i need some help guys. ive spoke with jim through email about what tire to get and hes helped out a lot, but i tried calling him just now and looks like hes out of office till tomorrow.

so.. the situation.. front s02's have plenty of tread, rear s02's look like they need to be put to rest before the rain returns next week. I was just going to change the rears for now. I know that if im not getting s02's i should change them all, but.. i dont want to waste those front tires...plus thats a lot of money.

My first choice, the re750s in the 245/45/16 are backordered and wont be available anytime soon.

Second choice is the re050 pp. Im pretty sure the 225/50/16 will be the right size for the rear, i just want to reconfirm with you guys. Also, will the handling be too squirrelly having the s02s on the front? I think this would be close match to the s02s.

And whenever the fronts wear down, I will switch to either matching re050 in the front, or switch all 4 for the re750.

What do you guys think? I hope to order these tonight so that I can have them in early next week. I didnt think I'd spend a month and a half debating over which tire to get. See what happens when there is too much info on s2ki and tirerack!

 

RE050 PP is definitely a better match for the S02 fronts than RE750s (lower grip/higher mileage). If I'm you, RE050PP is the tire I'm getting to replace the rears.

 

Why not just get 2 rear S02s?

 

With the reports of poor wet-weather performance here and in Tire Rack survey results, no way would I put S02's on my car for daily-driving duty.

 

yea... the rain is what kills me. its no fun going 40 mph on the highway when a cloud explodes on you. and being my daily driver, i want a balance of good performance/wet handling/ treadwear. thats why i was looking at the re750s for longevity.
ok ill probably order those re050pp tonight. thanks zdan! btw..i read so many of your posts in this forum that helped me to narrow my decision down and learn more and more about tires and the s2k. thanks for that too!

 

Have you tried 'em Dan? They ain't all that bad and not much worse than the RE050 in the wet. Besides he's still keeping the S02 at the front and he's been driving on s02 already, so he knows how they behave.

I used s02s for years as daily drivers...and even let em go to the chords. The only time my car spun in the wet is after I went to the Hankook RS2.

 

hahah yeaa..ive learned a good amount on how to handle the s02s (thanks to all that rain we had in texas this summer)..i would be tempted to go back, but if i can get a tire that has almost as good dry handling, better wet, and a little cheaper.... well..thats the way i was looking at it.

the s02s do rock in the dry though...i am actually scared to lose the confidence i have in them by switching to a new tire, plus on a mismatching setup.. oh well..

i havent spun... yet... *knocks on wood* just far enough sideways on the highway once where i stared at the passenger of an escalade that was passing me...

crap..now im second guessing my decision again hahaha

 

Haven't tried 'em. My opinion is totally based on input from forum members here and Tire Rack survey results (hydroplaning resistance and wet traction rating/10: RE050A PP = 8.7, 8.9; S02 = 6.5, 7.0).

From my perspective, the S02 has been superseded by better-performing tires (RE050A PP and RE01R).

Of course the option is there to spend more money on previous-gen tires for those who must have S02's!

As for Hankook RS2's, I cheaped out and got them for my car. But I know how to drive
(totally j/k here, btw...)

 

Surveys are by users and are subjective...I don't know anyone who has done an objective test.

The RE050 superceded the S02 in wet performance absolutely true...but it took 2 generations of tires for Bridgestone to get the same level of dry performance of the S02...the S03 was better in the wet, but slower in the dry. The RE050 finally matched the S02 dry performance while being a better wet tire...but from driving both tires in the wet...not that dramatic of a difference (of course that's my subjective opinion too).

One other concern I would have is that the 225 RE050 is a half inch narrower than the oem S02. That's a full inch less contact patch total on the rear of a car that is already tail happy. So while the RE050s might be better in the rain, their dry performance is probably going to leave a lot to be desired. An extra $20 per tire to get the right tire for the car...worth it in my book.

However...over the RE50...if you have to mix and match...the RE01r is only $4 more than the RE050 and its 225 is only .2" narrower than the S02, but has a good bit more grip.

 

Totally agree that surveys by users are their subjective impressions, not objective data. But putting more stock in raw "tread width" numbers isn't going to get you any closer to a real answer as to which of two tires is going to have greater grip.

In my experience (street and track), section width and "tread width" within a, say, 20mm range are not huge impacters as far as a car's handling demeanor goes, particularly for street driving. Nothing like as important as alignment, roll stiffness distribution, suspension geometry, etc etc. On a stock S2k, the "other factors" are pretty much limited to alignment, but again, in my experience, this will have a greater impact than outright section or tread width within a ~20mm range.

Besides, what is listed as "tread width" is NOT the contact patch width.
And anyway, lateral grip is not a linear function of contact patch width or "tread width", even for heated-up race tires that have stickyness/adhesion, much less so for street tires under normal street driving conditions.

Assuming for a moment that the 225 S02's do indeed have a 0.5", or ~6.25% wider contact patch (note that this figure doesn't sound NEARLY as significant as "a full inch"), that in no way implies 6.25% greater grip. Based on tread width, the S02 might offer ~3% (somewhere between 0% and 6.25%) greater ultimate grip, in the dry, than a theoretical S02 with the same tread width as the RE050PP. As far as a comparison between the 225 S02 vs. the 6.25%-less-outright-tread-width RE050PP, I'd say it's quite a stretch to assume the S02 has significantly more grip solely based on the published "tread width". The wider S02 might not have any more grip, and it could have less.

Regarding dry-handling demeanor, consider that the S02's tread width is much closer to its overall section width (8.5" tread/9.2" section, vs. 8" tread/9.1" section for the RE050APP). The S02 has a much squarer profile at the edges. This means that under hard cornering, it won't gain as much actual contact patch width as the RE050PP will, and the outside edge of its contact patch will become more overloaded, relatively. It seems to me that this would imply less linearity at the limit, that grip will fall off more precipitously.

In the wet, particularly heavy rain, the extra tread width will be a liability as far as grip and stability are concerned. But of course outright width within a reasonable range isn't going to be as important as tread sea/land ratio and depth.

I've had to throw a borrowed 205/55-14 Hoosier on a corner of my 240Z at the track a couple of times, in place of my usual 225/50-14s, and can honestly say that if there was a change in handling demeanor (and I fully expected there WOULD be a change) was all but negligible, and what I did notice could well have been in my mind.
On the S2k, I've run at the track on 245/45 Kumhos, and on 225/50 Kumhos, and the overall handling demeanor was not noticeably different.

I've said all that to say this:
The impact of (arbitrarily-measured) "tread width" on the handling and balance of the S2k is not anything like as important as it is frequently made out to be 'round here.
One man's opinion, that is all!

Regarding the RE01R recomendation, I'd say the RE050 PP is a much better bet given that rain performance is a concern.