Some of my friends think I should keep the wheels I have.
Car is going to be having complete Techart suspension installed over winter, lowered about an inch.
Wanted different wheels to dress it up a little.
I purchased the cont. DW, based on reviews. Mostly the ride & wet traction. I have no idea how the DW got great reviews for wet traction, because they are terrible.
I have owned almost every tire brand out, and on different types of vehicles.
IMO, Pirelli is the best tire in almost every category except wear.
I did not go with Pirelli for my Porsche because of all the negative feedback on them for use on a 996

For next tire purchase:
Wear is not a concern,
1) Dry traction
2) Ride quality
3) Spirited driving

Price less than $400/tire would be in budget.




QUOTE=alpine003;4420968]The wheels that you have on there are one of the best street/track use wheels you can have. As for tires, that's a loaded question as having dual use can always lead to compromise. Tires and suggestions would depend on your priorities(noise, wear, ride, turn in response, wet handling capabilities, environment temp range, directional,etc). If you rate your priorities, we can give you a more accurate suggestions as one set of tires does not fit all in this case.[/QUOTE]

 

I think in your situation based on your feedback, the DWS would've been the better tire as it has better ride(softer sidewalls) and better wet traction. I currently have the DWS on one of our other cars and I've been happy with it.

As for Pirelli(P-Zero's to be exact), I gave it two chances on two different cars and couldn't wait to get rid of them after 8k miles. First few thousand were ok but after that, I couldn't stand it.

You priority list lends itself to quite a few tire choices but like opinions go...

The popular ones for Porsches matching your criteria are:
Michelin PSS/PS2
Bridgestone S0-4
Sumitomo HTRZ III
Hankook Ventus V12

I'm currently driving on Hankook V12's on my 996 but I've driven on all the other three as well at some point.

 

You, like so many people have not had a good experience with the Pirelli, what did you not like about it?
After talking with some buddies, and reading the feedback here, if I can find a wheel shop here in the northeast, I may just have my current wheels refinished in color match/chrome.
It seems like all the wheel shops are 3000 miles away on west coast
Thank you to everyone for the helpful feedback.

 

I've been riding on Michelin's for a long time and my new Boxster came with Pireli's PZeros. I actually thought I had a nail in it b/c it's so loud, sounds like you have studs on your tires. Michelin's grip better, last longer, smoother, and quiet.

 

Same reason here. The P-Zeros were decent the first few thousand miles then it got real noisy and lost a good amount of traction. The ride seemed to have gotten a bit worse but I don't know if that was the noise playing mind games. At the limit breakaway was ver unpredictable for me as well, at least with my setup. I couldn't wait to sell them truthfully.

 

Agreed, those BBS Carrera wheels are super light and very strong. I run a set of track tires on the same wheels (although Forgelines are my primary track wheel).