Jim,

I am about to buy a set of never used (never mounted) tires from another member.
He indicated that Tire Rack sent him the fronts Z rated instead of W rated.

As far as I know the Z rated are the Porche OE tires. Would there be any problems
using those Z rated S02s on the S2000? What is the exchange policy (since he never
mounted them)?

Thanks in advance.

 

They are a different tire and such would handle differently. I can't tell you how much different they would be though. You are correct they are an OE Porsche tire.

Jim

 

The main thing to consider is rear tire width. OEM SO2s in 225/50/16 measure about the same width as non-OEM tires in 245/45/16. It's not clear from your post, are you considering a complete set of tires, or are only the front tires of the set Z-rated?

If you use a complete "Porsche tire set", you will put less rubber to the ground in the rear compared to an OEM tire set. This leads to increasing oversteer issues, something the S2000 is particularly sensitive to (especially MY '00 and '01 cars) even with the correct tires. If only the front tires are Porsche and the rears are S2000 OEM, you willhave much less of a handling issue.

 

The fronts are the Porsche ones. The rears are fine.

From what I could tell {tirerack site) the only differences (other than the rating) would be a .1 wider thread and .1 narrower section width on the Zrated.