Valdis

Hello, I'm new to the forum and have a question about tires for my 1996 TT.

Currently my car has Ventus Sport K104 tires. 275/35/18 on the rear and 245/40/18 on the front... not sure why the front tires have thicker side walls then the rears, it was like that when I bought it.

The issue I have is that when the turbos kick in (around 3K rpm) the back end of the car wants to fly out from under me. This happens in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear.... haven't tried it in fourth because I don't want to crash the car or die.

I noticed when the tires are heated up they do better but I don't want to sit there and smoke the tires everytime I want to take it for a drive.

I have looked at the "Best Tires" sticky but the thread is old and some of the tires are no longer made.

For those people who have 400+ hp, what tires do you use... and how well do they keep your Z on the road?
My car is a stage III Z... currently at 360ish hp, turbos set to 8psi. (Not sure why he has it set to 8psi when 9.5psi is stock) Was told by the guy I bought it from what when the turbos are turned up to 14 or 15 psi the car has roughly 435hp. I'm not too confident that the guy knows what he is talking about... I may need to take it to the dyno to get some "real" numbers.
BUT the issue remains the same.... my father drove the car tonight and he grew up with high powered v8's, so he knows how to drive a car with horsepower. When we started to slide in 2nd gear he told me that "the car felt like it was on ice". The positive thing about the story is that he will NEVER call my car a "rice grinder" again.. LOL.

All I know is that my car is scary due to the fact that I can't keep the tires under it. Also wanted to add that the car has KYB/AGX Adjustable Gas Shocks and Struts... maybe adjusting the suspension would help?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Valdis

I think I may have figured out what the issue is. It has been getting colder here in Wichita and the tires I have are summer tires, so they are probably as hard as rocks now. It was in the 60's recently and when we took the car out tonight it was probably below 40 degrees.
I will check them when it gets warmer out and see if my issue improves. I have a feeling that it will.

Rupe

I also have a feeling that will make a difference. Tires that are supposed to be warm aren't good at all when they're cold.

About the tire sizes, though your front tire sidewalls are in fact wider, they're only wider by not even 2mm. The sidewall number is a percentage of the tire width. Whoever picked the tires probably got the most-similar-looking-to-each-other ones you could get at those sizes.

Valdis

BTW, does anyone know how many posts I need until I gain access to my User Profile... I can't create a signature yet and I want to add a pic of my car as my sig.