The stock Pirelli P-Zero Nero 235/55-17 tires on my '05 GT are just about gone now with 37K miles. The tread is down to about 4/32" which is still okay on a dry road, marginal on a wet road, but horrible in snow as I found out last week when I stayed at work about 30 minutes too late and ended up driving home in a snowstorm. (I made it all the way home alright, except I couldn't quite get up my own driveway -- so I had to park at the bottom of the hill and snowblow the incline before I could get my car into the garage...)

Anyway, I went to a local tire store, and he quoted me a price of $496, everything included, for OEM Pirelli 235/55-17. I asked about going a little wider with the 255/50-17 size, and he said he had the Kumho ASX in that size for $700! I couldn't believe the price difference at first, so I hesitated and told him I wanted to think about it before I committed to either one.

I do want the wider tire and always figured when it came time to replace the originals I'd go with the 255/50-17 size. However, I really didn't expect the price to be $200 more. And Kumho isn't a tire that I'm familiar with either.

Aside from the improved looks of the wider tire, will there be a noticeable improvement in handling (on dry roads)? Is Kumho at least as good as the stock Pirellis? I have a feeling I should just spend the extra $200 because I'd likely be disappointed every time I looked at the stock size tires if I didn't do it. And it's not like $200 is going to kill me.

 

Hi,

I have the 255's on my 05 gt on cobra R replicas. I think that they obviously look better, and the Kumhos I have handle great and have awesome traction. I didnt pay near 700 for them, I actually paid around 1000 for the rims/tires and install with locks etc at Discount Tire in Ohio.

Good luck, here is a pic of mine

 

You might want to stay away from the local guys, heres some prices from tirerack $109 a piece for the kumhos

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Compar...AS&RunFlat=All

 

Price shop on the internet, then ask the local guy to match the price. You'll find that most tire shops have big markups, at least in my experience.

 

directtirestore on ebay, free shipping, cheap!

 

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/di...foTireMath.jsp
here a calculator incase you want to play around with the numbers

 

If you plan on driving in Winter, just remember the wider the tire the worse they will be in rain or snow. If you are going to do the factory tires, you can pick up a set of factory wheels and tires from a TMS member for about $400 + shipping. That would give you a set of tires mounted and balance for the same money, plus you could save your rims for summer and then get some summer tires for your car.

If you want a decent, wider, all season, look into the Bridgestone A/S or the Goodyear F1 A/S lines. I bought the Goodyear Eagle F1 A/S in 255/45/WR18 and I love them rain or shine. I do not drive my car in Winter (Wisconsin) so I couldn't say anything about snow, but they grab well at lower temperatures.

 

Not to me their not.

 

Unfortunately there aren't a lot of options in the 255/50-17 size, which matches the stock 235/55-17 diameter. I'll probably go with the 255/50's though when it comes time to replace my original tires, and yes, it would be worth $200 to me to go with the wider size, unless it was for a tire that was drastically inferior to the stock Pirellis.

FWIW Kumho does make some good tires IMO, I've got Kumho SPT's on my Bullitt for street tires, and use Kumho V710 race tires on my Mini and Bullitt, and I've had a couple of other sets of Kumho tires in the past as well.

 

I ran Nitto 450NT 255/50 tires from Discount Tire on my stock 17 inch bullitts for about 2.5 years and they held up well and looked good on the wheels. JMO~

 

Yeah, Nitto is one of the few tire companies that makes the 255/50-17. I just checked all three places I buy tires from (Tire Rack, Edge Racing, and Discount Tire) and if you disregard the truck tires, there are only a couple of choices. Edge has nothing, Tire Rack has two Kumhos and a Fuzion, and Discount Tire has a Riken, three Nittos, and the BFG T/A KDWS (but it looks like that size may be discontinued in the BFG). Slim pickings to be sure. I'll probably go with either the Nitto Invo or 555 when I get rid of my stock tires.

 

Where did you see they may be discontinuing the BFGs in this size?

 

The fuzion is pretty good.

 

I've had the P255-50/17 Fuzion ZR1s for about 40,000 miles and they still have 4/32nds tread remaining. Very good overall performance. When I bought them from Tire Rack over two years ago, they cost around $100 each. I noticed yesterday they upped the price to $125 each.

 

Two local tire shops confirmed that the BFG KDWS is no longer made in the 255/50-17 size. It's possible to find leftovers maybe.

Shaun, yes my car is a daily driver, but I really avoid driving in snow for the most part. I have a job where I can telecommute on snow days, and even when I do get caught at work when it snows, it's a fairly short ride home with no hills to speak of. Every time I look at those 235/55-17 tires I think they're not wide and aggressive enough for the car.

One other question I had: does the recommended tire pressure change for different sizes? I always go by the recommendation on the door jamb label, which says 32 psi front and rear for the stock 235/55-17.

My new plan after reading these replies is to bring along the tirerack.com web page printout of the Kumho ASX 255/50-17 for $121 each to the local tire shops, and see who can give me the best deal.

Thanks all! Happy New Year!

 

wjones14 confirmed it, but it was an educated guess on my part (turns out it was correct), since Tire Rack ised to carry that size in the KDWS and no longer does, and only has three sizes in that line anymore IIRC, and Discount Tire Direct no longer shows them, but the regular Discount Tire website for local stores shows them as being available, so there are probably still some left in local warehouses.

 

Cool thanks. Guess when it comes time to replace them I'll either be re-reading this post for other options or buying new 18 wheels and tires. They've been good tires so far.

 

New Years update:

I got the Kumho Ecsta ASX 255/50ZR17 tires. A local shop did the job for $600, which included mounting, balancing, valve stems, and disposal of the old tires.

The roads here are still partially snow covered from the New Year's Eve snowstorm we got. Where they're not snow covered, they're wet. So I really couldn't tell much about the feel of the tires on the way home. They did seem to have excellent snappy steering response on a few dry patches that I found, but my full review will have to wait.

I hated that I had to change them in this weather, because I couldn't give the original Pirellis a proper burial by doing the obligatory final burnouts with them. Believe it or not, I never have done a full smoky 1st gear burnout with this car, despite being tempted all the time. I have done countless burnouts over the years with previous cars, but I guess I'm just too cheap and practical at this stage of my life. Haha. But I'm not dead yet, so I was *really* looking forward to the day when it came time for tire replacement, because I had planned to burn up all that built-up temptation in a huge cloud of tire smoke -- I even had a perfect empty parking lot scoped out for this purpose (I had used the lot previously with my 1995 GT on tire replacement day). But it was not to be this time... Dang!

So performance aside, what I can tell you about the Kumho 255/50ZR17 tires is that they look AWESOME on the car!!! The difference between 235 mm and 255 mm is of course 20 mm, or about 3/4" -- so you're going from 9-1/4" to 10" wide. Believe me, that is a huge difference! Once I stuffed the car back in the garage out of the snow, and looked at the rear end from about 25 feet away (the view most other drivers will see, hehe), the car finally looks proper. The tires now look wide, like they should on a muscle car.