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Old May 8, 2010 | 09:47 AM
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Question Tires for a daily driver

I'm going to need new tires soon and I was wondering what you guys are running or have run and how you like them? Any tires you recommend or recommend staying away from?

I'm looking for a summer only tire, car is a daily driver, manual, with stock 10bolt and stock gears. Running stock 16" rims. Mods for now are just a lid and a catback and I plan on adding headers soon. I've peaked around tirerack's website a little bit, but was wondering what the opinions are of more Fbody owners.
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Old May 8, 2010 | 10:23 AM
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Have had nothing but good experiences with my Nitto 555Rs. Good grip and seem to last a decent amount of time. Had Yokohama AVS ES100s before and they also did well. Lot of compliments on the tread design for whatever that's worth. Yok's lasted me around 20k with no rotation and daily abuse.
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Old May 8, 2010 | 10:41 AM
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you might want to look into some bridgestone potenza re960as pole positions. a lot for a name i know but one of the best all around tires you can get. i had a set i was gonna put on my car but decided on drag radials instead. check out tirerack for em
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Old May 8, 2010 | 03:43 PM
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Originally Posted by blackrat
Have had nothing but good experiences with my Nitto 555Rs. Good grip and seem to last a decent amount of time. Had Yokohama AVS ES100s before and they also did well. Lot of compliments on the tread design for whatever that's worth. Yok's lasted me around 20k with no rotation and daily abuse.
I have an M6 and stock 10 bolt still. Would they be too hard on the stock rear? Also looking for a tire that gets descent mileage and has good traction on wet roads too.

Originally Posted by doublea87
you might want to look into some bridgestone potenza re960as pole positions. a lot for a name i know but one of the best all around tires you can get. i had a set i was gonna put on my car but decided on drag radials instead. check out tirerack for em
Alright I'll take a look. Thank you.


I guess I should also note that I'm looking for a 245/50-16 tire since I have stock rims. Anyone have any experience with the Firestone wide ovals? Seen here: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....8&autoModClar=
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Old May 8, 2010 | 04:06 PM
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There is a huge difference between the Nitto 555R and Potenza RE960. One is a drag radial, and the other is a high performance all season tire. They are different tires designed for different uses. You need to decide what you want out of your tires before you can decide what the best option is. You say "daily driver." Do you also drag race the car? At a track? How important is tread life? Wet weather traction?

I would not even consider a drag radial for a "daily driver." Some people do it, but to me it's too much of a compromise for extra straight line traction when you'll hardly get any drag usage out of the tire since most of the time you'll be doing daily driving duties.

I've had Potenza RE950 tires. The RE960 is the replacement. The ones I had were exceptional everyday tires. Good traction, good handling, and outstanding wet wether performance. The RE960 also has a treadwear rating of 400 and a 40,000 mile tread warranty, compared to "N/A" for 555R.

The 555R will have substantially more straight line traction and give better launches.
The RE960 will be better at virtually everything else.

You can't go wrong with either tire, as long as you're buying the correct tire for your needs. They really don't compare since they aren't intended for the same type of usage. They are both excellent at their intended purpose.
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Old May 8, 2010 | 10:13 PM
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Riken Raptors are an inexpensive summer tire that a lot of people like. I have them on one of my cars and they are good DD tires for warm weather.

Firestone Firehawk Wide Ovals have an excellent reputation but higher up in the price range. Goodyear GS-D3's even more so, with best rep for wet conditions.
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Old May 8, 2010 | 10:25 PM
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Originally Posted by Saturn5
There is a huge difference between the Nitto 555R and Potenza RE960. One is a drag radial, and the other is a high performance all season tire. They are different tires designed for different uses. You need to decide what you want out of your tires before you can decide what the best option is. You say "daily driver." Do you also drag race the car? At a track? How important is tread life? Wet weather traction?

I would not even consider a drag radial for a "daily driver." Some people do it, but to me it's too much of a compromise for extra straight line traction when you'll hardly get any drag usage out of the tire since most of the time you'll be doing daily driving duties.

I've had Potenza RE950 tires. The RE960 is the replacement. The ones I had were exceptional everyday tires. Good traction, good handling, and outstanding wet wether performance. The RE960 also has a treadwear rating of 400 and a 40,000 mile tread warranty, compared to "N/A" for 555R.

The 555R will have substantially more straight line traction and give better launches.
The RE960 will be better at virtually everything else.

You can't go wrong with either tire, as long as you're buying the correct tire for your needs. They really don't compare since they aren't intended for the same type of usage. They are both excellent at their intended purpose.
oops, yeah you're right. I meant the 555 (no R). That's the regular street version that I'm using now. I used the R's (the drag radial and the R2 version) while I was still DD'ing my car and while they are a lot of fun, they'll be bald in less than 8k and pick up every single piece of debris from the road. The regular non R tires are still very grippy compared to the other tires I've used and are pretty composed in the rain. Whether or not they'll break your 10 bolt is a moot point, it all depends on you. Mine broke with crappy all season Khumo ASXs out back, although it was due to the lsd bolt backing out, not ring failure.
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Old May 9, 2010 | 11:10 AM
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Originally Posted by Saturn5
There is a huge difference between the Nitto 555R and Potenza RE960. One is a drag radial, and the other is a high performance all season tire. They are different tires designed for different uses. You need to decide what you want out of your tires before you can decide what the best option is. You say "daily driver." Do you also drag race the car? At a track? How important is tread life? Wet weather traction?
I'm not looking for a drag radial right now. I have an extra set of rims laying around for those should I choose to buy them and use them at the track. I'd like a high performance summer tire since the car is only driven for 6 months (April-September). Wet weather traction is important because this is the only car I drive during the summer. I don't want it getting loose on me going down the highway in a rain storm. Tread life is semi important. I mean I'm not expecting 70k miles out of them but I don't want the tires to be bald after 20k miles either.

I would not even consider a drag radial for a "daily driver." Some people do it, but to me it's too much of a compromise for extra straight line traction when you'll hardly get any drag usage out of the tire since most of the time you'll be doing daily driving duties.

I've had Potenza RE950 tires. The RE960 is the replacement. The ones I had were exceptional everyday tires. Good traction, good handling, and outstanding wet wether performance. The RE960 also has a treadwear rating of 400 and a 40,000 mile tread warranty, compared to "N/A" for 555R.
That sounds good. That's what I'm looking for in a tire.

The 555R will have substantially more straight line traction and give better launches.
The RE960 will be better at virtually everything else.

You can't go wrong with either tire, as long as you're buying the correct tire for your needs. They really don't compare since they aren't intended for the same type of usage. They are both excellent at their intended purpose.
Answers in red.

Originally Posted by RevGTO
Firestone Firehawk Wide Ovals have an excellent reputation but higher up in the price range. Goodyear GS-D3's even more so, with best rep for wet conditions.
I saw the wide ovals on tirerack for $105 a tire. Didn't seem too bad compared to some other performance tires that were offered. I'll check on the GS-D3's too, thank you.

Originally Posted by blackrat
Whether or not they'll break your 10 bolt is a moot point, it all depends on you. Mine broke with crappy all season Khumo ASXs out back, although it was due to the lsd bolt backing out, not ring failure.
I'm just trying not to help it along in it's quest for destruction. LOL
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Old May 9, 2010 | 11:52 AM
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I used to use the bfgs g-force kdws int hat size on my old 89 formula, were a great handling all weather tire and lasted forever for a daily driver
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Old May 9, 2010 | 06:37 PM
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I love my Nitto 555's. I just got them last month, I did alot of research on them and read alot of good things. From what I've read they have good tread life, and I've found them to be good in the rain, and great on the track. I can finally hook up, these things just stick!

I also noticed that they seem to run quieter and smoother than the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S I was running before.

They're also pretty cheap, I got mine for just over 600 out the door. (275/40/17)

I'm extremely happy with them, I usually research the heck out of something before I buy, then have 2nd thoughts anyway. Not in this case, I'm 100% satisfied with them.
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