Firebrian

I'm looking to swap out the original 15K mile tires on my '99 SS (Goodyear Eagle F1 GS 93W - date code *378*). I've read all the horror stories and sermons on how tires don't last more than 6-10 years. So while the tires look perfect, have no cracks, evenly worn, handle fine, and have > 50% of the tread left, it's time to get new tires so I can take the car on the highway. I just don't track or race the car hard where performance cornering and grip are of huge concern. A decent amount of driving is done in March-April and Oct-early December when the temps are in the high 20's to low 40's quite often. So figure 60% summer temps and 40% colder temps. 1500 miles per year. I'm not sure I'd be able to tell the difference from a summer ultra performance tire vs. a compromise all-season high performance tire. I suspect the original Goodyear F1 GS tires were "all season," right? Though even the GS-D3 are marketed by Goodyear as an "all season" max performance tire that's not how Tire Rack lists them.

Had the car for 2 years and pretty much only used it around town while under 60 mph. Since the car never sees snow or rain I was figuring a summer ultra performance tire. But, since there's always the chance the car could be sold in the next couple of years, I want to put something on that won't be a problem for most any potential purchaser. They might even want to take the car out in the rain. My preference would be to put identical OEM tires back on the car but they don't make anything quite like that today in the Goodyear. The current Eagle F1 G3-D3 have a far different tread pattern and higher Y speed rating (186 mph) that would surely go to waste with my driving. And like the Michelin Pilot PS2, they would be over $1,000 for a set....far too much money imo for someone who would never exploit that higher performance (ie 8-10% of the car's value). The BFG KDW2 have a tread pattern too wild for my taste and cost $250 more than the Comp 2. They've also been called noisier by some. In checking BFGoodrich's website they still list the KDW which may still be available, though several years old if located. Not going there.

The tires will likely expire by age LONG before they wear out so a 200 vs 300/400 tread wear is probably irrelevant. Here are the ones I think are a good blend of performance and price using Tire Rack/DTD pricing. I don't feel as comfortable with Sumitomo, Falken, and Khumo after reading reviews. Don't know anything about Nitto's other than they are a subsidiary of Toyo, show up on high performance luxury cars, and are a popular choice on these forums. In choosing Michelins for my daily driver last year I read stories about numerous blowouts on the Falkens. Too bad the Michelin Pilot PS2 are so expensive (220 AA A 98Y - $1138 w/rebate). Michelin has no other offering in OEM sizing other than the PS2.

BFG G Force Comp 2 - 340 AA A 98W - $540
BFG G Force Sport - 340 AA A 98W - $660
Continental extreme contact DW - 340 AA A 98W - $608
Nitto 555 - 300 AA 98W - $528
Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval Indy 500 - 320 AA 98W - $406
Bridgestone Potenza RE 760 - 340 AA - $580

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BFG G Force Super Sport All Season - 400 AA A 98W $532
Goodyear Eagle F1 asymmetric All Season - 500 AA A 98W - $656 ($576 w/coupon).


I'm leaning towards the BFG Comp 2's because their pricing is attractive with a $70 June mfg discount currently in effect. Some have called this tire noisy too. The Comp 2's and Nitto 555 summer tires have tread patterns fairly similar to my OEM tire....though the all season ones above are probably closer. One store had me at $610 out the door on the Comp 2's including mtg/balance/sales tax. That's a price I can certainly live with. From the reviews I've read BFG and Nitto come up pretty good the most often. But, all those tires above had typically decent reviews. For the driving I do, there doesn't seem to be a need for an all-season tire. On Tire Racks customer reviews the BFG comp 2's, Continental DW, and Bridgestone Pole Position S-04 come out pretty highly rated vs. price. The Comp 2's appear harsher in ride and noise quality vs. those two. The DW's are top notch in wet conditions. The highly rated Bridgestone Pole Position S-04 doesn't come in my OEM sizing either.


Probably any of these tires will do. Looking for comments on these brands or other ones I may have neglected. It's not rocket science but there are a lot of choices. And in reading reviews, you can find some people that just hated or loved any one of the dozens of tires available out there.

leadfoot4

iTrader: (1)

FWIW, I put a set of the Bridgestone RE760s on my wife's Jag for summer use, even though it's an "all season" tire, two years ago. They grip well in the dry, are excellent in the rain, and are fairly quiet.

Drj8787

I'm running MT street comps. They are a 300 tread wear AA traction A temp 98w speed rating. I love them tons of grip wet or dry, do a google search on them check out the reviews. And only 170 each not bad on the wallet.

nascardude56

iTrader: (6)

If you are not worried about treadlife, then the nitto nt05 is the best performance per dollar in my opinion

Firebrian

If the Nitto nt05 might only get 10,000 miles that could be a concern, esp. if the next set of tires need to go 10 yrs/15,000 miles. Wear might be irrelevant if I can get near 15K on a tire. If I did go Nitto it would probably be the 555 which from what I've read is more of a street tire and better if you get caught in rain. The MT's and Bridgestone Potenza are worth looking at. Appreciate the inputs.

Flaring Afro

Not sure if you saw my post in a fairly recent thread but this is my experience. This is my only car so I use it in conditions you don't, but it's always possible that you'd get caught in the rain if going on highway trips.

Firebrian

In reviewing hundreds of customer reviews on Tire Rack on Vette's, Camaro's, Firebirds, Mustangs, and GTO's for several of the models I had listed, the results were about the same. Glowing reports for the most part for BFG's G Force Comp 2, Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval, Bridgestone Potenza RE760 and Pole Position S-04, and Continental extreme contact DW. Even among 90% glowing reports, the bottom 4-10% always said the tires stunk and they'd never buy them again. I have to figure that either someone's car is messed up or they got some of the tires in the "bad" batch of the bottom 10%. Surprisingly, the Firestone FH WO were the widely reported as the best bang for the buck for a summer ultra performance tire ($406/set). Many of these found themselves on C4 through C6 Vettes where the owners mostly claimed they were an improvement on the 2X as expensive OEM run flats. It also wouldn't be a surprise that after you toss out old used up tires that the new ones, regardless of brand or quality, feel far superior.

Most of these selections will apparently work for the large majority of set ups. But there will always be that bottom 10% that doesn't work for a particular person and their vehicle. Fwiw, the Bridgestone and Tire Rack web sites don't list a Bridgestone Pole Position S-04 for a 275-40-ZR17 stock SS/WS6 tire. I'm not looking to deviate from OEM sizing.

LT4vert

iTrader: (3)

I had Continental extreme contact DW on my last SS in the stock 275 size, and I have the extreme contact dws on my Grand AM GT daily driver. Nothing to complain about at all. I think it is a killer tire. They stick and handle well in the wet or dry, with great tread wear.

My current SS I bought with fairly new BFG g force comp 2's. Tons of tread left but I seriously despise this tire and will be replacing next month. They are so loud it drowns out the radio, they are hard as a rock, all the tread blocks have feathered and there are 2 small bulges on the sidewalls of 2 of the tires. My car has no suspension issues so cant blame it on that.

great421

iTrader: (1)

OP -

FWIW - Here's my $0.02

I've owned the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 (These are my personal favorite if cost-is-no-object, as I use the 285's on the rear and I LUV these tires at temps in excess of 45 degrees F, as the temps fall below 45, they become completely worthless - but I do have a second wheels and snow tires...)

I like the BFG G Force Comp 2 - These are on my car currently (They are almost as good as the Eagles, dry and wet, but at a much better price.)

I've had the Continental extreme contact DW - IMO - Not as good as the BFG's, but (strangely) more expensive.

And finally, I was talked into the Firestone Firehawk Wide Oval Indy 500 - They are the worst (and cheapest) of the four. I do not consider these to be in the same league as the other tires I've owned.

Keep in mind, ALL of these tires are poor in cold weather (the Eagles are the worst).

IMHO, the BFG G Force Comp 2's offer the best value for the dollar.

They are 95% as good as the Eagles (and again, IMO, 5% better than the Conni's), but at today's tirerack dot com prices, the Comp 2's are only 47.5% the cost of the Eagles.

I hope that helps.

: )

Flaring Afro

I thought they still made them for the w6s in the newer pole position model since the wheel was larger (not many people have fairly wide 16s these days) . The bad reviews could be due to them just having too thin wheels and/or bad shocks etc. I've found that all street tires have that many bad reviews for them.

Furious1

iTrader: (1)

I have the Continental Extreme Contact DW's...great tire.

Firebrian

Very helpful Great421. Thanks. Interesting that you and LT4vert have totally different experiences in using the Continental DW vs. BFG comp 2's.
Both seem like good tires for the money. The BFG's are currently about $100/15% cheaper/set.

In looking at the Tire Rack surveys the Continental DW rates overall 8.56 to the BFG C2 8.37. The survey shows 1 MILL miles on the BFG vs. 5.7 MILL miles of data on the DW's (less likely to have skewed the DW results). The survey suggests that the DW's are better in the wet but not quite as good as the BFG's on dry handling/cornering. The DW's rate significantly better on noise and ride quality. The survey puts the DW's in the #4 slot of the higher rated "max performance" summer category where it competes with the Michelin Pilots vs. the "ultra performance" category where the BFG comp 2's are at the top. Interesting that in both cases the number of reviewers awarding 2-3 stars (out of 5) was 4% (ie 96% liked them). In the 5 star category the DW's got them 76% of the time vs. 65% for the BFG's. In both the survey and reviews the DW's get the edge over the BFG's. That 76% 5 star rating on the DW's is much higher than any intermediate tire surveyed and close to the 79-80% seen by the Bridgestone Potenza PP S-04's and Michelin PS2.

The Michelin Pilot Super Sports are ranked the highest by far of any tire at 90% 5 stars and a miniscule 0.7% at 2-3 stars. The Bridgestone S-04's would seem to be a bargain among these Michelins but they are only offered up to 255/40ZR17 with a much lower 91 load rating (200 lbs/tire lower than the OEM 98). The DW's are right up there though. They appear to sacrifice a bit in dry cornering & steering (softer side walls) at the expense of a smoother ride vs. the BFG's. That's a tough one for me since I do value a smoother ride/less road noise. In wet autocross the DW's outperformed the Michelin super sports. The few negative comments on both the C2's and DW's included noise and shorter tread life. The lack of steering response in turns with the DW's was countered by the "too stiff" comments on the C2's. These customer surveys are far from perfect since a lot of reviews are reported before the tires are even broken in, never mind putting 5,000-10,000 miles on them. I also didn't know prior to this week that Michelin, Goodyear, and Toyo are the parent companies of—BFGoodrich, Dunlop, and Nitto, respectively.

At the moment it looks like it's down to the Comp 2's and the DW's. Either one has to be an improvement over 14 yr old Goodyear F1 GS's. In checking tire weights the BFG's are the heaviest of the bunch at 29 lbs each while the Conti DW's are the lightest at 25 lbs. The others are in between.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...y.jsp?type=UHP

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...ay.jsp?type=MP

http://www.caranddriver.com/comparis...-sport-page-10

http://www.caranddriver.com/comparis...r-spec-page-11

ragtopz28

iTrader: (57)

If price is not an issue...the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 is the baddest UHP tire I have ever owned. Dry and wet traction is unbelievable...I even cut a 1.84 60' on this tire!
For the price the Firestone Wide Oval Indy 500 is hard to beat.

Wheelman916

I have the g-Force Sport COMP-2 on my car now. Decent tire.

Check out the Nitto Invo. Loved those last time I had them.

Firebrian

The Nitto Invo is not offered in the OEM size. Options are limited to the NT05, Motivo, and 555's. Hankook doesn't offer any tires in the OEM size. The invo was tested by Car & Driver (link page 11 above).

Still would like to know if the original Goodyear F1 GS tires were a summer performance tire or had some all season/low temperature capabilities?

NC01TA

Agree 100%. It is the best tire I ever owned, very close to the Michelin PS in every regard. I got nearly 25,000 miles with the Goodyear GS-D3 on my T/A before they got too old. They no longer were available in the 16" size so had to go with the BFG G-Force. While the BFG is OK it isn't the GS-D3.
I'll also agree about the Firestone Indy 500. I have them on my Aerocoupe and they are a fine tire. Again, not GS-D3 caliber, but certainly good. You get what you pay for when it comes to tires. There are no shortcuts. All new tires feel great but once the tread wear starts diminishing, so does the quality. Tramlining, road noise, you name it.
** I will note that the GS-D3 is horrible in snow. It wasn't designed for that. Got caught out once and the rubber was as hard as a hockey puck.

SSTODD

DW's here, no complaints so far.

rudytirerack

Conti DW, Bridgesone S04 and BFG Gforce Sport comp 2 are all 3 highly rated and priced decent for the performance they provide. Good values!

hrcslam

I'm running the Conti DWS and love them. Great all season tire with plenty of bite in all directions. Easily out performed the GY Eagle F1 SC crap.

Flaring Afro

The goodyear is a summer tire so it's not very comparable to Michelin Pilot Sports. Going with a summer tire isn't a good idea in this case. They just don't do well in the cold, or else they'd be all seasons.