advan Neon AD07
4. Michelin Pilot Sport 2
5.Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212
6.Dunlop SP Sport Maxx
7.Pirelli P Zero Rosso Asimmetrico
8.Toyo proxes T1R
9.Bridgestone Potenza RE050A
10. BF Goodrich g-Force T/A KD
11 Kumho Ecsta MX

 

 

RWS.1, Thanks for breaking that down more for me. Wet performance is key here, so still looks like the GY D3's are the way to go.

 

I have some 18" Nitto 555R's (285/35/18) with 8K miles on them for sale....$200 + shipping

 

Replaced my stock runflats with GS-D3 and love them to deth. Quite, grate handleling, and ride qualiting is out of this wourld. GS-D3's in my opion is the best tire out thier!!!!