Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Because when i needed them there were no Falcons left in the country. The ZZ3 were a new compound & recomended by my tyre fitter. (Who drives a Nissan 200sx.) I would always fit Yokohama/Michelin from experience but there just silly money in these sizes. (245/45X17 rears. )The Avons were £350 fitted the full set including on car balance & new valves. The best I could get at the time.
My Contis were nowhere near the wear limit when they became dangerous. I suppose it depends how hard yoiu drive The ZZ3 is a good tyre for the price & better than the Conti' my a mile. Falcons are rated as the budget choice by most.
(If you want to add a smiley just click on one in the panel on the left!)

John, I hear the comment about "I drive nowhere near the limit frequently" Sometimes the limit comes closer in the wet without your help. Like the child who runs out or WVM that pulls out in front of you. The Conti is effectively an old style tyre design and it shows.
As for N Rated it didn't start until 1990 & NO NEW TYRES will have been N Rated for a 944 recently so is completely irrelavent.

Yes, clear as mud Sean! It seems that everybody just buys what they think is the best, or fits their budget, or is available at the time. Some think ABCs are good in the dry but poor in the wet, yet others think the same of XYZs and wouldn't have anything else other than ABCs. There are understandable discrepancies, caused by different driving styles, as to how long they may last. We can't agree on the 'N' mark. In fact the only thing we can all agree on is that they should be black, round, and rubber - now some girl will spoil it all by popping up wanting ones to match her handbag!

I'm supposed to be getting these tyres tomorrow, but now I won't be. The Conti's are £380 (I could get them for £360 but it's ninety minutes total travel time and the fuel means I save net £13 - the £380 one is three miles away) and they're available. The Michelins are £440 - if they can get the front ones. It's not the money, it's driving round with the Conti's on crapping myself in case it rains - and dreading reading the 'I told you so' messages on here.

I'm an IFA, people ask me for advice, and I give it (for free by the way) and expect them to take it - which they always do. I have come on today and asked you all for advice, you have offered it, so I will take it. Although individuals recommend their own particular brand, nobody backs them up and says 'me too', however you all recommend that I don't get Conti's - so I won't.

I'll go along tomorrow because the guys have been very helpful, have knocked a load off their retail price for me, know what I want (discounts), and will see what else is on offer. I will keep to premium brands - and forget about the 'N' mark Jim. If I'm not happy I won't buy.

I will of course inform you of my decision. Just a point, my other neighbour has Conti's on her Vauxhall Meriva thing, so they must be good although they didn't provide the grip to stop her reversing into her husbands car - in the dry too! (thanks JJ)

Hi John,

Might be worth asking if they do the Toyo Proxes T1-R in your size! I have run these for the past 3years on different cars from a 400bhp WRX to BMW M3's (appreciating the 944 is a different car). I found them to last to at least 25k (That's not driving like my Gran either!) and for all conditions they were amazing....ESPECIALLY the WET!!! (Of which we seem to get a lot of in this country!)

Not sure the prices at the moment as I beleive they may have gone up due to mass publicity but worth a punt. Word of advice though, never mix these tyres with other brands!!

Regards

Rich

The thing about 'N' rated for Porsche is it has been tested by Porsche on their current range and found to be acceptable on that car. The first time a specific brand is tested they call it N0 then when the tyre manufacturer makes a change they reclassify it as N1, N2 and so on. As far as I know the only tyre ever given an N rating for 944's was a Yokohama back in 91. That tyre will definately no longer be in production and the current crop of unrated Toyo, Falken, Dunlop etc will be far superior than that 17 year old technology. Any current tyre with an N rating will have been tested on Boxster,911 and Cayman with far, far different weight distribution to our cars so it is simply not relavent.

I have Conti's on my slightly tweaked 944 Turbo and I am more than happy with them but I am probably just like 'Driving Miss Daisy' on the road ( though I did lose traction at the rear in yesterdays heavy rain )

I have never heard a bad word about Toyo T1R's on a 944, good in the wet and dry and don't cost an arm and a leg. It is what I shall be trying when these Conti's wear out

tyres are a bit of a personal choice, dependant on you driving style, suspension set up, wear expectations etc. different people have different experiences of tyres, but in the 16 plus years since the end of 944 production tyre technology has evolved somewhat, so most of the mid range tyres should perform pretty similarly, ok there will be some differences in overall tyre performance but it shouldn't be that great, my 944S had nankangs (AKA ditchfinders) on it when i got it, okish in the dry but in the wet i could spin the wheels in 2nd in a straight line, and exitting roundabouts could be very entertaining. by the way have you checked http://www.blackcircles.com for tyre prices ?

No experience of Continentals so cant help there,my fronts are Goodyear Eagles and although they are down to the wear indicators now they are still excellent wet or dry,never lost the front despite trying! My rears are BF Goodrich and I wish I could say the same about them but they are o.k.in the dry but not in the wet Ivehad the back end step out a few times when I wasnt really expecting it to. Those Avons sound good J.J. I might try some of those on the front of mine soon. I didnt know how to do the smilies either so thanks for that

Just to balance the reviews, I have Continentals on my 928 and have not experienced any special problems in the wet but then
a) I rarely take the car out in the rain and
b) if it is raining I tend to drive more cautiously, since with ~300hp and no "traction control" it's possible with a heavy right foot to spin the rears in the dry, so if it's wet and potentially greasy too....

Wear-wise the first set of rear tyres only lasted about 7,000 miles, the replacements (also Continentals) have lasted 10,000 since now I've had the car a bit longer I'm less inclined to stamp on the accelerator whenever the opportunity arises

Remember I only fitted them as Falcons were out of stock! I'm happy with them so far but the Falcons did as well in the tests & are cheaper. Depends how long they last & I've done less than 3K on them so far.

John Ward
"I will of course inform you of my decision. Just a point, my other neighbour has Conti's on her Vauxhall Meriva thing, so they must be good although they didn't provide the grip to stop her reversing into her husbands car - in the dry too! (thanks JJ)"

Given you even polish the tyre treads on the speedster, surely despite dry driving you should get an idea of what its like in the wet?

i swear by saving money or blowing it on the next most useless thing but i have found a good cheap tyre thats great in all weathers.. the gto runs 245/45/17's stock and these are not the most inexpensive tyre to buy but!....

i found that NEXEN make a very good tyre for less than 80 quid.

best place to price tyres is black circles. http://www.blackcircles.com/ input your tyre size and see what they come up with. but i highly recommend nexen but then my car is AWD saying that, it does stop quite well in the wet too.

So after all the feedback and advice on this thread I went to the garage where the Conti's were stacked up waiting to be fitted. I was armed with my 17 page print out from this thread, with a few relevant comments highlighted. I told Bob and Andy that after such a response from club members I would be stupid to go against the advice and take the tyres, especially as it would be constantly bugging me. They didn't have a problem with that at all - even though they had ordered the tyres in.

Before I went to see them I had done even more research, and eventually settled on Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3s or Dunlop SP9000s or Dunlop Sport Maxx. Goodyear and Dunlop are actually the same company. I did all my telephoning, and the lowest price I got was £350 fitted for the four Goodyears. Not revealing this information, I asked Bob and Andy about the different tyres, and while Andy showed them to me and explained a few things, Bob went off to work out the price (he owns the place). He came back with a handwritten piece of paper that said 'Goodyears £350 fitted' on it. This was cheaper than the price on their website (which I'd also checked). So today I went back and had the Goodyears fitted and the tracking done.

While I was there I looked at the Conti's just to see what this 'N' mark was about, and compared the tyre walls. The Conti's are 'N' marked and the walls are really hard and stiff, whereas the Goodyears are not 'N' marked, and the sidewalls are quite flexible. That's what you pay the extra for on a 'N' tyre - a hard stiff tyre wall. The softer tyre wall should give a more comfortable ride and allow me to run the tyres at the 'book' 36 psi rather than the 34 psi the OPC Porsche tyre man at Chester told me to run the Michelins at. He said that 36 psi is OK for German roads as they are billiard table smooth, but for British roads the lower psi would give a better ride and get more life out of the tyres. I assume the lower pressure compensates for the stiff walls.

The tyre place was Hi-Q, who have recently sold out and are now franchised. Bob has three franchises in Northwich, Chester and Queensferry. He is a really nice guy, and I can confidently recommend his services to everyone. The telephone number for the Northwich branch is 01606 48888.

So the system works. I wanted good tyres, premium brand not cheap ones, so I put my request for info on the forum and received plenty of help. So thank you to all who contributed.

My next question is.....

Not quite true John, some non-N Rated tyres can have very stiff sidewalls, Bridgestone are a case in point, they were an even worse ride than the Conti's e.g. if you ran over a matchstick you could tell it was Swan Vesta or Bryant May

I run 16" D90's with GSD3 all round & run 32PSI F & R which seems good.