How to PROPERLY select and size TIRES for PERFORMANCE

The most important part of your car is not the engine, suspension, or brakes. It’s the TIRES!!! This is because your car can only perform as well as the capability of its tires. I’m often asked which tire is best and what size to buy. In this article I discuss my methods for choosing and properly sizing the right tires. I’m not into the “hella-flush” or “stance” scenes so this article is focused towards those who care about the PERFORMANCE of their car, whether on the street or on the track.

Pirelli had the best slogan for a tire company: “Power is nothing without control.” This is true for all forms of driving since it does not matter how much power you have if you can’t put it to the ground, it doesn’t matter how much you spend on a big brake kit if they easily lock up the tires, and your $7,000 coilovers can only deliver the performance that your tires are capable of. It really does not matter how great and expensive your car is or how much money you’ve put into modifying it if you cheap out on tires; which is the only component on your car that actually touches the road.

Tires are consumable and expensive, but this should not be a justification for crippling the handling of your sports car, sports sedan, or minivan. Whether you’re trying to break records and win races on the track or simply avoiding an accident on the street, choosing the right tire will often dictate the success of either.

There are 3 main steps that I follow when looking for tires: CHOOSE A TIRE CATEGORY, SIZE THE TIRE, and SELECT A TIRE. SIZE & SELECT A WHEEL is my fourth and last step when also looking for new wheels.

STEP 1: CHOOSE A TIRE CATEGORY

“What is the car being used for?”

Buying the right tires for your grocery-getting, baby-hauling daily driver in the northeast or Florida (where it rains most days of the week) is going to be a lot different than buying tires for your weekend toy in Southern California that never sees rain. Determining the importance of dry, wet, snow performance, tire longevity, ride quality, and comfort should be the first step when looking for a tire.

Just like everything in life, choosing the best tire is often a compromise since it’s rare to find a tire that is really good in the rain, quiet and lasts a long time that can perform well in the dry and hold up to extensive track use. Usually as you increase the dry capability of a tire, you start to suffer wet performance and comfort in terms of noise and ride quality. However, in recent years a few manufacturers are starting to make tires that are very good in all categories.

TireRack.com is a great source of information for everything tire related. They have numerous customer reviews, independent tests, and are a pleasure to do business with. They break down tires into 5 main categories, while I added a 6th. These 5 main categories are further broken down into sub-sections like “Ultra High Performance”, “High Performance”, “Performance”, “Touring”, etc… I won’t go into detail since I usually pick tires from the top sub-section of every category. I have arbitrarily listed some examples for each category below:

2020 update – I don’t like what Tire Rack did to their categories so i’m sticking with their original categories below, and updating the list to add modern tires:

1.Winter/Snow:

Bridgestone Blizzak, Michelin Alpin, Continental ContiWinterContact, Pirelli Winter Snowcontol

2.All-Season:

Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3, Continental ExtremeContact DWS, P Zero All-Season

3.Summer:

Michelin Pilot Super Sport & PS4S, Bridgestone Potenza RE070, Hankook R-S3 , Dunlop ZII StarSpec, BFG Rival, Bridgestone RE-11 , Pirelli P Zero Corsa System, Continental 5 & DW & SPORT

4.Streetable Track & Competition:

Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2, Dunlop Sport Maxx Race 2*, Bridgestone RE-71R*, BF Goodrich G-Force Rival S/1.5*, Hankook Ventus TD, Hankook Ventus R-S4*, Continental ContiForceContact, Dunlop ZIII*, Falken Azenis RT660*, Firestone Firehawk Indy 500*, Yokohama AD08R*, Yokohama A052* (it’s more accurately in this category)

5. D.O.T. –Approved Slick AND Modern 2019+ *R-Compound Tires:.

Hoosier R7 & A7, BF Goodrich R1, Hankook Ventus Z214 – Michelin Cup 2 R*, Pirelli Trofeo R*, Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperCar 3R* – Nitto NT01, Toyo R888, Toyo R888R*, Yokohama A048,

6.Racing Slick:

Yokohama A005, Michelin, Hoosier, Pirelli

*Notice there is no “R-Compound” (“R” = Race Compound) tire definition in the above categories. “R-comp” is not really well defined other than the vague description of “race-derived rubber” and as a middle ground between street tires and racing slicks. This nomenclature is used for everything from the treaded NT01 and R888 to the slick A7, R7, and Ventus Z214. I prefer Tire Rack’s separation of the treaded “R-comps” into the Streetable Track & Competition category while placing tires with only circumferential grooves (like the Hoosier R7 & BFG R1) into the “D.O.T.-approved Slick” category. UPDATE: There is now a more prevalent use of “R-compound” tires from manufacturers like Michelin, Pirelli, and GoodYear that use motorsport “race” compounds in their “road” tires. I moved the commonly used “R-comp” track tires like NT01 & R888 to the DOT-approved slick section along with adding the tit’e “R-comp”. Many of the high performance ‘summer’ street tires (like the AD08R and Indy 500) are more in lines with the Cup 2 and Dunlop Race 2 tire than they are a PS4S or Conti Sport tire. I’m mostly considering the wet-weather performance in this re-categorization, but tire technology is getting better and blurring the lines between “summer” and “Streetable Track”.

UPDATE for 2020:

The categories have changed and are fairly jumbled up now. What use to be “Winter/Snow, All-Season, Performance Street, Streetable Track & Competition, DOT-approved Slick is now what you see below. Performance All-Season tires are now classified under the “Performance” category, so tires like the Pilot A/S 3 are now technically under category 3.

1.Winter/Snow (Studless Ice & Snow, Studded, Performance Winter):

Bridgestone Blizzak, Michelin Alpin, Continental ContiWinterContact, Pirelli Winter Snowcontol

2.Touring Tires (Grand Touring All-Season, Grand Touring Summer, Passenger All-Season):

Michelin Energy Saver, PremiumContact 6, Turanza ER30

3.Performance Tires (Extreme Performance Summer, Max Performance Summer, *UHP All-Season):

Michelin Pilot Super Sport & PS4S, Yokohama AD08R, Hankook R-S3 , Dunlop ZII StarSpec, BFG Rival, Bridgestone RE-11 , Pirelli P Zero Corsa System, Continental 5 & DW & DW SPORT, Bridgestone RE-71R*, BF Goodrich G-Force Rival S/1.5*, Hankook Ventus TD, Hankook Ventus R-S4*, Continental ContiForceContact, Dunlop ZIII*, Falken Azenis RT660*, Firestone Firehawk Indy 500*

Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3, Continental ExtremeContact DWS, P Zero All-Season

4.Track & Competition (Racetrack & Autocross Only, Streetable Trak & Competition, Wet Racetrack & Autocross, Drag Racing):

Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2, Dunlop Sport Maxx Race 2*, Michelin Cup 2 R*, Pirelli Trofeo R*, Goodyear Eagle F1 SuperCar 3R*, Hankook Ventus TD, Continental ContiForceContact, Nitto NT01, Toyo R888, Yokohama A048

5. All-Terrain Tires (On-/Off-Road All-Terrain, Off-Road Max Traction, On-/Off-Road Commercial Traction)

Mud-Terrain T/A KM2, Wrangler MT/R with Kevlar, Scorpion MTR, Open Country M/T

Here’s a Top Tip: “Tires are the most important. A narrower, but better (compound, construction, tread design, etc…) tire will, to a point, generally outperform a wider, inferior tire”.