refect

i'm gonna be in the market for some new tires soon, but not too sure what to go with. i always seem to have a hard time picking tires...right now i have 18x8 and 18x9 wheels on the car, and im running a 225/40 up front and 255/35 in the rear. however, for my next set i'm thinking about bumping it up to 235/40 up front and 265/35 rear. the car is lowered and i live in florida so my only weather conditions are wet/dry. i also dont track the car, but i do like to push it a little on back roads from time to time. i'm looking to get some options for a good daily tire that also has good traction for the occasional corning on back roads. tires are something i dont like to go cheap on, but i also dont like to go crazy over-expensive on either. any opinions on a tire would be great, because i really am horrible at trying to find "the right tire." thanks in advance.

aCab

Those sumitomos should work just fine for you.

Jim@tirerack

The HTRZ III is an excellent all around performance tires. They are also a little better tread life and hty have fairly good ride quality.
If I can help let me know.

refect

cool, thanks for the input guys! i think im gonna look into those sumitomo's or possibly the advan spoort.

inactiveuser1114

Back form the dead,
I'm here once again, on a very similar situation as the OP, just on stock AP2 rims, so looking for 225-255 sizes, and just like the OP " i'm looking to get some options for a good daily tire that also has good traction for the occasional corning on back roads" i don't track or autocross, yet i would like to get best possible traction on the street... AND that would last at least bit longer than OEM!

oh and my budget, is in the $150/per tire tops
I have been looking at Kumho Ecsta XS, Continental ExtremeContact DW, Sumitomo HTR Z III. still can't make up my mind!

aCab

Hey gabster,

Those are all good choices, but each is good in its own regard. For the most grip, the XS is by far the best. I have them on my car right now. But the downside is they don't last very long. If you are looking to get more than 5k miles out of your tires, I'd stay away.

I dd on Conti DW (I work for continental), so I'm biased. In the most recent issue of grassroots motorsports, they got the best rating in the wet between them, the star specs, and the toyo r1r.

I used to run Sumitomo HTRZ III before working for continental, and absoultely loved them, as do many here on the board. They are cheap, provide excellent grip, and the squared off shoulder looks better than the contis to me.

Good luck!

inactiveuser1114

^awesome man! Thanks for the feedback, have you or somebody else tried or heard of hankook ventus v12? can they be compared to Sumitomo HTRZ III?

aCab

Yeah, the Hankook V12s are supposed to be great tires. I didn't try a set simply because when I was in the market for that type of tire, they were relatively new and didn't have many reviews for them (even on tire rack). In car and driver tests, they actually fared better than the sumitomos, fwiw.

inactiveuser1114

i have had the v12 but only the back though front had k104s (hankook) but on some 18" rims i have, was not soo impressed i'm guessing it was the rims? and the fact the front tires sucked? (they did feel very soft even on a 35 profile), when i swapped back to OEM rims with OEM R050 it was like night and day, much better handling/steering response was back 100%.

For those who have ride on Sumitomo HTRZ III how would you compared them against OEM R050? Are side walls on the HTRZ as stiff as R050?
On a side note: Honestly i love how the R050 feel, i do know they are not good on wet , and they don't last long at all!, and they are expensive, but besides that i think the car handles perfect, based on what i know about handling (probably not much) lol

what do you guys think?

Thanks!