Summer tyres on Spyder Configurator?

[EarlX99]

Does anyone know what make/model the summer tyres are that you can select as an alternative to the standard sports tyres on the Spyder configurator?

My local OPC have no idea. I’ve contacted Porsche UK, they have no idea what is fitted to their car and told me to contact my local Porsche centre!

Any help would be greatly received

[anonymous-user]

EarlX99 said:

Does anyone know what make/model the summer tyres are that you can select as an alternative to the standard sports tyres on the Spyder configurator?

My local OPC have no idea. I’ve contacted Porsche UK, they have no idea what is fitted to their car and told me to contact my local Porsche centre!

Any help would be greatly received

Assume you'll get MPSC2. Winter deliveries tend to get Dunlops. Never been able to select and had a car on Feb factory completion a year or so ago and wanted it on summer tyres as I expected to receive it mid March. No chance.

[Twinfan]

Mutema - there's a new option on the Spyder to select the type.

Earlx99 - standard sports tyres are Michelin Cup 2s or Dunlop Race Maxx 2s. I believe the summer tyre option will give you Michelin Pilot Sport 4Ss or Pirelli N-Zeros.

Which of the two per option you get is luck of the draw at the factory

[JulierPass]

If you really don’t want cup 2’s I’d go with pilot sport 4 s

[Porsche911R]

JulierPass said:

If you really don’t want cup 2’s I’d go with pilot sport 4 s

Spec cup 2 then sell them.

Better than taking a risk if you 100% want PS4S, as you are not selling a set of p zero for more than £300.

[S666SBD]

My OPC has ordered my Spyder with Summer Tyres of unknown origin ... whatever the Factory has in stock !

There is NOT an option for Standard Winter Tyres for UK spec Cars ... only for Europe .

The Configurator covers Europe and Uk .. for the moment anyway .

Apparently no OPC can specify which make and type for each build slot in 2020 .

Perhaps things may change in 2021

[Steve Rance]

Cup 2's are fine as a winter tyre if you are sensible about the way you drive in wet conditions. Generally, people drive far closer to the limit of grip in wet conditions without knowing it. If you are vigillant and careful with your throttle imputs, cup 2's are absolutely fine the whole year round. Too many drivers rely on winter tyres to compensate for clumbsy imputs and poor awareness.

I ran a 996 GT3 Mk1 on Cup 1's for 70000 miles in all conditions and never had a problem. The Cup 1 was a far less forgiving tyre than the Cup 2. You dont need high levels of car control to manage these tyres

[Taffy66]

I've driven a few of my Porsches fitted with Cups all through winter. As Steve says just drive with caution however i got caught out last February on the M4 when torrential rain switched to slushy snow. All three lanes in front of me were packed with cars who all decided to brake suddenly at the same time. My RS on Cups had to follow suit as there was absolutely no room to circumvent the cars and as i found to my cost had absolutely zero braking on hard packed slushy snow..
Luckily i managed to avoid ramming the cars in front of me by using the central reservation kerb as my makeshift braking system and only sustained some light cosmetic damage.
The moral of the story is that no matter how careful you drive with Cups in cold wet conditions you have a fraction of other cars braking performance.

[bigmowley]

I have 5 cars all on Cup 2's which are used all year round. Most of the time its fine and it certainly keeps you alert and focussed on your driving which can only be a good thing.
My Cup 2 horror story: I was following an ancient 320D touring round the périphérique in very heavy traffic in my 991 GT3 on a very cold, wet January morning. On one of the eternally long sweeping curved concrete slip roads up in the air the GT3 let go in a big way, just not enough grip, I managed to hold the slide which went on forever, getting steadily nearer the back of the BMW which was slowing down due to the backed up traffic. Somehow I managed to thread the car between him and the concrete wall just as we joined the road below. I must have missed everything by the thickness of a layer of paint. I still come out in a cold sweat every time I think about it.
Moral of story an ancient E36 320D on bald ditch finders has a lot more grip than £100K's worth of Porsche's finest in certain conditions!

[Twinfan]

I personally found driving in the pouring rain on Cup2s highly stressful, incredibly tiring and absolutely no fun at all. They're semi slicks and I wasn't trying to win a race, I just wanted to get my wife and I home safely. Suggesting they're fine for all year round use if you're careful is entirely possible, but I'm not sure I'd be recommending it to anyone unless you live near the equator! They also let go easily enough for me on a very slightly damp roundabout on a mild day (12 degrees), yes I was pushing on a bit but I really wasn't expecting them to give up grip so easily.

I'm currently waiting on a pair of rear N-rated PS4Ss to go with the fronts already sat in my garage. Here in the UK they're a much better choice for the mixed conditions we get across all four seasons.

Save the Cup2s for the track IMHO.

[Twinfan]

Oh, and the latest Cup2 N1 tyres are rated "E" in the wet compared to "C" for the N0 spec.

Hence my experiences above - my 718 GT4 has N1s...

[Andy OH]

Twinfan said:

I personally found driving in the pouring rain on Cup2s highly stressful, incredibly tiring and absolutely no fun at all. They're semi slicks and I wasn't trying to win a race, I just wanted to get my wife and I home safely. Suggesting they're fine for all year round use if you're careful is entirely possible, but I'm not sure I'd be recommending it to anyone unless you live near the equator! They also let go easily enough for me on a very slightly damp roundabout on a mild day (12 degrees), yes I was pushing on a bit but I really wasn't expecting them to give up grip so easily.

I'm currently waiting on a pair of rear N-rated PS4Ss to go with the fronts already sat in my garage. Here in the UK they're a much better choice for the mixed conditions we get across all four seasons.

Save the Cup2s for the track IMHO.

Where have you managed to source the N rated rears as back in July I couldn't find any and opted for normal XL PS4Ss, still have the N1 Cup 2's in the garage.

[Twinfan]

Andy OH said:

Where have you managed to source the N rated rears as back in July I couldn't find any and opted for normal XL PS4Ss, still have the N1 Cup 2's in the garage.

They've only just become available and several places now have them, I assume they were approved for the "Summer Tyre" option now available for 718 Spyders. I ordered via TyreLeader on Monday morning. Camskill are expecting them to be available to order from 20th October. BlackCircles never rang me back when I enquired about availability:

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres/michelin/pi...

https://alltyres365.co.uk/Tyre/car/summer/35287069...

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?details...

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre/michelin-pilot-sport...

[Porsche911R]

Twinfan said:

I personally found driving in the pouring rain on Cup2s highly stressful, incredibly tiring and absolutely no fun at all. They're semi slicks and I wasn't trying to win a race, I just wanted to get my wife and I home safely. Suggesting they're fine for all year round use if you're careful is entirely possible, but I'm not sure I'd be recommending it to anyone unless you live near the equator! They also let go easily enough for me on a very slightly damp roundabout on a mild day (12 degrees), yes I was pushing on a bit but I really wasn't expecting them to give up grip so easily.

I'm currently waiting on a pair of rear N-rated PS4Ss to go with the fronts already sat in my garage. Here in the UK they're a much better choice for the mixed conditions we get across all four seasons.

Save the Cup2s for the track IMHO.

I agree 98% :-) (as the cup2 is such a fun summer tyre) that's a 1st. we have one thread saying "winter tyres are a must have" and we have one thread saying run cup's though winter :-)

But the PS4S just works imo and is safer than either more of the time esp in England, In scotland I would run cross climates.
but winters are so yesterday for England and cups are just irresponsible how ever that upsets people...

I also say this though experience as I bought winters about 10 years a go and they were utter dog st but PS2's at the time were also crap so you had to do something, but then you fit winters for about 8 weeks !!! A cross climate you can fit for 4 months and not feel hard done to.

PS4S in the rain are like magic black circles !!! and if it does snow for 1 day I stay at home.

[SWGT3]

I have the N rated PS4S on my 718 Spyder ordered from Camskill back in August. The rears were sent direct from Europe so interesting they are claiming no stock atm. Also interesting they’ve gone up quite a bit in price, I paid £258 for the rears.

When I enquired about the new summer tyre option on the Configurator I was told ‘likely P Zeros’ so would definitely be holding off that and ordering PS4S after collection. When I asked my OPC about the N rated PS4S back in August they said they couldn’t get them.

I’ve said in a few other posts on here but I am so glad I made the change. Have been caught in a few heavy showers since fitting them and they are so much more confidence inspiring in the wet, which helps greatly with that anxiety on the cups that Twinfan mentioned. Love them and would highly recommend.

[Andy OH]

Twinfan said:

They've only just become available and several places now have them, I assume they were approved for the "Summer Tyre" option now available for 718 Spyders. I ordered via TyreLeader on Monday morning. Camskill are expecting them to be available to order from 20th October. BlackCircles never rang me back when I enquired about availability:

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres/michelin/pi...

https://alltyres365.co.uk/Tyre/car/summer/35287069...

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?details...

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre/michelin-pilot-sport...

Twinfan, thanks, just a pain I bit the bullet early and went for normal XL PS4Ss, I must say though they are excellent road tyres. On a recent trip to the Peak District the tyres performed faultlessly and had plenty of grip when making good progress . When I come to replace the tyres, if I do, N rated will probably be widely available.

just a thought though, N rated PS4Ss have been approved as summer tyres for the 718 GT4 & Spyder but have they been approved for the 981 equivalents? I have a 981 GT4. I'm not so sure they have or even will?

[finmac]

Twinfan said:

Andy OH said:

Where have you managed to source the N rated rears as back in July I couldn't find any and opted for normal XL PS4Ss, still have the N1 Cup 2's in the garage.

They've only just become available and several places now have them, I assume they were approved for the "Summer Tyre" option now available for 718 Spyders. I ordered via TyreLeader on Monday morning. Camskill are expecting them to be available to order from 20th October. BlackCircles never rang me back when I enquired about availability:

https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres/michelin/pi...

https://alltyres365.co.uk/Tyre/car/summer/35287069...

https://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?details...

https://www.oponeo.co.uk/tyre/michelin-pilot-sport...

That’s handy, thank you. My GT4 arrives next week so going to swop the Cups to PS4 and was struggling to get the rears.

[Twinfan]

Andy OH said:

Twinfan, thanks, just a pain I bit the bullet early and went for normal XL PS4Ss, I must say though they are excellent road tyres. On a recent trip to the Peak District the tyres performed faultlessly and had plenty of grip when making good progress . When I come to replace the tyres, if I do, N rated will probably be widely available.

just a thought though, N rated PS4Ss have been approved as summer tyres for the 718 GT4 & Spyder but have they been approved for the 981 equivalents? I have a 981 GT4. I'm not so sure they have or even will?

I don't know if the N0 PS4S is formally approved for the GT4 or only the Spyder. I don't think it matters, if you're using N-rated tyres of the correct size you're all good for the extended warranty I believe?

[Cheib]

Andy OH said:

just a thought though, N rated PS4Ss have been approved as summer tyres for the 718 GT4 & Spyder but have they been approved for the 981 equivalents? I have a 981 GT4. I'm not so sure they have or even will?

Highly unlikely they'll approve new N rated tyres for the 981 or anything else that's more than a year or two old. I was amazed that they approved the PS4S for the 991.2 GT3 a couple of years after they stopped making it.

[Andy OH]

Cheib said:

Andy OH said:

just a thought though, N rated PS4Ss have been approved as summer tyres for the 718 GT4 & Spyder but have they been approved for the 981 equivalents? I have a 981 GT4. I'm not so sure they have or even will?

Highly unlikely they'll approve new N rated tyres for the 981 or anything else that's more than a year or two old. I was amazed that they approved the PS4S for the 991.2 GT3 a couple of years after they stopped making it.

That's exactly my thoughts, however, thankfully I still have my N1 Cup 2s in the garage.