I called a Bilstein USA executive I met at Starfest, and he said the comfort shocks are the same as OE, and my experience with the replacement is that he was correct.

The OE tire size is 185/65VR-15 (849 revs/mile, 1201 pounds max load), and you can replace with 195/60; 205/55 is also about the same revs per mile and load capacity, but the OE 6.0" wheels are a bit narrow for this size, which is why I installed them on 6.5" 300E wheels, and I highly recommend this combination if you want the most grip. The best tires are "summer high performance" type with low wear ratings, but I'm not sure if such are currently available in 60-series profiles. Most 60-series are "all-season" or "touring" with tread design and compounding that will not provide the same dry or wet grip as a "summer high performance" type in mild to warm weather, but they have better grip at below freezing temperatures and better snow traction. You have to look at both make/model of tire since all the major manufacturers offer tires in all categories. Look at the tread design, wear rating, max load capacity, and revs/mile. All this data is on-line at The Tire Rack and tire manufacturers' web sites.

For example the Dunlop Sport 8000s on my car have large tread blocks with no sipping and generous circumferential and lateral grooving, which is the tipoff of a summer high performance tire. Also, the wear rating is 200, which is relatively low, but they should deliver about 30K miles of normal driving. Tires with wear ratings above 300 will not have the level of grip the Sport 8000 provides.

Since the 2.6 is fairly front heavy, they understeer more than 2.3s, and to mitigate this characteristic I set the front caster and camber to the limit of their adjustement to maximize negative camber and maximize positive caster, equal on both sides, which yielded about -3/4 deg. camber and +10.5 deg. caster.

Steering response is much better with less understeer, and at the limit I can even induce some oversteer, but it's very controlable, and tire wear is even.

Duke