jorlanjm

Whats the best summer tire with more thread life for stock 18" wheels?

NotAPreppie

I dunno about thread life. I didn't know tires had threads in them.

For a balance of price/performance/tread life, I'm a fan of the Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position.

Steve Dallas

More tread life than what? We need a baseline.

jorlanjm

Sorry for that...

I meant more thread life compared to other summer tires...Some summer tires only last 30,000 miles...most all season tires last 60,000 miles.

Im not talking advertised miles on the tires either...im talking about real miles.

NotAPreppie

I'd be surprised if 60k-actual-mile-summer-tires were anything other than total **** on the road.

90% of the reason why tires last long(er) is that the rubber compound is harder (read: less grip). The reason why you see no-season tires with 80k mile treadlife warranties is that they don't grip for **** in dry conditions.

The whole point of a summer tire is that you want grip. If you want grip, you have to give up treadlife.

You can use the treadwear rating as a general rule of thumb for how long a tire will last. It's not perfect and it doesn't work very well between brands but a 140 TW rated tire will definitely not last as long as a 400 TW rated tire regardless of manufacturer.

Steve Dallas

In that case, you are looking for a unicorn. There is no summer tire that is good for that kind of mileage. Read NAP's post carefully and take it to heart.

According to Tire Rack, the best TW you can get in summer tires is 460 in the Direzza DZ102. Most other higher wearing summer tires are in the 340 range, which are good for 15 to 25K max, depending on how you drive.

The three most popular summer street tires in my sphere are RE760, G-Force Sport Comp-2, and Extreme Contact Sport. I have the first two on two of my cars, and they are comparable, but the G-Force is better in the wet, and the RE760 is quieter.

Your best bet is to buy from Discount Tire, buy their warranty, and leverage their proration policy on your next set.

.

Jastreb

iTrader: (1)

FWIW, I’ve gotten 36k miles from a set of BFG G-Force sport comp-2s, with no track use, regular tire rotations, and making sure the alignment was good. I don’t think you can do better than that on a tire with decent grip.

UnknownJinX

I agree wholeheartedly with NotAPreppie.

In general, grip and life are inversely proportional.

Good summer tires don't last long because they grip well. I don't expect my Falken 453 to last much more than 2 summers.

This is coming from the no-season(there is a good reason people call them that) tires I got with the car. I was able to spin the tires without much throttle when making turns on a hot summer day with a perfectly dry road, and when I measured the tread-life, they still had a good amount left. That never happened with the Falken summer tires because they grab the road very well.

If you want something that can run year-round, go for all-weather tires. Keep in mind they are a bit more like winter tires, so they don't perform as well as dedicated summer tires in summer.

jorlanjm

Have you tried All Season tires on the RX-8?

Im in California.

If you just do spirited driving is there big difference between Summer and All Season?

I got my 2010 RX-8 at 44K+ miles with Summer Tires already...now Im at 65K+...so with the Tread life im reading on summer tires its about right.

I was hoping there were summer tires that would last longer then 30k miles.

Not trying to be cheap, Im not getting All-Season tires if it sacrifices the RX-8's handling. But I do want to get the best performance to durability ratio.

UnknownJinX

I did, and they suck. Very easy to spin the tires out even when I was light on the throttle in ideal conditions. No-season is just what we tend to call all-season around here because they don't perform that well in any given condition.

IMO in spirited driving it makes a pretty big difference. Good tires plant you better on the road when you make quick turns.

I haven't seen a good summer tire that lasts more than 30k miles, especially if you drive the car hard. That's another factor to consider: all-season last "longer" because it's on cars like Corollas that don't really see beyond 3k RPM, while most people here(and with other sports cars) would rev to beeeeeeeep pretty often. I doubt you can really get that much better life with all-season if you spin them all the time.

jorlanjm

OK cool...i thought id ask just incase...thanks Guys!

lOOkatme

I would rather have a softer tire than a hard one. if you keep a tire more then like 3 years its already age hardening and performance is being sacrificed. any of the long wear tires in my daily drivers typically wear fast the first half of the tires life and then the second half become rocks and last forever but have a lot less grip.

I prefer to measure the tires performance over the life of the tire and hopefully swap tires every 3-4 years. If you average like 10K miles a year that means you look for only a 30K mile tire at best. I liked the re760 sport tire for the price and wear.

40w8

I studied this lots for 10 years. I put some Hankook Ventus V12 k110's on 6 years ago for $100/tire.

Thought that was bargain, but they ran about 12k miles, and the last 3 years ran rock hard; Would even hold 35psi air for last 2 years (not kidding).

I read where Michelin PSS are a long USE tire to 30k miles in that rubber is more stable for 6 years.

I put 215/40r18 PSS on my Enkei 7.5 x18 wheels that someone else bought for car, and they have LOTS of grip wet or dry.

I always put the best wet tire I can find, and it's SUMMER performance and PSS as best at moment or the new Michelin sport 4+ if in your size.

Long wearing is for constant speed highway drivers that go 60k miles a year.

NotAPreppie

I wondered how long it would take for a MPSS fanboi to show up.

Matthew G. Wright

I've had both all-seasons and summer tires on my 8. None of them last. Car has 62k miles and I'm about ready for set #4.

40w8

"Can't tell if serious"

Fifty years ago, most Michelin were very long wear, expensive, and maybe not very good traction.

Twenty years ago, I got some junk MIchelin X on a Dodge Stratus, and they were cracky all over in 3 or 4 years.

Net is great way to drill down to what others have liked, and I can't easily set off DSC.

Always looking for total VALUE, and I like that it's much better in rain than NO- Seasons.

NotAPreppie

Only quasi-serious. I mean, MPSS fanbois are a rabid bunch but it's evidently not without reason. They're really only annoying when they start making claims that aren't backed up by reality (like the MPSS is the ultimate autocross tire, etc).

lOOkatme

my experience is the car handles much better with the DSC off, but you need to drive at the limit of the car and set it up properly where you balance the car without it. if you don't you will always be driving a really funky feeling car. Anyone who really pushes the car hates the dsc if you leave it on, but keep in mind I only use my car in the summer on nice days. I did race the car in rain and its fun man. There is actually a lot more grip then people think. I was only a few seconds a lap off of my dry time with the same tires. I was amazed at how fast I could lap the course, it's when standing water happens and you hit it in a turn where it gets really fun and spins. But driving in the rain is a lot of fun if its on a closed course with no ramifications of messing up.


The cheap cheap tires are really bad. I was driving on some blacklions that the car came with and the tires are 245/40/18 on the stock wheels. I would push the corner entry and the rear ends just comes flying around and you need to get back on the gas to catch it. Cheap tires just ruin a car.

I ran re760 sports on my rx7, slightly stretched onto the wheel, and they handled pretty well and were pretty precise and predictable.

40w8

I've got the dreaded 6 speed auto, and I like the smoothness on the track.

I tried it several ways with and without DSC, and I need to drive smooth anyway to keep momentum, so I don;'t see DSC as coming on too easy.

I see lots of high horse cars hang it out, and use the power to make up time.

I drove it to right around all it would give for at least 15 track days.

I've stayed with Cobra 500 hp cars that were really working to apply that power on tight course.

Maybe one of best days was first run with summer ice from dew; just wet no flushed off.

Second run got dryer, and 4th run was ***** to the wall.

I run with the yellow experienced drivers, and they nearly always have faster cars.

Nobody passed me on the first 3 wet runs, and mostly went to ditch.

I was going around a 90mph sweeper that I could get about 70 on, and rears lost traction, so I held it, but just knew it would go off.

Then, I felt various brakes pulsing one at a time, and car started gripping the corner.

All that testing got me to Bilstein B12 kit, and alignment of minimum neg camber in rear of approx -1.7, and front toe straight ahead.

Car is in perfect shape, and any rust prone screw like license plates are stainless steel and permatex at 10 1/2 years, and 34k miles.

Also, I road with guy IAN on this site who had 255/40r17 Toyo 888's, and now that's a preety good terack tire.

Michelin PSS is pretty good for anything my street will throw at it.