Tyre recommendations for E 46 M3 convert

[Nedz]

MOT time coming up in a few months and my tyres are looking well past their best.Ive owned the car over 4 yrs now and replaced two sets of tyres in that time.Ive stuck with pilot sport 2's which were on the car when i bought it and been very happy with them.

I have been very lucky in that a good mate of mine is in the tyre bussines and on both times has supplied and fitted the tyres for me at cost £680 per set of 4!!

Not sure i am gona get the same service this time round though as he has changed jobs so dont really want to cough up top whack for PS 2's so may be looking for a cheaper alternative.

Im not too concerned about ultimate performance or wear as it is only a shopping/cruising car and i am also thinking of selling it in the near future.

What im after then is a mid range tyre,cheaper than ps'2,decent performance and something that wont make a potential buyer turn their nose up at them.

Any recommendations on what tyres you are using and what you paid for a set of 4 would be most helpfull.

Cheers.

[Y282]

falken 452s, order them off camskill.

i should be on commission.

[Nedz]

Y282 said:

falken 452s, order them off camskill.

i should be on commission.

I did have a look at the falkens,just under £600 for 4 is very good.Do you use them,happy with them?

[Y282]

Nedz said:

Y282 said:

falken 452s, order them off camskill.

i should be on commission.

I did have a look at the falkens,under Just under £600 for 4 is very good.Do you use them,happy with them?

yup, always use them and know f others who do as well. i should add mine is an e36 evo, not a 46 so car is a little smaller and lighter but power to weight is similar. very good grip in all weather, the backs won't let go unless you're really daft with them. put rears on about 8 months ago and they're not quite half worn through. fronts aren't really wearing at all so far.

[Jonboy_t]

As above, Falkens are pretty good.

One word of advice though if you are thinking of selling it, don't just go for the cheapies to fill the time between now and when it sells. Some people in the market for a performance car like this can be put off by it not having the best of the best in terms of tyres as it may appear that you have scrimped on it, and if you've done that on tyres, what has been forfieted on the other servicing costs?

I'm not saying that this is what you are doing at all, just a word of advice!

[Nedz]

I understand what your saying john,Im not planning on putting real cheapies on,but if i can get a good set of tyres for £600 rather than paying a £1000 for a set which for most of the time i will probably not know the difference between then i dont really see the point.

The rest of the car is top notch and i dont think a set of slightly lesser tyres would put off a potential buyer esp on a convertible which,lets be honest dont get driven anything like as hard as their coupe/csl sisters.

Out of intrest,what tyres have you had on your M3 prev/currently.

Cheers

[Y282]

Nedz said:

I understand what your saying john,Im not planning on putting real cheapies on,but if i can get a good set of tyres for £600 rather than paying a £1000 for a set which for most of the time i will probably not know the difference between then i dont really see the point.

The rest of the car is top notch and i dont think a set of slightly lesser tyres would put off a potential buyer esp on a convertible which,lets be honest dont get driven anything like as hard as their coupe/csl sisters.

Out of intrest,what tyres have you had on your M3 prev/currently.

Cheers

i've had contisport 3s on mine and cheapos between a set of wheels being swapped as well. The falkens are as god as the contis for normal driving imho and cheapies don't belong on any m3. the car needs good rubber to handle properly, it's not worth scrimping on.

[Jonboy_t]

Nedz said:

I understand what your saying john,Im not planning on putting real cheapies on,but if i can get a good set of tyres for £600 rather than paying a £1000 for a set which for most of the time i will probably not know the difference between then i dont really see the point.

The rest of the car is top notch and i dont think a set of slightly lesser tyres would put off a potential buyer esp on a convertible which,lets be honest dont get driven anything like as hard as their coupe/csl sisters.

Out of intrest,what tyres have you had on your M3 prev/currently.

Cheers

I've got Michelin something or others on there at the moment. I've only had it a few months and they're the ones that came on it, probably gonna need changing for a while yet as it rarely gets to see anything other than my driveway at the moment

[mat205125]

Nedz said:

I did have a look at the falkens,just under £600 for 4 is very good.Do you use them,happy with them?

I use A452s on my E46, on the road and on the track. A brilliant balance of grip, feedback, all weather performance, value and longevity.

[jonnybrad2001]

Jonboy_t said:

As above, Falkens are pretty good.

One word of advice though if you are thinking of selling it, don't just go for the cheapies to fill the time between now and when it sells. Some people in the market for a performance car like this can be put off by it not having the best of the best in terms of tyres as it may appear that you have scrimped on it, and if you've done that on tyres, what has been forfieted on the other servicing costs?

I'm not saying that this is what you are doing at all, just a word of advice!

Could have just been unlucky, but I had big issues with Falkens and punctures on one of my last cars, binned half the tyres within 4k. No issues with Yoko Prada or Kumho's on the same car. YMMV and all that of course.

Walked away from a BM last month that had a different brand cheap no name tyre on each corner...

[Nords]

Go for Michelin Super Sports, the new replacement for PS2s...

[The Ferret]

Nedz said:

Y282 said:

falken 452s, order them off camskill.

i should be on commission.

I did have a look at the falkens,just under £600 for 4 is very good.Do you use them,happy with them?

www.clickontyres.com are slightly cheaper. I've used them before and the service is great.

Personally I would be adding slightly to the budget and going for Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta. Been running these for a year now on recommendation from many M3 owners and they are as good as the Continental Sport Contacts that they replaced.

[JNW1]

The Ferret said:

Personally I would be adding slightly to the budget and going for Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta. Been running these for a year now on recommendation from many M3 owners and they are as good as the Continental Sport Contacts that they replaced.

+1

No experience of Falkens but been running my M3 CS on Vredesteins for about 50k miles now (not the same set!) with no complaints whatsoever; the car was on PS2's originally and, while they were also good, personally I don't think they're worth the extra money over the Ultrac Sessantas.

[playalistic]

Another +1 for the Vreds. At that price point there is nothing close IMO.

[andye30m3]

Nords said:

Go for Michelin Super Sports, the new replacement for PS2s...

Thats what I went for on the CSL, Very happy with them so far.

[Porscheplayer]

Just to confuse things further

I'd say avoid the Verd's, their really ste imo.

Had PS'2 before, bought a car with brand new Verd’s on all round, different league in terms of dry grip comapred to the PS2's, the Verds are ok for a shopping car, not for something with 340BHP.

[Nedz]

Thanks for all the replys guys,its gonna be a couple of months yet before i will need to replace the tyres,i just wanted to get an idea of what else is out there as i have only ever used the ps 2's.

I know you guys with the coupe and csl's will probably only fit top end tyres and i would certanly do the same but like i said the car doesn't get driven hard at all.(i have a 460bhp/tonne westfield for when i need a fix!)

Ive not had a word with my mate yet to see what he can do,i just didn't fancy spending over a grand on tyres for a car that is only worth about £12k especially if it doesn't really need them.

Thanx again and if anyone else has knowledge of different tyres on the E46 M3 please feel free to comment.

[ga41]

Porscheplayer said:

Just to confuse things further

I'd say avoid the Verd's, their really ste imo.

Had PS'2 before, bought a car with brand new Verd’s on all round, different league in terms of dry grip comapred to the PS2's, the Verds are ok for a shopping car, not for something with 340BHP.

They are not as good as the PS2's but i'd hardly call them st. I'm going through my second full set of Ultrac Sessanta's and for their money i'm very happy with them.

[JNW1]

Porscheplayer said:

Just to confuse things further

I'd say avoid the Verd's, their really ste imo.

Had PS'2 before, bought a car with brand new Verd’s on all round, different league in terms of dry grip comapred to the PS2's, the Verds are ok for a shopping car, not for something with 340BHP.

Each to their own but I didn't detect any lack of grip with the Vredesteins compared to the PS2's; I guess it depends on how you drive to some extent but in normal road use I've not found them lacking in grip whether the roads are wet or dry - to be honest they were even reasonably good in the snow as well! It's a while since I made the switch from PS2's but from memory the only difference of note was in terms of road noise (with the Vredesteins better than the PS2's in that respect).

It's also worth noting that the EVO tyre test that featured both tyres a year or two back rated the Ultrac Sessanta higher than the PS2 (and in particular it out-scored the PS2 comfortably in the road circuit part of that test which is arguably the most significant element for road car tyres!). I accept their opinion doesn't make it a fact but if experienced road testers come to that conclusion having driven the same car back to back with the tyres as the only variable I think that counts for something!

I know the PS2 has many fans and I think they're good tyres (albeit pricey for what they offer); however, I think your description of the Vredesteins is more than a little unfair!

[playalistic]

Porscheplayer said:

Just to confuse things further

I'd say avoid the Verd's, their really ste imo.

Had PS'2 before, bought a car with brand new Verd’s on all round, different league in terms of dry grip comapred to the PS2's, the Verds are ok for a shopping car, not for something with 340BHP.

If you can seriously detect such a gulf in dry grip between PS2s and Vreds you want to get yourself a try out in F1