Question on tires

[SoCal Rebell]

Buy a set of Firestones (hehehe), sorry Mike couldn't resist.

Motorless Ron (SoCal Rebell)

 

[Venom Lover]

Motorless Ron,

I guess you'll try to beat me any way you can, right???

 

[Venom Lover]

As I understand it, there's only one choice for street tires for the Viper right now, and that's the Michelin Pilot Sport. In looking at the specs on the tire, I see that the wear rating is 220, vs. 140 for the MXX3's that I have on the car right now. My question is, how is it possible that the Pilot Sports are anywhere near as sticky as the MXX3's with such a huge difference in wear rating? All I can think is that the void ratio is smaller on the Pilot Sports (and it looks like it is), but the difference doesn't look substantial enough to make up for huge difference in wear rating.

So, what is everyone's honest opinion about the Pilot Sports vs. MXX3's? I live in Southern California, so I don't care about wet traction/handling. My primary concern is dry straight-line traction, and my secondary concern is dry handling. Also, is there any other choice of street tire available for the Viper (I don't care who the manufacturer is)? Any possibility of 345s? (I know that last one is a silly question.) Finally, is there any issue of mixing MXX3's with Pilot Sports (e.g., change the rears to Pilot Sports and leave the fronts)? If so, how big is the issue?

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[Kid97GTS]

Venom,
I've heard numerous times on the old board how mixing and matching tire models will exacerbate the tracking issues that the Viper displays sometimes on grooved roads like freeways, etc. I'm not sure why, but this is the anectdotal evidence. As to alternatives to Michelin, the Pirelli P-Zeros used to be available in the 17 inch sizes for the Viper, but as I recall, they are overpriced and I've heard they wear quicker and once out of control, are harder to get back. Looks like unless you can scrounge up a set of MXX3's, the Sports are the way you have to go.........unless you decide to leave your ET's on for daily driving!

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[Venom Lover]

Kid,
Yeah, leaving the ETs on for daily driving could be fun. I wonder if people behind me would mind if I do a burnout at every stoplight...

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Only real problem with that idea is that I would have to leave the skinnies on the front, and that's too much. I do want to be able to corner from time to time!

What about putting on a set of Michelin XGT's, if I can still find them? I hear that they were the best of all (at least the stickiest)? Any thoughts?

 

[Charlie]

You might check with John Purner at Complete Custom wheel. When I talked with him at VOI he had some still new MMXs.