Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Branches Northwest Tire Recommendations

I am a Newbie CSVT owner. I just bought a '98E0 from Calif. that has Dunlop 901's that will need replacing. I am looking for recommendations on tires for the Northwest, as in Seattle.

Basil

Basil!

Welcome to the NW CEG!

I am currently running aging Goodyear GS-C's, which are the original rubber on my '98 SVT. Last year, for the winter season, I bought some Bridgestone Blizzaks, which are studless tires; they'll be going back on the car in a couple of months. Until then, I'm driving my GS-C's into the ground, to make sure to get all the usable tread out of them. Once they're gone, I'm going to get the Goodyear Eagle F1 GS D3's. They're a little pricey, but seem to be one of the best summer tires out there.

If you don't want to have two different sets of tires, I know there are some good all-season tires out there. I think Beowulf has some from Les Schwab. Me, I invested in the Blizzaks and a second set of wheels, so I'm sticking with my setup.

Regards,
David

David,

Thank you for the tip on using a second winter set. I was not sure about going to an "ultra all season", or using a good quality summer tire, and then making the switch in November.

I appreciate the advice.

Basil

I was going to go with Falken ZE512s, but I just decided to replace the worn out front tires I had and wait until next summer to put new rubber all around.

P.S.

DDV doesn't drive his car enough, he won't need new tires for another 5 years.

lol he has like less then 20k on a 98 svt

I went with the Bridgestone S03 Pole Position tires. I've only put a few thousand miles on them, but they are great! Excellent wet grip, sickening dry grip and very low road noise. I can really stick it with the Quaife. Drawback is the price, but I went to my local Firestone armed with a quote from TireRack and got a huge discount. Worth every penny IMO.

Before that I had Kumho ECSTA Supra 712s. Hated them from the moment they were mounted. Terrible dry traction, at any pressure, but decent wet traction. What can I say...they were cheap.

Before that I had BF Goodrich GForce KDWS tires. They seemed to be really good tires, but they were worn out by the time I really learned how to drive the car to its potential. Much better than the Kumhos for certain.

Definitely Blizzaks for the winter. A little expensive but again, worth every penny. I've never run them on the Contour, but I have on a few other cars. Amazing grip on the ice. Excellent in the rain too.

A good resource is www.tirerack.com as they have reviews of many tires that supposedly aren't biased.
No Beowulf, not bias ply tires I know you were thinking it!

I've got 215/45/17 Hankook Ventus HRII with not very many Kms on them, maybe 20K.
Very smooth Hwy ride (our Hwy's are asphalt tho) and good rain traction and Def good dry traction.
Took them up camping, aka dirt roads, and at quick speeds Very good control.
Downside-no sidewall bulge, so you may kiss your rim goodbye if you hit one .

My plan right now is to hit up the junkyards for a set of 15" (steelies if I have to) rims. Reason for the small size is I can run 205/60-15's on them, and the local tire place has a set of Cooper winter tires, H speed rated for $80 each installed.

I guess the SVT will accept 15" rims with stock brakes (I saw a pic somewhere of an SVT with 15" steelies and hubcaps...)

I think I'll be rollin ghetto this winter, but I'm not worried about it. (I'll post pics... )

Come spring, I'll be replacing the Kumho Ecsta 17" (they're pretty worn out).

Shotwell,
What'd you pay for those Bridgestones? (The Goodyears I'm looking at are $179 each.)

Well, sad to say, buy my little red SVT has just over 30,000 miles on it now. Those 6-mile round trips to work have added up!

Insayne, do keep in mind that DDV and myself live in Western Washington where snow and ice are rarely and issue. Especially for DDV, since he drives like a quarter of a mile to work and back.

Shotwell might have done some more driving in snow in his 'tour, but the better guys to ask for winter weather driving recommendations are the New England states and midwest guys.

Oregon and Washington don't get much in the way of snow compared to Western Montana. I lived in Eastern Montana for several years when I was a kid and the issues there in the winter were black ice and hard packed snowdrifts, not as much out and out snowfall.