I just ordered new wheels for my 2002 LS1. Now I am picking out some tires. I believe I’ve narrowed it down to either continental or Michelin. My concern is the size I should go with. I’m no rubber band fan! The wheels measure 18/9.5 in the front and 19/11 in the rear. I went with the Forgestar F14s in gloss black. I cannot wait! I’ve been doing some research on here about what sizes would work with those wheels specs but wanted some fresh info. What do y’all think? Thanks again

 

anybody?

 

My 2¢

275/35/18 & 305/30/19

 

Yarp, that'll do it. 275/35/18 and 305/30/19. Super common setup for these cars, with wheels like you ordered. Or you can do 285/35/18 up front. It'll work out fine. You want the rear to be ever so slightly taller, including tire profile, than the front, to be 'guaranteed' no issues.

Right now you may have significant trouble actually getting tires in the sizes you want so you may have to play with it a little. I usually open up tire rack and get every option that I can up on the screen. Staggered makes it harder because you might be able to get fronts but not rears, or vice versa.

If you actually have a good set of options, then apart from cost, tire model comes down to what you want the car to do. You have to tell us the intended purpose. There's a huge difference between wanting to drive up to Vail with a set of skis suction-mounted above (think this Esprit but obviously a little less cool), and wanting to go to track days and set personal records. Where are you on the spectrum? Both Michelin and Continental make perfectly good tires, in the all-season and summer performance and extreme summer performance categories, that fit most drivers' bills. But there is no best tire for all use cases. (There is probably a worst tire, though.)

 

this is great information. Thank you! I live in Central Texas. This will be a weekend driver/sometimes on the weekdays. I want some thing that is a good mix of safe year round and performance oriented, and looks good! I was considering the continental extreme contact sports

I also was reading that runflat to be a little stiffer. What is your opinion on this? I want a smooth ride and I’m not really planning on driving it out of town much

also considering nittos, Firestone, Bridgestone, Goodyear, really open to any good brands

 

Central texas, weekend driver, your easiest solution is a summer performance / "extreme" summer performance. Don't bother with all-seasons. Anything in the 200-360ish tread wear area should be fine. You want to optimize for availability first (ie, can you actually buy it), followed by cost-per-mile in real life (how many miles people report getting out of these tires.) Remember your rears will tend to wear out before your fronts and since you can't rotate front/rear, and sometimes can't even rotate side to side (or can but requires dismounting and remounting) your tires will wear out before the expected 'warranty' (which won't really apply to you.)

So... michelin, continental, goodyear, nittos, bridgestone, falken, hankook, etc etc. Read some reviews and make a choice and you'll be fine. Everyone's got opinions on tires and while tires are super important, how much you like each individual brand or tire is very personal.

Would highly not recommend run-flat tires unless you frequently travel in areas far from civilization with no cell phone service. If you have AAA and cell service, it's a complete waste of your time and money, and it makes the car feel like crap.

 

no go on the run flats got it. I just want to be sure those summer performance will be okay in rain too. I live out in the hill country are and I am constantly on winding and angled roads. It doesn’t rain often but when it does I don’t want to be caught in a bad situation. Thanks again for all the info I am very new to having a performance vehicle of this caliber and want to take every step possible to not only get my money’s worth, but more importantly, making sure my wife and I are safe

 

I just had Michelin 4S put on, not many miles yet, but they are great so far, big improvement over the Falken. Rides better, and so far they have not slipped with a decent amount of power applied. Never felt confident with old tires, never knew when they would slip. They are supposed to be good in the rain too, read the reviews on Tire Rack etc.

 

I have Bridgestone pole position tires in the tire sizes mentioned above,
305 30 19 rear
275 35 18 front
Excellent dry and wet weather traction, even with gears and a 3200 stall. If your just doing normal driving, you can’t go wrong with any brand, Bridgestone, Continental, General…

I’ve read somewhere that the Bridgestone has excellent hydroplane resistance, I can’t remember where…

 

Only speaking for myself but my preference would be a 265/35/18 front and 305/30/19 combo. Hard to beat the Hankook Ventus V12 EVO2, for the money and they work well, in the rain & dry.

I also live in Central Texas. (Sun City/Georgetown)

 

The term "all season" or "all weather" makes a person naturally think that such tires are superior for rain. In fact, testing has shown that _as long as the block pattern can effectively move water out_, a summer performance, or extreme summer performance tire will do better on wet than an all season tire. Why? Simple: if the tire can move water out through the block pattern (treads), and get good contact with the surface, it's significantly stickier and thus does a better job of accelerating, braking, turning. Of course they also tend to get worse overall life, and are on the sketchy-to-dangerous spectrum when the weather drops below (depending on the tire) 40-50F.

Of course, if you are driving in the rain... don't be a hero on any tires.

 

do you know the SEARCH BUTTON.
instead of asking others to do the leg work.. smh

 

Thank you for the input. I’ve had some bad experiences with Bridgestone so I will probably go elsewhere this time. But, how does that size look on your car?

 

Nice! I live out in the Leander area. Do you ever meet up with anybody around here? Thought it would be kinda cool to meet other corvette owners I just don’t know any.

I will definitely look into those. Besides performance, how did they look on the vehicle at that size? Appreciate the info!!

 

Thanks for the input, sweetheart.

 

I agree. I ran a set of the Hankooks on the last two C5s I owned and they were a very good set of tires. Nothing at all wrong with the Michelin or Continental tires, but Hankook offers another option worth considering.

 

How about going with the tires designed by the team at Corvette?

 

Do they even make the tires that came on stock C5s anymore? I'll save you the search, no. And they sure as heck don't make them in the sizes the OP needs.
Just like mobile1 doesn't make the oil that GM specified when the C5 launched in 1997 either.
In fact none of the consumable items that GM says to use are available anymore in their original spec as the car even by Government standards was considered "obsolete" as of 2014. That is when GM was no longer required by law to stock OEM parts for the car. Yes, the Government only requires OEMs to stock 10 years worth of (projected) parts for a car once it is out of production. Once that time expires, anything you can get your hands on to keep the vehicle going is just a "bonus" and parts availability is not required by law. Mind you there is no recourse if the OEM doesn't "project" properly and runs out of parts before that 10 year point anyway but they generally make good faith attempts to not screw it up.

Anyway, runflats suck.

 

Sorry to hear about your experiences. I’ve had really good luck with Bridgestones. Awesome tires. Y rated pole position handle extremely well.

Here is a pic. Stock suspension, stock ride height.