Bridgestone,Goodyear....

 

I just put a set of these on...

Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position

time will tell if they are 'the best'...

 

You will get many different opinions and of course it really depends on your needs. Dunlop are good if you are on a budget and need good wear. Kuhmos and Hankook are often very good bargains but don't wear quite as well. I've had particularly bad results with Pirelli (separated tread on five tires) and Firestone (blowouts). Michelin makes good tires but I try to avoid buying anything made by the French. Goodyear makes good tires. However ,overall I prefer BF Goodrich G-Force: never had a bad set. I currently have and even dozen, come to think of it (all three cars).

 

i just got a set of toyo proxies t1r's with my new wheels...tire sizes are 245/40zr18's up front and 285/30zr19's on the back...this will be my first time using toyo's...i've heard good things about them but i have no first hand experience...any comments on the toyo's i got?! i'd love to hear em!

 

...then check a recent edition of Car & Driver. Although they used "only" a 325 BMW as a test mule, you are very likely to experience similar results with your C5. To minimize variables such as driving techniques, track surface temps, etc, C&D enlisted the help of the Tire Rack and their test mule vehicle. Although the track used was small, it's lined with sprinklers that can soak the asphalt. "It took three days to perform all the tests. We accerated to 50 mph and then braked to a standstill. There was a benefit to that lower speed: It ensured that we were measuring the braking performance of the tires and not just brake fade."

"In addition to factoring the wet and dry scores, we gave points based on a tires's price and tread-wear grade, which is a rough estimate of how long a tire will have usable tread." "Our test focused on measuring performance, so we decided that results in the dry-lateral grip, for example - would carry the most weight."

So, without further adeau, here're the results:

(Best to worst):

NUMBER 1: Goodyear GSD3: "As an all-around performance tire, you can't beat this Goodyear. It was the best performer in all three wet-track tests and was very competent in the dry. It generated .94g on the dry skidpad, only .01g off the first place (dry) BFGoodrich and tied with the Yokohama and Hankook.
The Goodyear gripped so well, that you might not have been certain that the road was wet. It held onto the wet track with .82g of stick, an impressive figure considering the worst tire in that test made only .67g.
...And like the Continental, the Goodyear had a high 280 trad-wear grade. At $145, ieach, it's $34 cheaper than the most expensive (guess which tires have THAT distinction!).

2nd place: Continental ContiSportContact 2: "It simply didn't feel as sporty as the others.....on dry surfaces, the Conti never rose above third from last among 11 tires. It felt soft and imprecise. But in the wet, the spread from best to worse was 15 percent, which made for a larger point spread (giving the Contis a boost). Plus the Continental had a 280tread-wear grade that was the highest (tied) for this test.

3rd place: Yokohama Advan Neova AD07: Excellent dry performance, but a bit on the slippery end in the wet stuff - expensive at $175 apiece.

4th place: Michelin Pilot Sport PS2: "At $179, the PS2 is the most expensive tire in the test." Competent, but expensive sums up this tire.

5th place: Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212: At $99 each, these are the least expensive tires - very good on dry pavement, but "greasy and slow to recover" on the wet stuff.

6th place: Dunlop SP Sport Max: "In the dry, the tire seemed to lose its confidence..."

7th place: Pirelli P Zero Rosso Asimmetrico:"In the dry-lateral-grip test, the Pirelli tied for second to last, and it finished seventh in the dry-braking test.

8th place: Toyo Proxes T1R: "...the Proxes never placed higher than eighth in any test"...nuff said!

9th place: Bridgestone Potenza RE050A: "it felt dull and disconnected and was somewhat soft and imprecise when driven hard."

10th place: BFGoodrich g-Force T/A KD: Outstanding performance on dry surfaces, but very scary on wet surfaces - don't get caught in a rainstorm wearing these shoes...

11th place: Kumho Ecsta MX: "They didn't offer much grip and the time of 30.28 seconds in the dry autocross was .62 second slower than the fastest tire. That may not seem like much, but our course was only 0.3 mille long, and on a longer track, that gap would be commensurately greater." "And although the MX - at $136 per - was the third-least-expensive tire in our test, the high score in the price category wasn't enough to regain ground lost in the performance tests."

On a congratulatory note, the first place tire is made right here in the USA by an American tire company :flag:

 

DOH! I guess the Toyo's aren't to be bragged about eH?!

 

Well, but they used a lot of different factors in their test. Including wet handling and braking. I don't know about you guys, but I don't really care about wet handling/braking conditions. If I really mess up and get caught out in the rain with my vette then I'm going to limp it home anyway.

 

+1 I have almost the same tires as Lee and couldn't be happier.

 

Think about it. If you can get tires that are as good as any others on dry roads AND superior to all others on wet surfaces, why would you buy dry-only tires? We all get caught in rainstorms from time to time; why not just continue driving without worry? I have driven in pouring rain with the GSD3s and I can say without a doubt that these tires are nothing less than astonishing - far superior to Kumhos, Sumitomos, and other cheap tires.
BF Goodrich has improved wet traction by their KDW IIs, so these may be good alternatives. Also, I would be interested to see how the AVON 500s fare when compared to the others, since I hear that AVONs are made by Cooper tires in Ohio, and are very inexpensive.
I do root for the underdog, but back-to-back testing results are the only thing I believe in without first-hand comparisons of all the brands' choices.

 

I think that's safe to say. However, I have no doubt that they area largeimprovement over any runflat tires!