Please help me choose between these three tires (275/40 - 17)

These are the three tires I'm looking at. They will be for the OEM ZR1 5 spoke rims that I picked up. The tires will be 275/40 - 17's.

Goodyear GS-D3's
Khumo Ecsta MX's
Firestone SZ50 EP's

This is only for on the road. No autox. My number one and two priority is cornering capability and predictability and low noise level. Third is wet traction. Forth is wear.

The Potenza RE730's(245/50 -16) that I have now got so loud after the first 6000 miles that I can't stand driving on them anymore. I finally decided to upgrade my rims and tires after living with the 730's for 25000 miles. I'm fairly happy with the 730's for traction and handling, but they don't have quite the cornering stick that I'm looking for.

My suspension mods are Bilstein HD's on stock springs with the ST 35mm sway bar. That's it.

Any input would be appreciated.

People seem to be happy with all three of these tire choices, and I know they are popular so I'm hoping for some good feedback.

Thanks,
Dan

Lots of opinions available here:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/max.jsp

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/uhp.jsp

I'd say you'd find the Kumhos noisy and that the Goodyears have a performance edge on the Firestones.

Thanks V6Bob,

Yeah, I've already read all the tirerack responses. The problem is that I don't know the driving styles of all those people and can't ask them questions about the tires. It is nice to read all the reviews.

I bought my last set of tires from Tirerack. Based on the replies, the RE730's seemed like great tires, but no one had mentioned how loud they get, so I felt like I got a little burned. That's why I'm hoping for more input here, besides Tirerack.

The one thing I didn't like seeing about the Goodyears is that a few people said the steering response was slow. I'm not sure if that will be a problem on a 40 series tire though. They are getting great feedback though.

The Khumo's did seem to get a few votes that they were noisy. Many of the people really liked the tire however. Especially the F-body and vette owners.

Dan

Personally, I've had great luck with Yokohama's. Look at the AVS dB S2 ($157), they were the last street tires I owned. Very quiet with good traction. Right now I'm running Pirelli P7000 Supersport's ($144) which I didn't like at first but after living with them for a while, I love them. They aren't as good in the wet as the Yokohama's though. I never buy my street tires for ultimate dry grip (that's what my Hoosiers are for :D ), I look more for treadwear and price than anything. I haven't heard a lot of satisfied people using Goodyears and I read some pretty bad reviews of those particular Kumho's.

The prices are all from Tire Rack, I get all my tires from them.

I , too, bought RE 730s partiallly due to Tire Rack's recommendation. What a mistake. The noise is intolerable and obviously shows that Bridgestone didn't test the tire for any length of time in the real world. VERY disappointing.

Have heard of good reviews about the GS-D3 ,which I am considering, from other sources but nothing long term

The comments about the Tire Rack reviews of the 730 are interesting. The current reviews are in line with your experiences. The tire is rated 6.6 for noise, which is pretty lousy. I read some individual reviews and it seemed like every third or fourth one said the noise was bad/intolerable.

I assume it was different when you were buying.

I think the Goodyears and the Firestones have been out long enough to trust the reviews. I don't know about the Kumhos.

Yeah, the RE730's were pretty new to the market when I bought them. There were no negative reviews of them for noise at that time. Probably because the noise didn't start until about 6-10K miles, which is after the time period most people write back for.

At least two of those negative reviews for noise are from me. :)

Dan

I found your choices interesting but wondered why you eliminated BF Goodrich G-Force T/A KDW's? I paid $150 each installed at America's Tire. This is my third set, would spend a little more but nothing out there close to the tire for the price.

with those tire rack surveys, what the difference between ultra high performance and the maximum performance? i too will be looking for tires this coming year and need something that does everything well including tread wear.

the KDWs dont seem to be offered in 275/40/17 and both them and the GS D3s are rated high in the respective categories, but i dont know which catergory i should be looking at. thanks. Trey

Trey, if you're looking for the max everything, look at the ultra. Also, look at the tread wear rating, that will give you an idea of how soft the tread is.

oh yeah forgot about the treadwear rating, thanks steve.

Originally posted by JBirdSS
I found your choices interesting but wondered why you eliminated BF Goodrich G-Force T/A KDW's? I paid $150 each installed at America's Tire. This is my third set, would spend a little more but nothing out there close to the tire for the price.

It's mainly due to the bad reviews on noise for the KDW's.

Dan

I have had several sets of the sz50 EP's. I would highly recommend them.

i been running the RE730 245/50/16 for about 18,000 miles.
no noise that i can hear, but 6 months ago i put in Richmond 3.73s that whine between 45-55mph :-)

i ordered 255 SZ50EP last week. i really wanted the regular 255 SZ50 w/ softer compound but they were out. i had the original SZ50 in 220 treadwear. that tire was bad ass! cut 2.0 60's
only lasted about 14,000 miles though
SZ50EP is 340 treadwear they said