Tire Recommendations

If you don't want to spend a lot of money, the Goodyear Eagle GTs are a less expensive alternative that I think are also quite good. Something like $125/corner from Tire Rack. They are more of an all season tire with a little more open space in the tread design. They ride great and have good stickiness in both wet and dry with reasonable wear rates.

 

I've never had worse luck with tires than Continental. I'd never buy set. They were OEM on a few MBs we had. I've never experienced side wall bubbles with any other brand of tires than Continentals, and they have happened to me on cars with less than 1,000 miles and the tires/wheels had never touched any curbs. Even the dealer looked and was astonished saying they had never seen it with such low mileage, and although not covered by warranty they would replace it for us free of cost. None of the Contis I had were particularly great in rain, dry or anything else. Whichever tire rack person told you they were the highest rated tires for 328s may have had an off day. For years the F1 GS-D3s were the highest rated, there were a few Michelins that were pretty good and the Bridgestone RE-01s and its replacement the RE-11s are pretty much considered tops in their class. I'd rather have a good set of Bridgestones, Goodyears, Michelins, Yokohamas or maybe Dunlops. I'm probably just jaded from numerous bad Conti experiences and hopefully you will have much better luck than I ever did.

 

Absolutely DITTO re Continentals and the same experience with them on my wife's MB.

 

Hmmm, I get $476 plus shipping for a set of 4 in the stock 16" sizes for a 1985QV. The Bridgestones are $611.

 

I'd say you should look at your driving environment.

I went with the RE-11s, because they're an Auto-X tire, and don't need a lot of warming up, so they work reasonably well in city traffic.
(The S03s they replaced, by contrast, used to go a bit off sitting at DC area red lights.)

But, as Auto-X tires, it seems the RE-11s were designed around ricers and low profiles. In the stock sizes (205/55-16,225/50-16), they give up just a smidge of steering response "crispness", compared to the S03s.

I'm thinking they're a likely candidate for the EVO (running 45 series). But I don't know if I'd pick RE-11s again for the 328, if I wasn't stuck in the city.

I couldn't really recommend RE-11s in a (relatively) tall profile, if most of your driving is on the highway.

(Disclaimer: the RE-11s sold in the US are, according to reports, a different compound than the original RE-11s sold in Japan.)

I did look at the A-048s/A-050s, but there's no chance I could keep those at operating temps in the city.

 

I bought a set of Bridgestone RE760's for my other car this year and have to say I love them. Fantastic grip and very quiet. Also have been great in the rain.

 

I was very skeptical because of the low price so before I ordered the tires I read the reviews on their web site and most, if not all comments were positive. I'll keep an eye on the side walls and keep my fingers crossed.

 

That'll do it. What wheels are you running? Pics?

 

Those Compomotives look sweet. I want some!! I don't have the size you're using but my T1Rs were only $650.... mounted and balanced.

I got mine from a local tire shop in MD but I wouldn't recommend them to mount and balance. PM me if you want their contact info.

I'm sure you've checked around but this place seemed to have a decent price.
These are only about 20 bucks more than what I spent on mine. You're right about the RA1 though they are about 1K for all 4. Why I went with T1Rs.

http://www.discountedwheelwarehouse.com/Store_Detail.cfm?ID=209726&InfoID=4278&ShowLarge=True

 

Nice, looks great! Did you have the stock wheels on before? Just curious what you think of the upsize. On my 928 I went from the stock 16" wheels to a set of 17" Fikses and noticed the ride being slightly harsher, but steering response was sharper. On the 308 I think I'll stick with the stock wheels though.

 

For the first 100 miles or so, you'll be scrubbing the mold release compound off the tread, so you won't have full grip "out of the box".

 

Geno, You've had them a month....how are they?

 

WARNING!! ZOMBIE THREAD!!

Any updates to this thread? I'm shopping for a set of tires for my 308 GTS euro and I expect tires have changed some since 2010. Discount Tire lists 59 tires for the Goodyear Eagle model. A lot of them are run flat. I've had mixed results with run flat as opposed to straight performance tires. We had run flat Michelins on wifes X5 seven years ago and they were stiff and ill handling. On the 2017 X5, we have runflat Michelins and they are great!

So what's the current thinking for a 205/55X16 tire? Mostly running on dry, higher altitude mountain roads. Probably very little snow and just the occasional rain storm.

 

Whether or not you will have any snow driving will be a big determining factor... The performance loss between all seasons and dedicated summer tires is huge.

 

There's a lot of choices in the 205/55-16 and 225/50-16 combination, and Tire Rack will show them - 27 sets at the moment (and quite a few threads every year since this 2010 thread discussing ). See more comments below.

I'll disagree - there's not much difference between current ultra-high performance all-season tires like the Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4, Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 Plus, and ultra-high performance summer tires. Unless you're driving on track and pushing the limits of the car and tires, you'll have a hard time feeling a difference even in sporting driving. You can go one or two levels better with Max Performance or Extreme Performance summer tires, but honestly - the two ultra-high performance all-season tires I mentioned have better grip, handling, steering feel, than ANY tire on the market in the early 1980s. An advantage of the all-seasons will be if you encounter cold temperatures at those higher altitude mountain roads, anything below 40F and the all-season will grip better and be safer than ultra-high performance summer tires.

Avoid run-flats at all costs - they ALWAYS have a harsher, rougher ride than a non-run-flat tire.

I have two sets of wheels for my 308 QV - on the factory 16" wheels, I ran the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3 from 2013 until this spring, and really appreciated the added temperature range capability for our cool spring and fall mornings. The handling and steering feel were great. I just replaced them last month with the newer version Pilot Sport All Season 4. The second set of wheels are BBS E50 3 piece mesh, in the same 16" sizes as the factory wheels. I have Continental ExtremeContact Sport max performance summer tires on those wheels, and also really enjoy the feel of those. I change them out more for changing the car's appearance with the different wheels than for performance, although if I were ever going to run a track day I'd be sure to have the BBS/Continental set on the car.

 

The above is incorrect If you were talking about the best summer tires one can get (which I thought was the point of the thread). Something like a Yokohama A052 will outperform nearly all summer tires and be head over heels better than any all season tire. Combined with his natural soft compound and lightweight construction, You will still have much of the same on center feel of vintage tires too in contrast to other tires of that same class.

Yes, They will not last much beyond a few thousand miles but at least in my case most of my Italian cars have issues with their tires getting old not accumulating mileage. That combined with the fact that your tires are your only protection against a lot of the craziness on the road today... I always favor getting the best possible tires for your needs.

If you do have to occasionally drive in snow however, I agree getting a proper all season tire would be your best bet

 

Or maybe these...

205-55yr16-pirelli-cinturato-p7-n4.html

 

That's what I did, period correct. I ordered from TireRack (no affiliation) great prices and support...
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