Is anybody running Kumho Ecsta SPT or
Sumitomo HTR Z III tires?
If so, what do you think.

I've had the Kumhos on my car for 12k miles. I like them. Looks like the rears will go 15k, which is pretty good for these cars. Fronts look brand new.

Most folks here seem to prefer the Sumi's. Never tried them myself.

Jon

Have the Kumho's on my viper srt 10 vert. I have tracked it twice and so far so good on the tires. Looking for something to put on my stock 18 inchers for track duty on my tt though.

See the "took the affordable supertire plunge" by me....big thread.

Jeff

Talk to Damon at the TireRack.....

I have the Sumi's. Like them so much that I replaced the Pirelli's on my wife's SLK55 AMG with these. I will buy them again.

Between the two the Sumi's are the best. If someone calls and wants Kumhos and the Sumitomo's are available, I will make them aware of it as a substitution. They have proven themselves to be a better "bang for the buck" tire.

Feel free to call me if I can help.

Thanks.

Ive got the Kumhos, just replaced the rears yesterday. Excellent bang for the buck. I haven't tried the Sumi's yet, might do so next round but in all honesty, I'm very happy with the Kumhos and not really motivated to try something else outside of the "why not" factor.

put on 4 new sumitomo HTRZIII yesterday. Done a few hundred kms and I am well impressed. Highly recommended.

First a sidelight...

I bought a set of the Kumho Ecsta SPT for my 2007 Mercedes S550v...staggered sizes with 255-40-19 fronts and 275-40-19 rears. I made the BIG mistake of having the car aligned at Discount Tires under a "life time" agreement. With the airmatic suspension, the ride height has to be adjusted first, then the camber. Discount Tires' "instructions" on how to operate the alignment machine indicated the camber was 'non adjustable."

So after 17,000 miles, the Kumho's are shot with the inside portion of the tread being totally gone. In some ways I'm not sad as the Kumho SPT has a very agressive tread design (good), but they are so noisy. They also flat spot overnight and take about seven miles to round out.

Rotating the Kumho's was an expensive pain as they are unidirectional and had to be dismounted, flipped over, remounted and rebalanced. Since the Sumitomo's are not unidirectional, I'm going with the Sumitomo SRT ZIII this time, and with the Mercedes store's alignment.

I'm not sure; bought mine from Tire Rack, as I will for the replacement Sumitomos. Go to tirerack.com and search for the size you want. I have found that even with the shipping and installation, they are still cheaper than buying from a local tire store.

I have the 225/295 stock 18 sizes on my hollow spokes....great tires (the sumit HTR ZIII). Make sure you get the Z III, not the II...big difference!!!

Jeff

I have Ecsta SPT rears. Good price to performance ratio for street use. Fair on track, no squeeling when cornering.

On a road trip to Germany I noticed Ecstas getting wobbly on autobahn curves past 240 km/h. I think Ecstas have a bit too soft structure for very high speed use.

i had the kumos for a bit. its okay on a normal car (have tyem on my fx35), but theyare downright scary on the 996tt. scary and unsafe.

the sumis otoh are miles better than all OE N3 tires (save the pilot sport), but also LAST way longer.

the sumis are budget tires that really compete with the expensive tire brands.

so if you're considering the kumho or htr ziii....


htr ftw!!!

These are on the fronts of my car. I'll be switching to Michelin PS2 after these wear off. I've always like the Micehlin's on my Vettes; low road noise, good rain traction, excellent warm weather traction and pretty decent on wear. I figure just as much good driving on these in a Porsche too.