So this spring, after I bring my 350Z out of hibernation I will be looking at 2 new rear tires. The front tires are still good, but the rears need replaced as they are just about to hit the wear indicators.

This is the first time I'm replacing tires since I bought the car, and my first car with staggered tires. I assume that the typical thing to do would be to buy 2 identical tires to what's already on there so that the tires all match, right? What if I wanted to change tire models? Is it wrong to run different tires in the front versus the rear? I'm worried about any difference in grip here. It think it would be wasteful to throw away 2 good tires just because the rear tires are worn.

I'm only considering changing tire models because the current model is rather expensive. I mean the tires grip very well, but I think I can get similar performance at a slightly lower cost with a different brand. Right now it has Yokohama Neova AD08 tires.

The car is a 2008 Touring edition, 6 speed manual, 30,000 miles, and original 18" chrome "dealer option" wheels.

 

My car hardly had matching tires for street use. I don't see a problem with it, also the tires I can were always close in performance spec,

 

Thanks. Do you have any advice how to make sure the performance is truly similar? Looking at Tire rack they have a bunch of categories like "Max Summer Performance," "Ultra Summer Performance," and "Extreme Summer Performance." I'm probably over thinking this, aren't I?

 

I’ve run different brand fronts from rears and did not have a problem. The requirement when doing this is staying with a tire within the same class. The Yokohama Neova AD08 is classified as an Extreme Performance Summer tire so you should stay with at least a Summer Performance tire when replacing your rears.

 

If you're not pushing the tires to the limits at every turn, you're "OK" with different tires front-rear. But as it's been stated by others, maintain the performance category at least.

You probably will notice some change in the car's "tendencies"; that is, there will likely be some change in the feel or propensity to under/oversteer. Again, be careful how far you push it.

On that note, however, I'm very a**l-retentive about such things and always change all four but I get the "waste" feeling of throwing away good front tires.

Alternative (and a plug of sorts I guess): I run Sumitomo HTR-Z3's - classified Max Performance - and while I was afraid of a loss in overall grip, "controllability", and most important, sharp turn-in and recovery, these tires have performed as well as (or better) than the Mushylin (Michelin) PS-2's they replaced. Seriously.

At half the cost.

YMMV but for my style of driving on canyon/hill runs, they cannot be beat, particularly at the pricepoint.

No, I don't work for Sumitomo.

Mic

 

^^ Mic, … One thing I paid attention to when mixing brands of summer performance tires (front and back) was sidewall stiffness. I did not like the result mixing summer performance tires when one brand had a much stiffer sidewall than the other.

I’m getting off-topic slightly, but I think your good comments deserve some elaboration: The thing I like about Michelin is comfort and quiet with excellent handling. The PS-2 was my favorite summer performance tire (but it is expensive, as is Michelin in general).

Are the Sumitomo tires as quiet and comfortable?

 

Oh trust me, whatever I pick will be a directional summer only tire. This car has never, and will never see snow or salt. Hell, it's only seen a drizzle a couple of times. She's my shiny little baby XD

I have a second car for my winter and rainy days. In fact I have 2 sets of wheels for that car, summer only and winter snow tires. Right now I'm on my snow tires and I miss my summer tires so bad

 

That's a good thing to think about. Personally I don't care about road noise, at all. I barely care about comfort. I bought this car to drive spiritedly, and enjoy it's performance around a nice twisty road (no, I do NOT drift it). But at the same time it would be a little weird to have a super soft and quiet set of ties on one end, and a super stiff and noisy set at the other.

 

Re: Spike's comments on sidewall stiffness...

Exactly right.

One point so often neglected when people talk about tires is the overall construct of the tires discussed, and hence, sidewall stiffness that differs not only from tire to tire but especially from mfgr to mfgr.

This, along with the usual suspects - tire tread, compound, width, footprint, etc. - are direct influencers on over/understeer, tramlining resistance, wet vs. dry weather performance, turn-in and so on ad nauseum. This is why mixing of tires isn't a good idea (but "acceptable" in standard street driving conditions where one isn't pushing the tires to the limit.)

Z's running non-staggered sizes would be relatively tail happy (not as bad as a Porsche 900 series but you get the drift - no pun intended) if not for the extra 20mm of tread (of the stock 18" config, 225/245) giving just enough grip so as to keep the front and rear end of the car very balanced. So much so that I don't even run staggered pressures to promote the over/understeer that I want. (Old trick that worked very well on both my original S30s and moreso on the race car.) I can now rely on sway bar adjustment to tune for that.

Along the same thought process, running tires with stiffer sidewalls on the rear could (not a certainty but in theory) promote excessive oversteer due to the rears reaching their adhesion limit before the fronts - the primary characteristic of oversteer. That's why I advocate 4-tire replacements with like brands, e.g., like construction/design F-R.

But again - it's perfectly acceptable for average driving but one will feel the difference in driving 8/10ths+.

Tires are the FIRST "trick" in suspension tuning so I don't cheap out. Once you have a good tire on the car THEN one can start messing with other things that need to be shored up, e.g., shocks, spring rates, etc.

----

On the comfort issue.... The Sumitomos display a tad bit more noise and a little bit more road vibration than the Mushylin PS-2s in normal street driving. But once on the road or pushing through curves, it's all pretty much a non-issue as any noise from the tires is in competition with other ambient noise levels.

For perspective, when I bought the Track V.1 wheels, they were shod with BFG somethings (KDW?)... the ones with the wild Picasso like tread pattern. Wow.... those tires were LOUD and had HORRIBLE road isolation. So bad that I immediately took the car back to the shop and swapped them out for the Sumitomos and all was well again.

So in the grand scheme of things, a bit less isolation with the Sumitomos than the Mushylins but perfectly fine when compared with - IMO - "lesser" tire.

Mic