Converted to dark side, now, N rated tyres?

[ianwayne]

Mid life crisis my friends are saying but I bought a 2003 Boxster S yesterday. Last high performance car was a TVR Chimaera 10 years ago and whilst it isn't as quick, it is certainly more solid, grips better AND is quieter inside. Hoping it'll be more reliable. Lovely sound under acceleration. I'm converted already!

I digress, I'm here to ask about tyres. I see the Boxster forum is only 3 pages long so must be a recent addition, and the search is still rubbish, so I can't find any threads about the use of N rated tyres. I expect there are some if I could be shown where. The rear tyres are almost shot and whilst they are N4 rated, how do I know if this the correct one for this car? (There is N0 to N7 now). Does it matter as long as they are matched?

Edit: I stand corrected about the search function. I presumed it was searching the whole of google on the web, but the left-hand pane is Pistonheads specific:

https://www.google.com/search?as_q=boxster+tyres&a...

Got plenty to read now! Intial results suggest that a decent Y rated tyre will do. Although W speed rating is just sufficent, it may not have as much grip under load.

Edited by ianwayne on Sunday 17th November 08:33

[m999psw]

I bought N rated for my wifes 2004 Boxster {Continental Sport Contact (Porsche (N1)) 205/55 R16 Z (0) * 2Continental Sport Contact (Porsche (N1)) 225/50 R16 Z (0) * 2} and 2 rears for my Cayman. Both from Black circles where there is good information and choice and for me the best was one of their fitting partners is Porsche Portsmouth.

Paul

[BIRMA]

You only have to stick to N rated tyres if your car is under an OPC warranty so any decent tyre will be ok, some people even use budget tyres on Boxsters, in fact in my opinion it's a pain being told which tyres you can use.
A lot of people rate the Michelin Pilot Super Sports which for the Boxster do not have the N rating yet. As my car is about to come out of the warranty I will be fitting these tyres.There may be an insurance issue not using the correctly rated tyre but I'm not too sure about that.

Edited by BIRMA on Sunday 17th November 09:20

[Timbo_Mint]

The N0 to N7 you talk about is the iteration of that particular brand of tyre. So the Continental Sports mentioned in the above post have had their design or compound changed once.

[mrdemon]

BIRMA said:

You only have to stick to N rated tyres if your car is under an OPC warranty

Not quite true, I don't have n spec tyres and my cars are under OPC warranty :-) and have had claims ok.

They cannot refuse a warranty claim unless they can prove the part you have fitted is involved and for tyres that going to be pretty hard on a rear window clip claim lol.

What you cannot do is renew a OPC warranty, but just borrow a set of wheels off some one to get it through.

[thegoose]

They can excuse any warranty claim where the policyholder hasn't complied with all the terms & conditions - if those stipulate N rated tyres they certainly can refuse claims. I realise that if the OPC is faced with being able to get paid by the warranty people for a small job there's a good chance they won't scrutinise tyres too carefully if it means they might not get the job if they're not deemed compliant, but try claiming for something big and the warranty people will make sure the car's thoroughly checked for compliance, and will refuse the claim if anything's found to be amiss.

[mrdemon]

never happen and would not stand up in court.

[thegoose]

mrdemon said:

never happen and would not stand up in court.

I wouldn't want to be the one recommending that someone test it. I guess from what you're suggesting it would go something like this:

OPC: "Here's the terms of the warranty, sir, please sign to say that you agree to them, and will at all times comply with them and then we'll provide cover for you"

Owner, later: "Yes, I know I signed in agreement of your terms but actually I was prepared to blatantly ignore and contravene them. However, I still expect you to provide cover and if you don't then I'm suing you"

OPC/Porsche warranty: "Good luck!"

[Alpinestars]

mrdemon said:

never happen and would not stand up in court.

I think there's a difference between a Porsche manufacturer's warranty and an aftermarket OPC warranty. If the terms of the aftermarket warranty require N rated tyres, then that's what you've signed up to.

[r1flyguy1]

Hi Ian

Go over to Boxa.net for a dedicate porsche boxster site.

Welcome to porker ownership

[Steve H]

I didn't even know about Porsche's silly rating system when I got my 06 Cayman, put two Super Sports on the front and 10k later they are not even half way down and are working very well (felt good in greasy conditions round Silverstone yesterday ).

I wouldn't want to scrimp anyway TBH but if they do manage 20k miles then I can't see any reason to buy cheaper stuff or look for N rated!

[Liokault]

There was a story in a local paper a few years ago,

Guy in a 911 turbo lost it and killed his passanger, judge accepted that he wasnt speeding and had no evidance that he was driving without due care, but sent him down (as in actual prison time) as he didnt have correctly specked (yet totally legal) tyres.

I wish I could find a link to the story as I forget all the detail.

I think the judge concluded that as he didnt have the OEM spec tyres he had failed in a duty of care or some such.

[edc]

Liokault said:

There was a story in a local paper a few years ago,

Guy in a 911 turbo lost it and killed his passanger, judge accepted that he wasnt speeding and had no evidance that he was driving without due care, but sent him down (as in actual prison time) as he didnt have correctly specked (yet totally legal) tyres.

I wish I could find a link to the story as I forget all the detail.

I think the judge concluded that as he didnt have the OEM spec tyres he had failed in a duty of care or some such.

I think there is a difference between correct spec (speed and load rating etc) and N rating. After all, who buys the same tyres for their other cars that the car rolled out of the factory or showroom on?

[Liokault]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Here you go.

States he was driving under the speed limit in the dry, doesn't state what the actual charge was ( but does inform tha he had a private plate, cool journalism) , but does state the judge thought that the problem was having different, but legal, tyres front and rear.

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/5035256.Killer_dr...

Also, compose, you are a tt. This is all.

[mrdemon]

Porsche fit the pilot super sports to the CGT and it transformed the car to a usable one.

But if I fit the best road tyres on the market today and what Porsche now say is the tyre to have on their top end car they will not warranty my engine lol. I doubt it.

Also the 599 GTO and many other top end cars have pilot super sports.
People seem scared and fit a 8 year old design tyre to a top end 60k sports car.
It's about time this tyre choice was challenged , it's getting crazy that today's tyres are far better than any N spec tyre.

Funny how they slapped N on the CGT pilot SS size though lol.

Edited by mrdemon on Monday 18th November 22:52

[ianwayne]

The whole reason for that fella's conviction surely was this:

"...Clare, who was described as a classically trained drummer, admitted causing death by careless driving."

The different tyres were not the reason for his conviction.

[anonymous-user]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

This.

And as said, most manufacturers have brandings equivalent to the N rating but very few people are even aware of that, let alone search out BMW star marked, MB M marked tyres etc, when they come to change.

If it were illegal to run tyres without such marks, there would be cases such as the one above every day.

Further to Moose's point about discontinuation, he's right. I have a Passat CC, brand new in March 2010. When I needed to buy 1 new tyre earlier this year, when the car was just 3 years old I found that the original contiseals have been discontinued.

I ordered what I thought was one but was sent a completely different tyre. On querying with the supplier I was told it was OK to fit on the same axle as the original spare.

I mailed Conti who said it was best to fit exactly the same on an axle but it was indeed safe enough. In the end I sent the tyre back and managed to source one of the last originals from Germany ( not as hard as it sounds, Pneu Service!) but next spring when I put the summer tyres back on I will have to have a pair of the new type to replace two others.

So three years old and the tyre that was specced for the car by the manufacturer is no longer available and both a dealer and the manufacturer authorising the use of two different tyres on the same axle.

[edcs]

You might find that the N rated tyres are the same/similar price to the non-rated version. I noticed that when I needed to replace the fronts on mine so I went for Michelin Pilot Sports which have been very good so far. My car came with Bridgestones on the back which I don't really rate, the back end of the car can be quite twitchy sometimes. The Bridgestones are a higher N rating too.

I really wouldn't go for a budget tyre though.