Are SO3's better that SO2's?
If so, why?

 

It depends on what you mean by "better." The OEM S02 is more of a dedicated dry, warm surface tire, while the S03 compound is more all-around. The gist of it is that in good conditions, the S02 will have more grip, but the S03 is better in the cold and wet. There's no real "better" to it, just depends on what your end goal is in a tire purchase.

 

I'm curious about this also.

The S03's have a better treadwear rating which is important since the OEM SO2's wear down way too fast.

Is there such a thing as a high grip, high tread wear summer performance tire?

 

Buying SO3s was the worst purchase I've made on the S2K. For 6 months, I'd been driving with SO2s on the back, and SO3s on the front, and the handling was "O.K.", but after one of the rear sidwalls was cut by road debris, I was forced to change over and buy a couple of S03s Now, the ride is just terrible - the steering is much stiffer, and the car's very "skittish" on any bad road surface - especially when taking sharp corners. I reckon I have to reduce my normal corning speed by 40-50% to prevent any tail slide.

When you compare the tire tread pattern between the S02s and the S03s, it's very obvious that the S03 tire pattern looks exactly like any other passenger car pattern. No wonder the corning ability has been drastically reduced.

Trust me, if you can still find S02s as replacements, get them! If you change to S03s - good luck!

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 1Y2KS2K
[B]Buying SO3s was the worst purchase I've made on the S2K.

 

S03's are the best tires. If you lost that much performance then there must be something wrong with your setup. I think the biggest problem with this car is setting the alignment correctly. I think my car handles a lot better since I've put the S03's on with the correct alignment, which I think was the problem. When it comes rain performance there is no comparison, the S03's out perform the dangerous S02's.

 

Remember that there are two types of S-02s: OEM and Potenzas. The S-02 Potenzas apparently suck, while the OEM tires are excellent.

 

My new S came with Potenza's. Should it have come with something else?

 

Tires work best at a specific operating temperature, whether it's a race or street compound. You simply can't chuck your car around a corner 5 minutes into your ride and expect it to stick very well. To all you people who think the S03's are skittish, why don't you give it a fair chance and do your high performance evaluation after the tires have warmed up?

 

Also, don't forget to check your tire pressures. I had a set of Potenza RE730s installed on my rears and the car felt terrible. After about a week and thinking I'd made a big mistake, I checked the tire pressures. One tire was about 6PSI too high the other about 3PSI. I corrected the pressures back to 32psi and all of a sudden I had my car back! Handling was as I remember it, and I was a much happier camper.

Always, always, always check your tire pressure after installation. Every *single* time I've had my tires changed on any of my cars for the last four years the tire pressure was off, and on our car that makes a huge difference.