Best tires?

[PoorManQ45]

Money is no object.

What are the best tires that can be bought be the public?

By best, I mean in terms of traction/friction, both wet and dry.

Road noise does not matter.

What would you choose?

[AZhitman]

That's a trick question.

The BEST dry traction tire is not the best wet traction tire.

Need to know more about the application, usage, size, etc before the question can be answered.

[Rex]

PMQ, this really is best asked to the "tire experts" in the forum designed specifically for tire questions.

I would suggest that you provide them with some basic information, as in, car purpose, size, etc. As your question is a little open ended.

[PoorManQ45]

I'm not talking about any specific application. All around, what is the best tire.

And ok greg: What is the best tire that combines great wet and dry traction?

[rsiwicki]

PMQ......

I have got to ask why the questions that deal with "money no object"?

Did you hit the lottery, rob a bank, or hit your ol'man up for some dough?

You ask the most basic question yet want a specific answer. It all depends on tire size availability....in 18 or 17 inchers I want SO3's.....in 15" I want whatever is available for the Q in the so now hard to find 215/65/15 size.

[szh]

Money is no object.

What are the best tires that can be bought be the public?

By best, I mean in terms of traction/friction, both wet and dry.

Road noise does not matter.

What would you choose?

Too many other variables impact the answer to these questions. It depends on the wheel size, load index, specific car and suspension, etc., etc., etc.

Z

[nissanforlife]

How do you know you're in a room with a bunch of car fanatics?when a simple ? is answered with a page and a half of ?'s about tech specs, motives, and uses... but not a single opinion shared... ROFL...

Hoosier slicks are good.. although not street legal. and they dont do rain..i've enjoyed using falken ziex ze-512 tires before.. great rubber for the money...

there.. atleast SOME kind of answer... HAHAHA

[Rex]

I'd echo Rob's comments that for "stickiness" in a street tire, the SO3's and in general the $$ Bridgestone performance tires seem to be some top performs, as along as high miles isn't important.

[elwesso]

I'd echo Rob's comments that for "stickiness" in a street tire, the SO3's and in general the $$ Bridgestone performance tires seem to be some top performs, as along as high miles isn't important.

Indeed, you can usually only get about 10k out of those...

So far i like my sumitomo HTRZ II that are on my 17s... Fairly sticky and theyve lasted a long time.....

[driverdriver]

Generally I tend to rely on the tire test results done by Consumer Reports and by the Michigan State Police Testing facility. They tend to put tires through a series of tests that measure grip on dry, ice, snow, rain, braking distance, etc on a number of different surfaces along with handling characteristics, etc. All that data is availbe on the web. I take that data and factor it with the tires available for my vehicle and my main tire application. Currently the top overall tire picks for both testing institutions are: for cars: Dunlop Sport A2 All Season, for SUVS: Toyo M410 All Seasons/Michellin LTX (tie).

[Rex]

Indeed, you can usually only get about 10k out of those ...

Yeah, I only got about 12k and was nearly .. ok I was to the wear bars on 2 of them . Not to mention the time I got caught in an early season snow/ice storm .

[PoorManQ45]

I just said "Money is no Object" so that you guys wouldn't bring up the whole, "PMQ you're a cheapa$$" thing.

[AZhitman]

I just said "Money is no Object" so that you guys wouldn't bring up the whole, "PMQ you're a cheapa$$" thing.

Bah, that's SO last week.

Here you go: PMQ, you're a lazya$$.

Spend some time on TireRack's site reviewing the specs on various tires.

To echo 'nissanforlife', I was incredibly pleased with the wet and dry performance of my Falken Ziex 512's, which, incidentally, performed FAR better than tires twice their price.

[szh]

Too many other variables impact the answer to these questions. It depends on the wheel size, load index, specific car and suspension, etc., etc., etc.

Z

Okay, since we are being asked for opinions, and money is "not a factor", then I would probably rank the Michelin Pilot Sport (this is not the same as the Pilot Sport A/S) as the tire to beat, for most cars and suspensions and driving conditions.

As AZHitman mentioned, the Falken Ziex 12 is another possibility, particularly because money is a factor there (the tires are relatively low-cost for the performance they offer). They are not as good as the Firestone Firehawk SZ50EP (I compared the two tires on my Q - although the Ziex 512 was for a different rim size) for wet or dry weather handling, but the SZ50EP is no longer available (Argh! ).

On my wife's Acura, I am currently using the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 and I am pleasantly surprised by how good they are. Wet weather handling is very good, almost (but not quite) up to the SZ50EP, better than the Ziex 512, but it was more expensive than either (but, money was no object, right? ). Road noise is not too bad, and stickiness is good. However, they do seem to go out of balance more quickly than I would like. On my Firestones and Falkens, I could go about 5k miles between re-balances - the Goodyears want it done closer to 3k.

My next tire for the M45 will probably be the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. Although not as good as the Pilot Sport, the wear index is quite a bit higher (and can be compared since it is the same manufacturer), and with tires these expensive, I am willing to settle for the slightly reduced performance (both wet and dry, the A/S rating not withstanding) to get a more cost-effective outcome.

BTW, for a list of available tires and specs for the Q45 and M45 (with all kinds of rims and sizes) that have the correct load index, etc., please do a search for my posts that contains an Excel spreadsheet. If anyone wants a copy, let me know via e-mail.

Z