Give me what you know about Tire tread life. I want to know what tire will give me good performance with the best tread life. I do not take my 2007 1LT coupe on the track, He is not a daily driver and I live in Georgia so I will take him out once a week for a sometime spirted drive. I will take him maybe three times a year out to the north Georgia mountains for a mountain run and drive down to Florida our up to Nashville a few times a year.

Run flat, non run flat I don't care (that debate my never end) I am looking for a tire that I can enjoy driving on, will last and is reasonably priced. Goodyear, Firestone, Michelin, BF Goodrich I have no brand in mind. All the wise crackers will say that there is no such tire.... and they may be right, but yall have tried a wide range of tires and I would like to hear your opinions...

 

I would stay with the OEM TPC tire.

 

In a non-run flat, the Michelin PS2 seems to be the tire of choice. It gets the highest traction rating but they are more expensive and lower tread life.

You may want to look at the Firestone Wide Oval. Its a run-flat in the same size as the original and its cheaper than the Michelin and Goodyear....about $1000/set. It has a longer tread life rating. The traction is good. The Tire Rack gives it higher rating than the Goodyear's.

Some of the forum members like the Goodrich but I personally do not like the tread pattern.

There are a few members that recommend the OEM Goodyear SuperCar tires but, in my opinion, they are expensive considering the short treat life. I only got 14,000 miles on the rears although the fronts could have gone another 5,000 before I replaced them withe Firestone Wide Ovals which I am very happy with.

 

Get a tire with high treadwear rating and it will last longer. Low treadwear rating (soft tire) will stick better but wearout quickly. Keep proper inflation and alignment are the main things. They way you drive, your tires will probably wearout from age before anything else. You'll have to check, I think it's 6 years.

 

Based on your post, i would check avon m550's. At 15,000 my oems were toast on my 02 6 speed z51. My fronts were worn before my rears. All the tires were worn very evenly across the tread. I corner very hard, and dont do burn outs, so i figure that is why fronts were worn first. I put on avon m500's, that is the avon ultra summer tire, and got 17,000 miles. They were bald when i traded the 02 for my current 08 a6,z51. The m500's were much more compliant, and i was happy with the handling and grip. The fronts and rears wore very evenly. I probably would have gotten 15,000 safe miles, but i was waiting for my 08 to come in and obviously was not going to do tires. I also seldom get caught in the rain. However, the 500's were fine in the rain and in cold weather. The 500's cost me $730 installed by a local tire dealer. They were cheaper than tirerack quotes. My 08 z51 needs tires now, again the fronts are worse than the rears. The right front is the worst, i think because of my "skidpad tests" at 6:00 am in a safe traffic circle. I will purchase the avon m550's ultra a/s. I probably would put on the m500, also non runflats, but tirerack says they stopped making the m500. Probably because they sold so few. The m550's are $770 plus shipping. I have read a few decent posts on the avons , the main compliant is they got real loud when the were well worn. I can agree with that with my m500's. I can live with that. I just put koni fsd's on my 08, and they are fantastic. No bouncing, crashing, jitters, bump steer and scary jumps in the fast sweepers. Plus they are very compliant. Very anxious to get non runflats on, and have the vette handle the way it should. You (and i) may get some flak for buying avons versus p2's, or the other hot set-up. But for a non-tracker, that has a mortgage, hopefully not a reset mortgage, these avons are a good buy.

 

Great replies guys, I appreciate it.., Anyone else?

 

BF Goodrich KDW is a good value, I just took a set off of a 05 coupe I traded in, the tires have 23K on them and have about 40% of tread left.
They are significantly less money that F1 Super Cars or PS2 Mich.
Pull up a set on Tire rack and run the comparison between F1,PS2 and KDW, they are in the ball park on performance and probably $500.00 less money. Good Luck!

 

What you need to know about threadwear is that although in theory a tire with a lower threadwear will grip better and wear quicker, in practice threadwears for different tires of different brands are not directly comparable. Tire rack user surveys are each user's personal opinions about the tire, and as such are of very little value. I would trust race results and test results. After much research I felt that the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 was the best street tire out there; it is a popular choice on the forum although the cost does push some people away (for me, personally, I would never compromise on brakes or tires for money).
I've got 3hp shy of 600 at the wheels and my Michelins still grip... They are highly recommended

 

As an alternative to the high priced (and low life) Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s, there is the TOYO Proxes T1r which is a high performance street tire with great cornering and good surface grip. Priced at about half of the PS2s.