I had those on my 944. I liked them well enough and they were great daily driver tires (except in snow) but they did give up some grip as compared to tires with less void. Absolutely no problems in the rain. Did maybe 3 autocrosses with them before I sold the car. It's tough to directly compare a particular tire's behavior on a 944 on course as compared to an F-Body though between the 944's IRS, rear transmission, half the horses and 700 pound weight difference.

They are an older tire design; having been sold since at least 2008. Fitment-wise, they were nice and "level" on the 944 as in they didn't balloon and tempt you to air them down.

I had these wheels refinished by Wheel Medic. I told them not to powder coat them. They ultimately did powder coat them. They are a wheel place and they claim they will be fine. I've seen some powdercoated wheels fail. I don't know if they were overheated or how they were done versus how Wheel Medic does them. But, the point is, I'm not going autocrossing on them and I probably don't need super grippy tires. I just want something that has good performance for back roads and having fun.

Ah, I either didn't know that or it slipped my mind. So in that case I'd say the BFGs will serve you well. I can't say they ever felt "soft" (dunno if the compound has changed since then) but they'll be fine for back roads. Just going on looks, the rain performance of the BFGs should be better than the Indy 500s but the Indy 500s are probably softer so it could be a... wash.

I need tires for this spring. It appears that now might be the time to move to 18" wheels. I have been trying not to spend a fortune on wheels (it's easy to spend $3,500+ on wheels). I have found a set of wheels from a company called Flow. The tire rack has them and they list a size for the rear of a 2004 Z06. It's an 18x10.5 with 54mm of offset.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?ti...KP&i1_Qty=4

These are available in 315/30-18.

And the wheels:

https://www.tirerack.com/wheels/WheelCloseU...ckageFlow=false

I think they'd look good on the car. I hope they will clear the Stoptech brake kit (the photos look like they'd have ok clearance).

Now I'm trying to sort out what I would need for spacers. When I ran 17x11 with 50mm offset I ran a 7mm spacer on the front and 3/8" on the rear. These are 54mm offset. 4mm is .157" if I'm correct. That would require a .532 spacer. Since the wheels are 10.5 and not 11, I'm guessing they'll be a little flexible and a 1/2" spacer would be the answer. I'll have to find half inch hub centric spacers (depending on how far the hub extends from the rotor face).

Those look pretty good, both the tires and the wheels. Looks like you meant 315/30-18 correct?

I have been talked into the Continental ECS by tire tests. They should offer the same grip and tire life of the NT05s but with far better wet traction and hydroplaning resistance despite being 340 treadwear. The Falken RT615K+ offers more grip than the ECS but the hydroplaning resistance isn't as good and it has slightly less wet traction. My only worry is that Continental's touring and all-season tires have gotten hard very quickly on us -- 2 years or less. I don't know if their performance tires are like that too. With nearly every autocross I tried to attend this year getting rain (in a drought year!) the hydroplaning resistance is on my mind.

But the ECS doesn't appear to be available in the size you selected. The tire selection in that size isn't really all that good outside of the hot 200TWs and Purple Crack unless you want to rob a bank for Michelin PS2s. The hydroplaning resistance of the Falken should be by far the best of the 200TWs listed. For street use I'd say it is the best tire out of those.

Oops, you're correct. I fixed it above.



I put 36 miles on it in 2020. The tires will probably harden from age long before they wear out. I've been wanting to move back towards 11" wide wheels/tires (I ran 315/35-17 on my 2002 Z28 T top car I used to autocross). I need to replace the tires on the car anyway and 17's are "dying" these days. So it may be time to move to 18" wheels and I may as well go wider considering how little I drive it. I was considering running a CAM event or two with it and I'm leaning towards welding a 4 point roll bar in it.

Ultimately, I have been eyeballing a Shafiroff 454 cubic inch LSx short block. That may be a while. But this is sorta setting up for more power down the road.

On your old wheels, maybe try calling the wheel refinishing place and find out if they powdercoated your wheels at 250F or 400F. 250 would be a lot better than 400 for safety reasons. That way you could use or sell them with confidence if it was a low-temp process.

It was Wheel Medic here in town. Wheel refinishing is their business and they have been doing it a long time. They assured me they have never had a wheel failure and the wheels are perfectly safe for track days and such. And I'm sure they know what they are doing. However, I'm still not going to run them on track, but they look good on the car and I'm more than happy with them for street tires.

I've had the BFG Comp 2's on mine for maybe 7 years now. Good street tire. Not great for autox, but not terrible. Pretty much the same for the track days I've been to at high plains raceway. They are old and hard now. I'm in the same boat, I don't know what I want next or if I want move to 18's. The selection for 17's is very limited these days. Bonspeed and Billet Specialties have a few wheels I like, but they are big $$$$$$.

All the wheels I found are $650-1000 each. I just refuse to spend that, that's is a good percentage of the cost of the 454 shortblock. I just can't even consider that kind of money for wheels, and half of them are "track wheels" and might not survive on the street.

I'm also looking for a 4 point roll bar kit for it. I am not finding much. S&W Race Cars does one. I wish I could get with Alan Blaine again. I just need a basic 4 point for a convertible with the interior panels in it.

The tire selection is even worse if you are still on 16" wheels. If I could find a 15x10 circle track wheel that would clear my brakes, I'd have tons of tires to choose from. I sure miss the HTR Z Sumitomos..

Those Sumitomo tires were the best deal going. I ran those at bunch of autocross events and Nashville Superspeedway and they were sticky (sticky enough) and they wore like iron, even at 160 treadwear. The only negative is they are a little greasy when they get hot.

Loose is Fast... backwards is, well, not...