M3 Street Tires

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Sun Jul 02, 2006 8:37 pm

Any suggestions for street tires on a car that will see 20k-30k miles a year on the street? I'll have another set of tires for autocrossing next year.

BTW, I have been running Kumho Ecsta Supra's which are great for dry weather, but suck in the rain. They were on the car when I got it, so I don't know the mileage.

Matthew Fortner · **Joined:** Sun Mar 21, 2004 12:21 am **Posts:** 384

Avon Tech M500. Toyo T1-R.

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Mon Jul 03, 2006 10:00 am

Phil,

Depends on whether you want any level of traction in snowy conditions - if so, consider some of the top rated ultra high performance all season tires, like Falken Ziex 512 or Pirelli PZero Nero M&S, they are quiet and grip well in the dry & wet, plus give you some level of traction in snowy conditions. If you want "Summer" tires (for better warm-weather preformance), I've been extremely pleased with the street tires I ran last on my M3 and am now running on my 328is - Goodyear F1 GS-D3. They are very grippy in the dry (but not quite up to par w/ the top ST autocross tires), truly outstanding in the wet, and are the quietest Summer tire I know of, by far. BTW, they are one of the few models of GoodYear tires made in Germany, apparently to higher standards than US-made GoodYears. I have no experience w/the Avons or Toyos Matthew recommends above, but both have excellent reputations also.

From personal experience, E36's w/LSDs SUCK in snowy/icy conditions. I had to drive home from RTP to Cary in my M3 in the infamous ice storm of 12/03, and mine was the only car in a very long line trying to get onto I-40 that refused to move forward each time the line moved forward (the entrance ramp was slightly cambered, my M3 just repeatedly rotated the back end down the incline before it would move in the forward direction). I was on summer tires w/good tread (I'm not 100% sure if they were the GoodYear F1's at the time, but I think they were). The very real fear of my M3 getting stuck on the side of I-40 that day was a major consideration when I bought my STi in '04. When history repeated itself (in 12/04?) with another weekday afternoon snow/ice storm, I took the same route home in the same, if not worse, conditions in my STi and had zero problems (other than traffic causing a 10 mile drive to take 3 hours) - I was on Falken Ziex 512's on the STi. I'm now running Pirelli PZero Nero M&S on the STi, which supposely offer a bit better grip in non-winter conditions than the Falkens, but I haven't had to test them in snow/ice yet.

PhilFausz · **Posted:** Mon Jul 03, 2006 11:49 am

Keith Quistorff wrote:

Phil,

Depends on whether you want any level of traction in snowy conditions - if so, consider some of the top rated ultra high performance all season tires, like Falken Ziex 512 or Pirelli PZero Nero M&S, they are quiet and grip well in the dry & wet, plus give you some level of traction in snowy conditions. If you want "Summer" tires (for better warm-weather preformance), I've been extremely pleased with the street tires I ran last on my M3 and am now running on my 328is - Goodyear F1 GS-D3. They are very grippy in the dry (but not quite up to par w/ the top ST autocross tires), truly outstanding in the wet, and are the quietest Summer tire I know of, by far. BTW, they are one of the few models of GoodYear tires made in Germany, apparently to higher standards than US-made GoodYears. I have no experience w/the Avons or Toyos Matthew recommends above, but both have excellent reputations also.

From personal experience, E36's w/LSDs SUCK in snowy/icy conditions. I had to drive home from RTP to Cary in my M3 in the infamous ice storm of 12/03, and mine was the only car in a very long line trying to get onto I-40 that refused to move forward each time the line moved forward (the entrance ramp was slightly cambered, my M3 just repeatedly rotated the back end down the incline before it would move in the forward direction). I was on summer tires w/good tread (I'm not 100% sure if they were the GoodYear F1's at the time, but I think they were). The very real fear of my M3 getting stuck on the side of I-40 that day was a major consideration when I bought my STi in '04. When history repeated itself (in 12/04?) with another weekday afternoon snow/ice storm, I took the same route home in the same, if not worse, conditions in my STi and had zero problems (other than traffic causing a 10 mile drive to take 3 hours) - I was on Falken Ziex 512's on the STi. I'm now running Pirelli PZero Nero M&S on the STi, which supposely offer a bit better grip in non-winter conditions than the Falkens, but I haven't had to test them in snow/ice yet.

Nope, the car won't see snow. I'll compare them with some others I've been considering. Any idea on how many miles you got? Thanks!

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Mon Jul 03, 2006 2:30 pm

PhilFausz wrote:

Nope, the car won't see snow. I'll compare them with some others I've been considering. Any idea on how many miles you got? Thanks!

Phil,

Sorry, I haven't put enough wear on any of these tires to report useful wear information, and it would be difficult for me to track anyway since I swap wheels & tires on each car often, depending on season and whether I'll be autocrossing or going on track anytime soon. The only ones I've had a relatively long time are the GoodYears, I'm running the same tires from my M3 on my 328is, but only for street use, which ain't a whole lot of mileage. They're 3 years old and have at least 60-70% tread remaining, but I have no idea how many miles that includes. The best info I can offer is to suggest looking at the "Treadwear" results for each tire on Tire Rack's Customer Tire Survey charts, located at http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/index.jsp. Unfortunately, Tire Rack doesn't sell Falkens, so there's no survey info for Falken tires on TR's website.

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:50 pm

Phil, a lot depends on what you want. As for myself, I went w/ some "grand touring" tires for 2 reasons. First I wanted more than 20k from a set of tires and second, with H&R sport springs, I wanted a more compliant tire. After talking w/ Mark at HH, I went w/ the continential conto pro, not the conti sport. Nice ride, no noise, decent feedback and good grip in the dry and wet so far.

just my 2 cents worth..

THSCC Forums

M3 Street Tires

Who is online