Hardback

KrazyK, If your not tracking your 4S how is it you are getting yourself into an oversteer situation. by the way oversteer is good and fast. What type of mods on your 4S? Alignment settings etc?

OP, just buy the Sumis already. They are cheap and well they're.... cheap.

VA951

Or...look at the poll results, seems clear to me.

Hal

IMO, the only thing from this thread that is clear is that most of the posters like cheap tires. To me, that is kind of like seeing your favorite hottie on the red carpet at a major awards show, dressed to the nines except for the beater Nike's on her feet. . . Kind of leaves an feeling of unfinished.

Sneaky Pete

I have had 3 or 4 sets of the Sumi 3's. I like them for the money. I have used them on a wet and dry track. I had a hoot driving in the rain passing the "fast guys" using the wet line. I now have the Super Sports and love 'em. I agree they are not a track tire for cars with a aggressive suspension but are great for the occasional DE'r. I found that out last year after I was missing a large patch of rubber from my left rear after a track day. Tirebarn took them back and replaced them with new and me paying a 1/3 value. This year its a dedicated track tire but thats another topic all together.

To KK.......whatever oversteer on street driving? Take it to the track my friend and do it safely.

sjfehr

Less expensive in this case doesn't mean crappy tires, though; HTRZIII performance is right up there with PS2. Yes, there are better tires out there, but most drivers will never notice the difference without a set of timing beams. Cost really does become a major deciding factor.

VA951

Is the sumi the best tire out there (whatever that means...)? Probably not. Is it the best value for a street tire? I think it is.
Track tire is a completely different discussion.

DaveSpeed

The porsche sales manager at the dealer I visted couple weeks ago recommended the Hankook tires for DD or street driving over any N rated tire. Thats what he uses on his pcar, and he knows several customers who are very happy with that tire.

I have Conti 2's on my 996, which are no longer made so I assume this time next year I'll be purchasing new tires. I really liked the Conti 2 so i'm sorry to see them go. I may try the DW or PS2 or PPS.
Since my car is not a DD i'm not as worried about the total milage of the tire and since I've averaging two years per set price isn't as big a concern as if would be for sosme1 putting 10-12K miles per year.

Jpelton

On my last car I had Dunlop Star Specs, that tire is insanely grippy, almost made the car not as fun to drive as I couldn't get the car as loose as I liked in certain situations.

Now that they released the Star Spec II's in tire sizes for my 996 I am excited to try them out, tires are the most important part about your car. It connects the car to the road, not something you want to cheap out on. I am hoping the Star Spec II's will continue to blow my mind and blow every other performance tire out of the water.

KrazyK

I had not considered this either. Mines not a DD as well so mileage is not a factor. The tires will only see a few thousand miles per year, if that.

I can see how the guys with DD's would want the less expensive tires.

You may want to do some research on the Sumi's. It seems they were ALL manufactured in Japan but they have recently moved the manufacturing of some of the lines to China and we all know what that means. Cheap is not always synonymous with good deal.

There are complaints of thin side walls, etc. I would ask where the particular model was built before I buy.

Note: Porsche owners are such a hypocritical group that some would crawl over broken glass to buy the "Porsche approved" oils but scoff at using the "Porsche approved tires"?????

Dennis C

Hmmm... I don't use Porsche approved oil, but I use Porsche approved tires!



I actually tried Sumis and Hankooks. I won't ever buy either of those brands again. I've never found a tire that I like better than the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 on the C4S. Nothing even comes close...

LRBill

When you say not much grip are you referring to track time?

I have Sumi III's and I'd have to push them harder than I want to or should on the street to lose grip.

I'm happy with them on my C4.

Cosmo Kramer

I noticed that nobody has mentioned the Bridgestone RE760 sport. I used them on my supercharged 928 and found they have great grip and wear and a reasonable price. I think they
would suit the OP's needs.

Tire rack classifies them as ultra high performance summer.

jordanturbo

Good call, I forgot about these tires. I am not sure about sizing and availability but I had these on a modified 2000 Civic SI that saw hard driving but not much track use and these were pretty good. pretty agressive asymmetric design not quite as sticky as the RE-11 but much better wearing and wet traction which was awesome for daily driving in summer.

KrazyK

This sums it up well. Maybe Porsche got this right.

You Sumi fans really should check into the China connection.

VA951

My Sumi tires are marked made in Japan...