5 Tips for Choosing Performance Tires

My career as an automotive improvement expert began when I modified my first car. Since then, as a car enthusiast and published author, my obsession with the automobile has led me to enhance tons of vehicles both inside and out. That’s why I’m thrilled to be a part of a brand new series designed to help keep your car looking great and your engine running like new! I’m Chris Duke, and welcome to eHow’s Auto Center brought to you by Mobil1! Hey Chris, I’m getting ready to purchase some new performance tires for my car. Do you have any tips I could use to help me make my decision? Thanks! -John Thanks for the question John. Choosing the right performance tire for you vehicle can seem like a pretty daunting task. There is a flood of information out there to sift through and if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for it could become very frustrating. I’ve put together 5 tips to help you cut to the chase, but before we get to them there are some factors you need to consider. Here’s tip #1: Know the difference between standard tires, performance tires, and touring tires. Standard tires have treads that can handle a wide range of road conditions, from dry, to wet, to snowy. Because of this seasonal flexibility, standard tires have to compromise in terms of handling and performance - stopping distances tend to be longer and cornering ability is not as good. Standard tires are ranked as four- or all-season tires and can be used year-round. Touring tires are built to offer a quiet, comfortable ride. They have better directional stability, shorter stopping distances and can be expected to last longer than all-season tires. Touring tires offer more grip under dry conditions and on wet pavement, but they are not adapted for snowy winter driving conditions. Touring tires are therefore only three-season tires. Performance tires tend to have far fewer water sipes than touring tires. While this is great on dry pavement, touring tires will always trump when it comes to wet-road handling. Performance tires use a much softer rubber compound than touring tires. Although these compounds do stick better, they also wear out much faster. Performance tires almost always have a much higher speed rating than touring tires, owing to their tread design and internal reinforcement configuration. Tip 2: Understand the differences between high performance tires and ultra high performance tires and the benefits of each. The difference between high-performance (HP) and ultra high-performance (UHP) tires is a matter of degrees, and varies by manufacturer. The internal structure and basic construction remains the same; the two are generally separated by tread configuration and rubber compound. However, those two factors alone can change nearly every aspect of tire performance, wear and longevity. As you might expect from the name and description, UHP tires will provide the maximum amount of traction under most conditions. UHP tires have greater amounts of both "mechanical adhesion" – the tire’s ability to grab onto small imperfections in the road surface - and "molecular adhesion" - how sticky the tire becomes when hot. Tip 3: The width of your performance tire is very important. Obviously the more tire you have making contact with the road the easier it is for the vehicle to put down power and handle. Once again though, you have to be careful. Too wide a tire can cause mounting issues, braking and clearance issues, and actually impact cornering and other precision handling. Tip 4: Speed ratings are based on the tire’s ability to handle a certain speed for 24 hours. This is listed on all performance tires and knowing the correct rating for your vehicle is important. You don’t want to get a set of tires that look great, only to realize they don’t meet the manufacturer’s performance and speed rating. Here’s a quick breakdown of the speed rating list: S – rated to 112 mph T – rated to 118 mph U – rated to 124 mph H – rated to 130 mph V – rated to 149 mph Z – rated to more than 149 mph And finally, here’s my last tip: tire size, which is often the most overlooked. Deciding to change the wheel and tire size when buying performance tires can have a huge impact on the performance, handling and overall drivability of your vehicle. For example, if you decide to go with too large of a wheel/tire combo on your vehicle you can suddenly find yourself having major braking problems as well as ‘wheel hop’ when you accelerate. Finding a happy medium that will not adversely affect the vehicle’s center of gravity or suspension too drastically is the best way to go. Once you have those concerns out of the way, finding the correct performance tire for your needs should be a lot less difficult. Well, I hope that we’ve helped you out with these 5 tips to for choosing performance tires. Here’s a bonus tip that ALWAYS helps… if you still have doubts, ask your local tire and wheel specialist. They can help you whittle down those last few decisions to find the perfect combination you’re striving for.