skiracer

I have searched the forums for this information, but I had a hard time getting it all together. As a (proud) new owner of a used 1997 A8, I want to maximize the investment I have made. What I want to know, is which tires everyone has found to be the "Best" on this car? Since I live in Denver, I need both summer performance tires as well as winter snow/ice tires as I make several trips into the mountains in the winter. I was thinking of using the stock 16" wheels with the snow tires and buying 17" or 18" aftermarket wheels for the summer performance tires. Any recommendations for wheels would be appreciated as well.

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

1997 A8
silver/Black
all options (except 17" wheels )

April

You might look on A6 forum as well as here. Just do a search.

Mikes97A8

I live in KC (no way near as bad as the mountans for snow and ice. I would recommend snow/ice tires on the 16" and performance tires on 17". thats what I plan to do. As far as tire recommendations I would go to Tirerack and read up on all available winter tires that fit your 16" wheels 225/60 R16. I look forward to hearing about your experiences driving those snow packed roads in Colorado.

Steve99A8

I just bought 18" Avus rims with Dunlop SS9000s and love them. I intend to put a winter tire on the stock 17" rims and use them for the snowboarding season.

ryoung

... for my S8.

The winter snow/ice tire of choice seemed to be the Dunlop M2 (someone reported that this will soon be improved to the M3.] Wheels will be the S8 Avus 18".

For summer tires, I'll be switching next week (a little late for summer?) from the stock Dunlop SP8000 to the Bridgestone S-03 Pole Position. Tirerack has good features allowing tire comparisons, giving owner opinions, and showing street/track test results. The S-03 seems to be the equal of any tire in the dry, and better than any max performance tire in the wet. Wheels are really a personal choice unless you're buying based on absolute minimum weight (and the Avus is a very heavy wheel). I'll be mounting the S-03's on HRE's. Tirerack can also show you how some 60+ diffferent wheels will look on your A8.<ul><li><a href="http://www.tirerack.com/">http://www.tirerack.com/</a</li></ul>

jsallee

I have found the BF Goodrich KDWS tires to be a phenomenal winter/summer performer. Had them fitted to 17" Momo's on my previous Volvo S-80 T6. Unfortunately BF Goodrich does not make an 18" tire in the KDWS series. Will most likely switch to Michelin Pilot XGT Z4's for the S8.

Jim

KjellA

Great summer performance tires: (18" or 19" best size or A8)

- Falken GRB FK451 (Extremely good on wet, wins tests with good margin to S-03)
- Bridgestone Potenza S-03
- Pirelli Pzero Rosso

Winter: (best size 16" or 17"). Difficult, depends on conditions. Tires that are good on snow and ice and under very low temperatures are not good in rain and dry or slush, and vice versa.

Pirelli has some new performance tires that handles all conditions farely well, they are named Snowsport. Not your favorite ice-track during extremely low temperatures tire, but good enough. I tried them under these conditions last winter, and they where quite impressive, being a low profile sports type of winter tire.

I have Yokohama F310, which are very good for slush, cold dry or wet roads, and even wet snow. For lots of dry, cold snow and icy conditions they are not good at all. I'm changing to Pirelli Snowsport this year, probably 18" if I can get them.

Michelin Maxi Ice and Bridgestone Blizzak are examples of very good ice and snow tires (very cold conditions), but they are extremely soft and not very good for dry or wet roads when temperatures are around and above freezing. Expect long stopping distance and poor steering feeling on dry roads!

--
/Kjell A

April

People seem to like Dunlop SP5000. I like Nokian snow tires.

Meteor910

What don't you like about the Dunlop SP8000's? I have them (18") on my A8L. So far, so good. Running 35psi front, 33psi rear, in St. Louis in an area with a lot of bumpy roads.

ryoung

The Dunlop SP8000 isn't bad, but I'm looking for a more responsive and predictable tire during both hard cornering and threshold braking; and I'm hoping to find it with the Bridgestone S-03. Though the tread patterns are very similar, what attracted me to the S-03 is that

1. The center rib is continuous, versus slotted/cut on the SP8000

2. The outer row of tread blocks are all linked together at full tread depth on the inner side of the block (visible in photos of the tire on tirerack.com), versus completely free standing on the SP8000

3. The next row of tread blocks are again all linked together at ~1/2 tread depth on the inner side of the block. (This is really only apparent if you have an actual tire in your hand to examine.) Again, these blocks on the SP8000 are free standing.

The result of all of this is that the tread on the S-03 should be very stable with minimal squirming around, be very responsive to steering inputs, and be more predictable under hard braking. This is all based on expectations from my experience, three decades of involvement with the tire industry in my "real" job. I won't know for sure if I'm right until I get back on the track with these tires, but I will let you know.

More subjectively, I'm impressed with the technical innovations Bridgestone claims for their new tire, where the SP8000 has been around for some time and is getting a bit dated. Bridgestone has undoubtedly learned a thing or two from their F1 campaign, and the S-03 is now their flagship tire. Finally, because of the Firestone fiasco, I expect Bridgestone is sparing nothing to insure that their best tire really is the best.

And last, but not least, I had a sidewall fail on an SP8000 on the first 90+oF day after about 4 hours at 80 mph. The tire was definitely properly inflated (I checked before leaving on this trip), it was otherwise undamaged in any way, but both Audi and Dunlop said it was my fault and wouldn't replace the tire. Not the way to win friends and influence people.

Sorry for rambling on, but you asked.