[Shotimes] Tires for convention/rest of the summer

[Ron Porter]

The survey numbers are based on owner surveys.......of course, you don't
have to prove ownership to take the survey. I would NOT compare the survey
numbers across tire types, and am quite leery of them even between
supposedly equal tires.

Frankly, I rarely look art the summary numbers, I go down and read the
actual surveys to see the actual comments, as well as the kinds of cars that
they are used on. That gives you a better idea, plus it also tells you that
some people are pretty clueless!

FWIW, "All-Season" tires don't really mean anything by definition. The key
thing is that they have a rubber compound that works in warm AND cold
weather, whereas many summer-only-type tires don't work when cold. From what
I've seen, the best wet traction is on summer-only compounds in that tires
that work well for dry traction are also good in the wet.

Price has nothing to do with it, as the ES100 costs just a couple of $$ more
than the AVS DB for most sizes. There are also all-season tires that cost a
lot more than tires that handle a lot better than they do.

I have tried a number of all-season tires. Some work well....for what they
are, but I am getting to the point that the only way to get what I want is
to go back to the two-sets-of-tires mode, rather than trying to compromise.

Ron Porter 

-----Original Message-----
From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of BJamesjr@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 10:01 PM
To: shotimes@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Tires for convention/rest of the summer


It certainly would seem logical that a more expensive "dry" tire would do
better than a less expensive all-season tire, especially from the same
manufacturer.

I went to tirerack, input the size that I wanted (225/55-16) and looked at
the list of 76 available tires in that size.  I picked the ones that I was
interested in and did some comparisons.  I want to be sure I don't slide
around in wet weather so I concentrate on all-season tires.  I picked the
AVS DB S2 and the Potenza 950.  When you do a comparison you get a table of
ratings in categories such as "handling rating", "dry traction", "wet
traction", "ride comfort" "noise comfort", and "wear".  These 2 tires scored
so much higher than all of the other all season tires that I got curious and
compared them with non- all season tires.  The AVS DB S2 has better scores
than the AVS Sport in all of these categories.  I compared to a high-rated
tire, the Potenza S-03 Pole Position, and the AVSDBS2 is less in the
traction/handling categories, but is fairly close.

Well we all like comparing numbers and saying that this one is better
because it scores 8.9 vs. 8.7.  However there is some question as to where
these numbers come from and can they be compared that closely.  I don't
think they are that scientific and I don't think they can be compared that
way (just my guess).  It could be that the high ratings for an all-season
tire are from someone who has lesser expectations from their tires than the
ratings for a max. performance tire from someone who demands a high level of
performance.

Of course since I'm the one saying this then I should not have implied that
the AVSDBS2 compares to the ES100.  Oh well, the numbers are there.  We can
always compare them and use them however we want.  I don't mind all season
tires since I look for wet traction and I'm willing to give up some dry
performance for it.

> The AVS DBs are all-season tires. ES100s and AVS Sports are not. I went
and
> read the reviews. Rate "higher ratings" as you will, but I don't see it
that
> way at all. The AVS DB people say they are "fast & aggressive" drivers (I
> think Tire Rack needs different categories!!), but the 
> reviews talked about
> "less noise" and other meaningless remarks as such. 
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