Well, I've been reading up on tires. I already had the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2s in mind, then I get ahold off that Car and Driver article. They rate the Goodyear Eagle F1s as the all around best tire. I hear others say that they don't hold up so well.

So I have two other tires on my mind but no review ANYWHERE.

These are:

Falken Azenis RT-615 and
Hankook Ventus S1 evo K107

C&D reviewed the Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212.

My next question is, what's better Max performance Summer, or Premium Ultra High Performance summer? I'm guessing max?

 

Manufactures are using the terms Max performance Summer and Premium Ultra High Performance summer arbitrarily so that isn't much help.

Don't hold up well as in tread wear? Performance and tread wear is a trade-off. Soft compound tires generally have better traction but relatively low tread wear.

 

I had the F1's on my last car and I wasn't a big fan of them, when the tread gets about half way through they scream at you all day long(general road noise) other then that they were decent. Oh and they throw up a cool spray pattern in rain:-p The RT-615's are probably going to handle similarly in dry but I only used the older model, whereas the PS2's are going to be good in pretty much anything.

 

PS2's are excellent tires. Just be aware that once you buy them you may buy them again so if your hesitant on spending that much on tires, you'll probably do it again. Im going to be on my 2nd set here soon.

 

Just changed out to the PS2 last month after 20k+ miles on the Goodyear GS-D3. As for the Goodyears, the initial grip in both dry and wet was great, the tread life was fantastic & the tread pattern pretty cool looking. After about 15k miles (still about half tread on front & a little less on rears), the rubber really began to dry & get hard causing easy wheelspin - made drifting around corners fun - ha! Also made mounting the alignment tools hard getting the lips of the tools between the outer rim & the edge of the tire (the GS-D3's "rim protector" ridge of rubber is VERY tight to the rim....even harder to mount after the rubber dries). Still, the GS-D3 was a great tire for up to 15k. I ran several auto-x weekends, 3 days at the Dragon & lots of spirited street driving, so the wear mileage was surprising.

As for the Michelin PS2.....after about 1k miles.....the dry traction grip is probably a little stronger that the Goodyear's with 1k miles on them. The sidewall is a little stiffer giving a little better steering response & cornering response. Can't tell too much difference in the wet traction - Goodyear's might have been a little stronger there. The tread pattern is a little boring, but I guess that doesn't matter if performance is there. I'm expecting these will last about the same as the Goodyear's, but I'm not going to wait too long to change after the performance begins to deteriorate like I did on the Goodyear's. Unless something comes along in the next year that outperforms these 2 tires for a summer ultra-performance street tire, my next set will be one of these 2 again.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. The only other tires i was considering wer ethe Yokohama Advan Neova AD07

 

well, besides Michelin and Falken, the other tire brands are not good quality, especially Goodyear. I'm not sure if it's the materials they use or the process they use, but I always see Goodyears come back with defects and they don't last hardly at all. Goodyear tires also seem to get bubbles in the sidewall a lot. Michelin is probably the best tire maker I know of (at least they are the best from all the tire brands I sell). Their quality is superb and they are also the only tire manufacturer that under rates their treadwear rating.


I actually ordered a set for my own car today.

 

my pilot sports let me down after 8k.
fronts were noisy, showing signs of feathering.
rears wore only on the inside, outside of rears had 9/32, inside had 6/32.
all 4 had 35 psi the whole time and i did very few small burnouts, oem rims and oem tire sizes.
I don't know why they did this but i couldn't complain too much because nissan gave them to me to cure the feathering reo40's..

 

You can always try the new Bridgestone Potenza RE0-1R.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....Potenza+RE-01R

 

I'm not one to early adopt. Not to emtnion I don't have enough experience to be an early adopter and give an adequate review. If I saw some specs I might try them.

 

Are you going with 305's still? I'm thinking about doing so when my rears are gone.

 

i have ps2, nice tires, what is amazing is that even though they are good on dry, but also they perform almost equally well on wet not much difference

 

Ive heard this before. I was scared when i bought my ps2's but they have fixed that problem ive heard about apparantly cuz mine were fine. Just make sure you camber and feathering issues are resolved.

These tires are too small they need larger sizes unless your replacing stock tires.

I wanted too but i didn't want to get stuck with tires that may not fit as i have 9.5. Now, let me explain what i saw within the last week. Lou put 295 DR on a 9.5 rim and it was fine. So a 305/30 would probably buldge just a lil to the point where you wouldn't want anymore buldge, the handling might be affected a lot so I didn't want to pioneer that right now. So i went with 255/35fr and 285/35 rear.

 

Does the 350z have adjutable camber stock? I want 3 deg in front and 1.5 in back i think... what do you guys suggest. (negative camber of course)

 

Yes, however i don't think its that adjustable. I think you can get 1 or 1.5 degrees out. Im not a tech tho so i can be wrong, i just know that my car was adjusted and all i have for suspension mods are coilovers and sways.

 

If you want the best performing tire in dry conditions, this is the way to go.

 

I've had the Michelin Pilot Sports on my "Z" now for over 19,000 miles. Excellent in both dry and wet conditions. Almost zero wear on all four tires. A vast improvement over the stock Bridgestone's. I've had Michelin's on various cars over the past 35 years and they have never let me down.

Steve (k2we) Dobbs Ferry & Saratoga Springs, NY 42,910 miles since Sept 17,2002

 

I have Pilots aswell and love them.

 

I had the same problem with goodyear tires on my beater 16". Obviously I didn't give the tires a hard time and still i got a bubble in the sidewall after some 10k miles or so.
But that's just my experience. When I would get 19" aftermarket wheels for the Z, I'll go with the PS2..