Walt White Coupe

A cheap $25 air compressor is good to carry even if you have runflat tires. If you don't have to, it's much better to never drive on a runflat with no pressure. The vast majority of flats are caused by slow leaks from a nail, screw, etc. That small compressor will let you keep the tire pumped up till you get it to a repair facility.

Strake

Another vote for the Michelin A/S 3+ run flats..... ordered mine for our GS from TireRack in September for about $1383.00 They are more quiet than the OEM Michelin's and I can use them all year. Less expensive than buying another set of OEM tires too.

Pit Now

For those on the bubble or considering a different brand tire I highly recommend the Continental Extreme Contact Sport for C7. I just had them installed on my 17 GS and glad I did.The road noise is now 40 percent less than the Michelins and at higher speeds the car does not wander or follow any grooves that might be in the road.Quick turns are just as responsive. The day I had them installed it was raining heavy and traction was much better both on regular roads and the highway.Several pounds lighter as well. If you primarily track your car in the dry then the Michelins are the way to go. Yes the Continental's are not run craps but I keep a light weight compact compressor etc in the car just in case.

Vetteman Jack

Thanks for the suggestion. I will be looking for a set of tires for an extra set of wheels soon so I will give the Continentals a look.

Dewayne'sZ06

I also run the Continental Extreme Contact on my Z06 for the last 2 years and love them. I carry a small compressor and plug kit also but have not had to use them yet thankfully.

Avanti

Thanks for the note. Btw, how did you quantify the "road noise" ("road noise is now 40 percent less"), with what instrumentation, at what speeds?

(also, I've had non-runflats on my C5 for over 18 years without issue. I, too, carry a compressor and plug-kit in it, as well as in my C7)

Glennm27

Something many people don’t seem to think about. Carrying the small compressor and plug kit could you out of a jam with your runflats just as well as your non run flats.
Dont ask me, just think about that. 😀

IAIA

17 GS here also. About to buy the Extreme Contract Sports. 2 concerns are that they are said to look narrower, and not as performance oriented as the MPSS's. I only drive street but like to take corners at about 0.85G's. You still like yours?

franknbeans

If you dont plan on doing track track they will work great. I had them on my 350z dedicated track car and the fall off is real quick once you heated them up. But, the wet weather traction is great!

I would recommend them for the road not track.

Corgidog1

Run flats for me. No guarantee that compressor and slime will do the trick.

Bill Dearborn

I agree. Plugging a rear tire alongside the road might be near impossible. Laying down along the side of the road to reach a hole in a rear tire especially at night doesn't sound like the safest thing to be doing. Have never ran into a problem with a punctured run flat that needed a tire plug to get me home. If it can be driven with a 1 inch hole in the sidewall it can be driven with any hole that appears in the tread area including the ones that aren't pluggable due to shape or size.

If the tire isn't repairable or not worth repairing due to wear you can drive it a lot further than the 50 mile limit that limits repair. Stuck in the middle of a desert in the western US keep driving and get to civilization, if a tire shop can't get a replacement tire keep driving until you get home.

Bill

joemessman

I'll make this short and sweet. I have had 5 flats on my ZP tires. Only twice would I have been able to patch them on the road. It would have been flatbed city for me three times from out in the middle of nowhere usa.
Drove right along until I could get a fix. Once they just put a temp on the car to get me down and home 250 miles. Once I drove 87 miles on one and it was plugged and patched with no damage to the tire for driving that far. However I only drove at 55 mph.
I guess if you stay around town, etc. non runflats would be OK. I think that fits the bill for a lot of forum members.

BJ67

All we do is not worry about it... take the risk

KLG

Definitely agree with keeping run-flat tires, especially on vehicles not designed to carry a spare. I’ve had no issues with the performance of run-flats and if I ever get a flat, at least I have a chance to make it home.

I have the GY Eagle F1 run-flats on my Camaro SS and MPSS ZP’s on my Z06 (I replaced the Cup 2 ZP’s soon after I got the car).

However, several years ago, I put together a flat tire repair kit consisting of a compact tire inflator, leak sealant, tire plugging kit, valve stem tool, small leatherman, small flashlight, gloves, etc. Doesn’t take up much space and I usually carry it in the car I happen to be driving at the time. Never needed it. Carryover from when I had a GT500 that did not have a spare and did not have run-flats.

--KLG--

IAIA

Even though I don't track the car, in the summertime in SoCal, the pavement is pretty hot...so wondering whether spirited driving on hot pavement in the summer for a length of time would similarly heat up the Conti's, and whether they would then suffer fall off.

VetteHunter79

The continentals come with 3 years free roadside assistance and that’s from continental. 24/7 flat tire roadside assistance and towing up to 150 miles. I’m pricing and comparing tires right now and found this out today from 2 dealerships.

CraigStu

I would think that driving fast enough on the street to have falloff would be nearly impossible.

IAIA

Got the Extreme Contact Sports yesterday. Marked difference in the comfort, noise, ride quality, and lack of tramlining, so I'm happy. But I recognize that the change from a worn tire to a new tire also accounts for those differences, run-flats or not. Still, I think the reduced stiffness in the sidewall makes part of that difference. Just happy that I'm not wrestling with the car anymore--no longer jumpy, and tracks straight even when going over the splits in the highway pavement. As I like to say, "there's nothing like fresh oil and new tires."

Dennis Bernal

Happy you are happy with the Contis.

One thing no one brings up is that the OEM ZP tire was developed by a joint engineering team between GM and Michelin.
They actually used the ZP stiff sidewalls into consideration when tuning the suspension.
That is why the outer side wall and inner sidewall on the MPSS ZPs have different thicknesses. I think the outside is 3mm thicker.
There are some really cool YouTube videos of back when Chevy was announcing the C7 and the head engineers of different departments goes over what they did to get the car to handle the way it does.
Tires were a part of the equation. (Full disclosure I am an engineer, a product design engineer at that, so I put a lot of weight on the words that fellow engineers say about products they design)
I know there are constraints that engineers need to fit into as well due to contracts, etc... made by people above them pushing and pulling corporate levers, combined with marketing. (I deal with this daily)
Still... think I will be sticking with OEM tires. I also daily my car year round (my only car) in New England so I have a second set of rims/tires for late fall/winter/early spring. I plan to leave my car dead stock and drive it well over 100K miles before looking into something else. Most likely another vette.

Dive safe out there!

solteroblues

Also a design engineer here... and I second Dennis's thoughts. When we design something, we always design around a certain product. Yes, there may be other products that might would work, but sometimes we only find 1 or we maximize other specs based on that one specific product. Now, with that said, my car came with the A/S run flat Michellins, and I think they are fantastic, but I wouldn't track without the original OEM tires because they provide the maximum level of performance with how the car was designed.