OK, maybe the titles a bit misleading. No girlie pics here...... I need new rear tires for my 94 348. Fronts are fine. I'm planning on just replacing the rears. Of course I've read about performance issues and handling problems unless you replace all 4. But I don't drive at the limit. I have yet to go 173 mph. Any thoughts? Also, have Sumitomo tires on it now as they were on it when I bought it. Fronts 215/50 and rears 255/45. Planning on going with these so at least they'll match the fronts look wise. Descent tires??? Oh, and this will finally get my wheels "on right" and not "backwards" anymore. Thanks, Lou
I am noever in favor of using different makes of tires. Either stay with Sumitomo, using a wider tire if you can find it, or switch to four of a new brand. Or better yet, step up to 355 wheels for more tire choices.
The owner of a highperformance vehicle has exactly 2 choices when buying tires: A) replace both tires on one axel with exactly the same tires that were on that axel before. B) replace all 4 tires There (in my opinion) should be additional caveats to A:: The ideal choice is to replace the worn tires with the same tires, manufactured in the same month as the tires comming off. And then there is option 3: C) set up the ride heights, corner weights, and suspension alignments so that all 4 tires go slick at the same rate/time. This is what I did. And funny enough, the suspension setup that gets the job done is found right in the WSM.
I just put new tires on my 348 four weeks ago. I have raced SCCA for over 15 years now, open wheel cars, sedans and many track days. I can attest to this "tires are everything". First look at the tires you have for the date code. It should be molded in the sidewall some where (check both sides). Its usually read by weeks and years ie 2405 would be the the 24th week of 2005. Sorry to break it to everyone but if your tires are more than 3 years old the performance has dropped way off (even if they look OK). If you have high performance summer tires that are 4 to 5 years old and just buy two more of the same you are asking for a big "moment" when you least expect it. In the past three years I have probably bought 10 sets of tires, Hoosiers, Kumhos, Goodyears, Bridgestones and more. And had good reasons for each purchase. I choose the Firestones Indy 500 from Tire Rack (less than $500 for all four). They rated pretty good with low scores in the wet (not really an issue for me). I really like them now; good ride, not noisy, good grip, and I will probably replace them long before they wear out from mileage and I'm not going to "track" my car. Also one of my race friends pointed out another plus, I can get the the Firestones warrantied almost anywhere if I am on the road. Lots of the other brands have jerks for dealers and wont warranty a tire they didn't sell (even though they are required to). My old tires looked great but were five years old and had lost a lot of grip, so I stewed over this for almost two months before settling on the Firestones. And they were a good choice for me.
