The stock Pirellis on my rear Brembo wheels finally wore out and I replaced them with some Sumitomo HTR Z3's (275/40/19). Much happier now, no more BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG from the excessive wheel hop that the Pirelli's were causing. Instead, the Sumitomo's stick to the road and give a little screech rather than hop all over the place. That was my biggest complaint...but not no more! Went on a 100 mile road trip shortly after I got them put on and everything was gravy.

Still running the Pirelli's in the front, they've got at least another 5k before they need replacing. When I do replace, should I stick with 255's or match the rears and go with 275's? I can definitely feel more understeer with the wider tires in the back but wondering if I match in the front would that bring it back to neutral again?

 

I'm running 275/40/19 myself and the handling is spot on, feels a lot better than stock, safer during hard cornering.

 

Yeah I would go back to a non-staggered setup, it seems to work best on these cars and that is what your suspension is currently set up for.

It's not really fair to compare worn out tires to completely new tires, a new set of Pirellis would have fixed that issue too.....

 

The "bang, bang" probably went away because the Sumitomo tire gives up trying to grip and just starts to spin. But if that's the behavior you prefer from your tires then more power to ya.

Regarding Square vs. staggered...Pro-s and Cons for both. Personally I would go with Square...especially if you have purchased wheels that are same width front to rear. The ability to rotate tires front to rear is very nice for tire life.

 

I have about 14,000 miles on my Pirellis and I can only describe them as "squirelly", during hard cornering they are all over the place. I have a set of the Sumitomo HTR Z3s I will be throwing on and hope this improves the cornering.

 

Yeah, if I'm not mistaken the difference is that the non-staggered setup (square) gives you quicker turn-in because your front tires are the same size as the rears (instead of being smaller), so you have more relative grip in the front.

I think the point of the staggered setup is that you get bigger rear tires, so if you have trouble putting the power down you would go that route.

 

True, but there is nothing stopping one from going say 305's on all 4 corners.

 

I have had both and did not like the Sumitom tire I had on the other hand I have been very happy with the Pirelli's. The sumitomo's were on my 2k stang and if I remember correctly they were summer tires