Hey 0700 - you said the S03 tires are worse than the S02's. IYO - why?

Followup - in a post below you trash the S03. I am considering the S03 and....
 

am not familiar with the S02's. In your opinion, or anyone elses for that matter, what makes the 02's better/superior to the S03's. Tire Rack's customer survey rates the 03's very highly. As I said earlier, being in Seattle, I am looking for an excellent summer tire but one that can also handle the 7-10 straight days of drizzle/rain we get during the fall/winter/spring.

My S03's have been great so far...
 

they stick just as well as the S02's I had before and are wearing much better, which was Bridgestone's intent. My S02's were great, sticky tires, but only lasted about 14K miles. I've had the S03's for 7K and they look almost new. This is on a 6 spd 2.7T w/ PSK supension.

A long article in EUROPEAN CAR on the differences between the SO-2 PP and the new
 

SO-3 defined them as:
1) improved (longer) tread life
2) improved wet and dry traction as the tread wears down...more consistant performance regardless of tread depth. Their drivers reported that they felt the worn SO-3s performed as well or better than new (scrubbed-in) SO-2 PP.
3) quieter
4) better water-dispersal tread design to improve wet traction.

FWIW, I had the SO-2s on my '96 A4Q...best dry and wet weather tire I've ever had. Now have Yoko AVS Sports on my A6 2.7T. My son has the SO-2 PPs on his '93 S4. Since it does (occasionally) rain in Seattle, we went out one day to try to (deliberately) find the limits of adhesion of the SO-2s...I eventually gave up as I felt I was getting over my limits. My son pressed on (he's a QCUSA instructor and occasionally drives a 450hp 4KTQ race car on the track) and he was eventually able to get the tires to break loose in a wet parking lot by doing everything a good driving school tells you NOT to do.

I'm considering the SO-3s when it comes time to replace my AVS Sports, but I may stay with them.

HTH

Thanks for the information. Nothing has been said to change my mind from the SO3's.

May want to also consider the new ContiSportContact2 (excellent wet results). Should be available in
 

Spring 2002 if you can wait. Also new German/European tests hopefully comparing the S-03, Conti2 and other new tires should be available by end March, early April.

Besides the URL below, see posts by Steve2.7T and 4.2 and others on ContiSportscontact 2 if this search engine works for you.<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a6/msgs/105840.phtml">https://forums.audiworld.com/a6/msgs/105840.phtml</a</li></ul>

Thanks for the advise and info. - I can wait until next year (great, now I get to choose from 2)