Petscar

I have Continental Extreme Contact with 16k miles on them. 2 are pretty much done. Just wondering which tires will last the longest yet still give reasonable handling. I searched old posts and saw there was a ton of recommendation s. I wanted to get opinions on more recent experiences that are fresh.

UnknownJinX

I went with Firestone Firehawk Indy 500(aka rebranded Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalin RE003) on mine.

I dunno how long they last, but they will handle anything you reasonably throw at them on the street, and they are really cheap so even if they don't last, they don't set you back too much.

Petscar

Cool. I was just looking at those. Price is definitely right. $136. How long have you had them? Mind if I ask what you paid?
I noticed on Amazon, they say 50k warranty. On Firestone they say no warranty.

UnknownJinX

I only had them for about 3000km/under 2000 miles before I sold my 8.

I paid under CAN$1000 IIRC, before tax that's CAN$890 so that's around US$660. I didn't record the purchase in Fuelly for some reason, but that's the ballpark.

I don't know how the Amazon warranty works... No good summer tires will last this long realistically. You can have some rough idea with the tread rating. Indy 500 is rated at 340 treadwear so you can use that as a reference to compare against the Extreme Contact you had. The higher the rating, the longer the tires will last, but that usually also means your dry grip performance won't be as good.

speed7

Was a huge fan of the Conti extreme contact DW’s myself. Ran them for YEARS on many different cars. A slight notch above those are the Michelin Pilot Super Sports. I think replaced by the 4S line. That’s where I would go. They are slightly more per tire but road noise is a lot less. Grip is on par wet and dry.

UnknownJinX

PS4S is great but they are pretty expensive. That's the thing with Michelin, excellent tires but they charge a lot for them so the value/performance per buck ends up not being as good.

delhi

Conti DWS wear fast. Great performance overall for an A/S tire.
Unfortunately my RX8 is not seeing a whole lot of mileage these days so wear is difficult to measure. I'm going with Bridgestone because.... it's JDM yo! :D

Petscar

Jinx, why did you sell it? I'm glad your still on the forum to help us out. Thanks.

Petscar

Also what is the largest you can go on the rx8? I believe standard I'd 225 45 18.

UnknownJinX

Long story short, I was relocating for a while and I was thinking of trying something different, so I let the 8 go. Doesn't mean I don't miss it, though. I have some GoPro footages and such and I still miss the rotary sound.

But yeah this is a nice and small community so I will be around.

Petscar

Jinx, how were the firestones as far as road noise? Also anybody ever use all season like Michelen pilot sport AS 3+ ?

wannawankel

I am shocked at how long the Nexen CP662 225/45R18 91V tires have lasted on my 2010 GT. I didn't put them on and I try hard to get them to fail. A value nonetheless.

UnknownJinX

They are not the quietest but I wouldn't say they are intolerable. At high speeds, you will hear your engine more than the tires.

speed7

True but I view tires as a much as a safety aspect of the car not just for fun. You get what you pay for.

I would expect DWS's to wear a bit faster than the DW's simply because it is an A/S tire if being driven aggressively. The DW line actually had a decent mileage life. But note that any tire driven hard repeatedly will wear down quicker.

I have fire stones currently on an R3.. they are ok but more road noise than the Michelin.

TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

This isn’t your grandpa’s Buick. Put soft, grippy tires on it and often, sleeping in the broke and busted bed you’ve made for yourself. Because the smile on your face after every corner is always worth it.

EC DW in the summer, Blizzaks in the winter (if you must)


.

Loki

iTrader: (1)

Don't the Contis Extreme Contact have a 40k mi warranty? At 16k, I wonder if your alignment is off causing premature wear.

I'm interested in this as well, my Yokohama S-Drives (street summer rubber) are almost done, after 30k miles or so. Good tire, no bad habits, wear well, decent price, not noisy until near the wear bars. I miight get them again, but would like to try something new. Had them on my previous car too.

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TeamRX8

iTrader: (25)

if you have a perfect alignment and cruise on straight highways maybe, pushing them in the corners about 1/2 that, bad alignment worse

Petscar

Ahh....alignment. That is an interesting topic. Keep in mind it has 37k miles and the 2nd owner replaced the tires at 21k. I noticed cupping on the inside of both front tires. I had it aligned and tires rotated. Then I noticed cupping again on the front tires shortly thereafter. So I had it realigned at a different place. Same thing is occuring. So I took the alignment spec sheet to a Mazda dealer and they said specs were good and couldn't explain cupping. I thought they were going to come back at me with I needed struts or something which they didn't. So I am at a loss right now. Any thoughts?

I'm not sure about the warranty as I did not put them on the car. I had a repaired flat and someone said that voids the warranty. Not sure if that's true. Anyway at this point I am considering a cheaper tire until I can figure out the cupping issue. Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 is $136. I stopped by and the guy said if I wait til the end of June, there will be a $100 rebate on a set of 4. That's $112 per tire. Can't beat that. My previous question is can I go slightly larger on standard rims? Maybe a little wider tire. 50 instead of 45?

Petscar

How many miles do you have on them?

Loki

iTrader: (1)

Cupping is a pretty particular wear pattern. Something is preventing your tire from rolling on the ground correctly -- typically poor shocks, but if those check out, I'm not sure. Do you drive a recurring route full of washboard roads? Are the fronts or rears more worn?
Is the car all original?

Petscar

Car is all original. Roads are good. Rear tires wear faster than front. Which spec on alignment would affect cupping. Maybe I could have them adjust it to the extreme spec in the direction that might reduce the cupping.

Petscar

Ok, went back to Mazda and said shocks are fine. Went to Discount Tire where previous owner bought the tires. Correction, tires have 14k miles on them, not 16k. They said there is no warranty on these tires. Manager said he would give me a $70/tire discount from their co. bringing it to $121 for the newer version of Continental or $172 for the Michelin pss. + Both companies are offering rebates of $70 and $110 respectively. Manager says Michelin is better but not sure I want to spend the extra $200.

As far as specs from my last alignment.....
LF: Camber ... -0.7
Caster ... 7.0
Toe ... 0.10
RF: Camber ... -0.7
Caster ... 6.9
Toe ... 0.08

Total toe ... 0.17
Steer ahead ... 0.01

If anybody has an understanding of alignment, do you have any suggestions on adjustments to these numbers that might help with the cupping on the inner tires.
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speed7

I have a guy that I go to that is great... but you have to be in San Diego. Spend the extra $200 cheapskate! =) they are better.. you won’t be upset. And I may be the only one thinking this but 20k on tires is about average for me.. once every 2 years is not that big of a deal.. I kind of expected the rx8 to go 30k miles per set since it’s lighter... My merc is a tank and wears out the rears fast and would average 2.5 years per set.. I’ve not daily driven the rx8 yet.. after Rona I can find out that part when we get back to work.

Petscar

Cheapskate?? Try living on social security which is less than a minimum wage job. The car is fairly expensive to maintain to begin with. Unless you're willing to loan me $200. With payments stretching over a year. 😁😁😁 Go to your guy and show him my alignment #'s and see if he has any suggestions. Thanks, you're the best. I'll PM you with my address so you can send me a check.

speed7

lol no worries.. I’m going to have my Nigerian bank manager send you the information he needs to get the loan. It’s legit I swear. I’ll check my alignment sheet to see if he has the numbers and cross reference them. He’s not a computer guy so no way we can get a follow up atm anyways. You sound like you two are the same age... old. 😜