Hi folks,

Need to replace my tires and since the car will now reside in Central Oregon as opposed to TX, I am considering putting all-seasons on it. I am aware that all-seasons do not offer the best extreme performance, but I have a 911 Turbo for that. The N spec for my Pannie 2012 Turbo S seems to be a Pilot Sport A/S Plus. Does anybody have any feedback on this tire ? The only thing that is kind of raising a flag for me is that Michelin in the meantime has an A/S 3 Plus in their 'non N spec' offering. Would this mean that the Porsche N spec is old technology ?
Thank you in advance for chiming in.

 

They'll be a compromise but should work well in you use case - just don't plan on driving up to Timberline Lodge in the winter time and you should be in good shape.

 

I have the Pilot Sport A/S Plus (N-Spec) tires on my Panamera right now. They are amazing! I recommend them without reservation. I don’t believe they are “old” technology. This is a tire Michelin specifically makes just for Panamera. I have also had the Pilot Sport A/S 3+ on my previous car (Acura TL) and it was a solid tire too.

I also live in the Pacific Northwest and you can definitely run the A/S Plus tires all year round. I switch to Pilot Super Sports in the summer and then Arctic Alpin PA4’s in the winter. I’m sure I could “get away with” just all season tires but I like wheels! Hope this helps...

 

Thanks, I think I will try them.
The issue with living on the high desert is that even in Summer temps can drop by 30 degrees between day and night, offering a wide temperature range even within the same day.
It is not my intention to ever drive the car in the snow, I have a cayenne on winter tires and a redneck vehicle (pick-up ) with the snowflake tires.

 

I noticed that there are N0 and N1 tires available, at least on tirerack.com, for the 20 inch size wheels on ours. I'm assuming the proper one is one or the other, but I'm new and couldn't figure it out flipping through the manual.

FWIW- Ours came with mismatched rear tires, one was the proper 295/35R20 (Michelin I forget which model), the driver side was 305/30R20, (also Michelin, I just didn't catch it was a different size when we bought it). Driving around one day it was jerking in a multilevel parking lot in Old Town Pasadena. I came home, pulled out my code reader, and pulled a transmission code. I checked all the tires to find this dilemma.

I then searched for a properly sized tire to fit, and ended up with a Lionhart LH-FIVE 105Y XL I ordered from walmart.com. It was $74.97 plus tax when I ordered it. Looks like the Radar Dimax AS-8 (*non-N-spec if that is important to you*) is also a good (long lasting) all season tire, for the budget minded non-high performance drivers, like us. (I haven't noticed any issues with our still mismatched tires).

Ideally for me if I need to replace them I'd try to find a run-flat option because there is no spare tire, but I think there is none in 295/35R20, at least that I could find, and the significant other is always budget conscious....

 

I have a staggered setup on my PTT with 265/30/22's on front and 315/25/22's on the rear. Originally I would only put Pirelli P Zero Nero GT tires on which are stupid expensive. My brother in law owns Concavo Wheels http://concavowheels.com/ and told me to try Lexani tires in the same setup. I ordered/installed mine in March 2018 and love these tires. I cannot tell one difference between these and my Pirelli tires. I live in Michigan and my PTT is my daily driver and have had no issues even in the winter.

For comparison I would spend around $2100 a set for the Pirelli's and bought 4 of these Lexani's delivered for $546!! Hell I could replace them every year if needed but I don't since they still have plenty of life left on them.

BTW the car's ridding on his Concavo CWS5 wheels in my pic...

LX-TWENTY Tires (LXST202230040) by Lexani®. 265/30ZR22

LX-TWENTY Tires (LXST202225010) by Lexani®. 315/25ZR22

 

I just went through this with my Turbo S. The AS Plus tires fit perfectly of course. I very much wanted AS3+ tires, but there are not tires with the same load rating and speed rating that fit my 20s. My tire installer called his Michelin rep and his Porsche contact and they both told them they aren't comfortable with the AS3+ options that I had come up with (which still had the same front/rear diameter ratio).. because of the different in speed and load ratings. For them it comes down to liability and wear on the differential. Be careful with your choice.

 

Most tires of the same size have the same load rating. I first noticed that the specs on Walmart's site showed 95 vs 105, was shocked that I missed that, and in turn reported here. I can confirm that 95 is in fact a typo. Here is the rating on the actual tire:

M+S all season rated...

It's not N0/Porsche spec, but it does fine for my/our needs...

 

Aren't most 970 wheels staggered? Do, the front and rear tires won't be the same size. I was looking specifically at AS3+ tires, and could not find a front and rear set that would work for my factory 20" wheels.

 

Correct. I ended up buying the A/S Plus. Should be arriving this week.

 

I went to the Michelin website and looked. Seems like that model is not available for the Panamera 20" sizes. My apologies for misunderstanding your point.

I was just pointing out that even though a tire might not be N-spec, it may be suitable for normal everyday use...

 

quite true
However, if you talk to Michelin (who made most (all?) of the N-Spec tires for the Panamera) or Porsche, they'll tell you to not go with anything other than N-Spec tires, especially for the AWD cars. Admittedly, they have their own risks to worry about, and this is a way to ensure that you're putting tires on your car that won't cause problems for you and for them. But it's still something to consider.

When I get a 911 some day, I'm definitely looking for a RWD car so that I can play with the tires and not worry about AWD differentials.

 

So true.
I slapped N Specs on my Panamera TTS which still has OEM 20" Turbo wheels.
However, I do agree with Strassenkurve's point that there are other good tires out there.
Case in point - My 911 is on aftermarket HREs, so my only option for the 305/25/19 rear tire is Toyo Proxes. Been using them for years and never felt unsafe on a Stage II modified Turbo...