chalkcreek

Gotta have some new ones. I'm an appraiser and drive an equal amount in the city as well as on the highway(50 - 200 miles a day) depending on where the lenders send me. I also spend some time on our wonderful unimproved roads here in Oklahoma when valuing acreages and farms etc.

I do recognize that the A8 is NOT an off road car, but if you've never driven on gravel/dirt roads, your missing out on some great handling characteristics.

Anyway, I need something that will basically perform wet or dry as well as not get absolutely chewed up when I am out in the boonies on bad gravel roads. I would also like for them to last a while. (asking too much?)

The stock Goodyears that were on it when I bought it are OK I guess although they do squeal alot and they do lose chunks of rubber on gravel roads and make some road noise that I could do without.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Mark
'97 Pearl A8 (nothing fancy)just an in dash Escort ticket killer.

garyna

I like Pirelli Rosso's for all-around use, Bridgestone SO3's for track/performance use.

ryoung

.
though they're certainly not designed for gravel roads, they may be OK.

As you can see in the link photo, the tread blocks have no sipes at all, and all of the tread blocks are linked together. Probably more than anything else, I'll bet that the sipes in the Goodyear's tread blocks are what caused the tire to chunk.

Treadlife? Don't know yet, but almost certainly not as good as the Goodyears.<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a8/msgs/5405.phtml">S03's on an S8</a></li></ul>

Sailabra8

I've got a couple grand on a new set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S's. So far, so good. Wet grip is excellent, and almost as good as dry, road noise is acceptable, and all around performance is far superior to original Goodyear's. I cannot comment on their off road performance, because as a rule I try to stay on the blacktop. This group has had some extensive discussions regarding tire selection in the past, so try a search. You can also check out tirerack.com, which has much useful data. Best of luck.

ScottS8

The Dunlop SP8000s that shipped with the 2001 S8 were a pleasant surprise. So much so, in fact, that I'll probably replace then for same when the time comes -- about another 5K miles.

The grip is substantial, with very consistant performance, wet or dry. Haven't checked the prices, but I'm pretty sure they're much less than the more popular performance brands.

Worth reading up on before making a decision.

S