Best Tires for the Porsche 996 911 Carrera 2

The tire combo is:
front 225/40 x 18
rear 265/35 x 18
My car is a 996.1 C2 which wears typically 3 sets of rears during one set of fronts. Weight bias is 38/62.

Ive have so far 2000 km on them but I have monitored the rear wear and it predicts about 13 000 km compared to my experience:
Michelin PS2 15 000 km
Michelin PSS 15 000 km
Potenza SO2

These have actually been on the rear axle of my 996. My driving style is quite spirited and I drive on rather compromised quality and abrasive B-roads about 80% of my mileage while the rest is along the traffic transit to these roads.

On this set of wheels I had originally Bridgestone Potenza S02A tires. After the rears had worn out and no S02A were available anymore I asked for stiff wall tires to accompany my front S02A. I was recommended the Conti SC2 by a professional tester. So now after 5000 km the tires are so worn that I had to reduce my camber. Since then I did a 350 km long test run and I see the same wear rate as before. Ive never had tires that wear this fast out. My other wheel set has Mich PS2 and the rears, two sets actually, both have managed 15 000 km. And I run both sets during the season so the numbers are well comparable.

Further more I was really disappointed to the side wall stiffness. The Bridgestones at front are ultra stiff. The Conti SC2 at rear just does not manage the stability required for the stiff fronts.

So what did I learn? Never put different shoes front and rear. But frankly Im disappointed on these. The previous S02A being very stiff walled was my all time favorite tire, though the wear was not too good on those either. 911s tend to wear rear tires alot. But the Conti SC2 is the record wear out for me. Sometimes I even wonder have I got a pair of pirate tires here....
Grip wise - both wet and dry were well adequate for road.

The side grip in the wet (on my car at least), is dangerously bad. The rear starts to loose its grip at approxomatly 30% of the g-force load of my summer tires when cornering. And once they start to loose it, it all happens very fast. Not good! They actually perform better on snow. They also tend to let go quite sudden in a straight line (still in the wet) if I accellarate hard in 90-110 Kilometers per hour (55-65 MPH). Theese characteristics are prominent on dry asfalt too. I mostly drive on wet, snowy or icy conditions during winter, as I live in Norway, and this car is my daily driver. I will never buy theese again (bought them last winter, and will be changing them soon). Thank god for the Continantals I have up front, saved my but with their grip and predictability compared to the widow makers at the rear!!! Stay away if You have a high performance car and drive it on wet/ icy/ snow covered roads during the winter.

I can compare these with PS2 and Potenza S02A on the same car.

Compared to PS2 the PSS feels more rubbery. It lives more sideways and IMO is a bit sluggish in turn in compared to PS2. However, I feel the PSS might have a bit more ulitmate grip. However, it is a bit vague at the limit and thus I prefer both PS2 and S02A over the PSS. The PSS is definitely a more quiet tire than the PS2 ... about the same as S02A.

I have had two sets of these with differing rear size though.
- Initial set 225/40 18 + 265/35 18
- second set 225/40 18 + 285/30 18

The first set came with the car and did not have much life left. They were noisy, especially the rear tires. Handling was good. The new set feels more comfortable and handling is at least as good as with the first set.

I can compare these to Michelin PSS and Potenza S02A. Comparing the Michelins the PS2 feel more linear and abrasive and PSS more rubbery. Herecy or not but my favorites are the S02A because they give more linear feel provide grip with lesser slip angle. They have the sharpest turn in and easiest (most predictable) transition to slide.

I can compare this tire to PS2 and PSS on the same car but variations in widths and rim widths.

Maybe the S02A does not offer quite as much grip as the Michelin (I really can not tell the difference) by tests but I can tell that compared to both the Michelins the S02A gives better feedback. It is more linear and I would say it requires less slip angle to generate side force. However, the S02A are on 8.5 and 11 inch rims as the Michelins have been on an inch narrower rims.

I bopught these second hand but practically new. Of the three mentioned these are actually my favorites.

This is the rear tire with about 80% life left. The manufacturing date is 2010 but I rarely use the car so only 20% treadwear. At 100km/hour, the rear tire burst on a straightaway. No signs of road hazard etc. Good thing our was the rear or I could have met grave accident. Replaced all remaining 3 after that.

Best tires i have ever bought. This is the second set of tires on my Porsche from Nokian and i can fault them at all. Grip and wear even at highe speeds and cornering - excellent!!

These tires are a hidden gem. I have had yoko and michelins but these take the cake. I think they have actually taken a second off the 0-100km/h sprint. I travel the M1 to Brisbane each day and can you believe I've already got 15,000km out of them. I didn't bank on that nor the fact I got them cheap initially but if I have to buy them again I see the price isn't on the low end. Highly recommended. The yokohamas can't compete with these. They do get better when warmed but that is ovestated as it takes 5 minutes only. Noisy but who cares. My suspension wanes before the tires.

Medium compound DZ02s on my spare wheels for trackdays. Seemed a bit slippy in the wet but felt better than the R888s.