Hi,

I am going to be getting new tires for my 92 300CE, which has 16" wheels.

I was talking to a friend of mine who has a fully decked out Stillen 300ZX Twin Turbo, who has the Dunlop SP8000's on his car.

He told me that he has had to have two of them replaced after only a few thousand miles due to them getting "Out of Round".

He Recommended to me to get Yokohama AVS Tires instead.

I Don't mind spending a little extra cash for tires, so I'm not worried about an increase in price for the yoko's over the dunlops.

So My main question is, How good are the Dunlops, and Do you recommend I put them on my car?

I'm not an agressive driver, and I rarely go Racing around, but I do enjoy letting the car open up from time to time. I Don't really go into curvy roads at very high speeds either, and am usually travelling at the flow of traffic (usually about 35-55 mph on city streets, 65-85 on the freeways - though it all depends on traffic too....).

I'm really looking for a tire that will give a smooth ride, good handling, good traction wet and dry, have a good milage rating, and I dont need em to work in the snow as I live in Sunny Los Angeles.

So which tires would be the right tires to get based on my above requirements. I'm going to get them in p225/50/16's as thats what Beverly Hills Ltd. Mercedes Dealer, friends, and local Tire store recommend.

Thanks for the info, I am probably getting the tires on tuesday, so any responses on this before then are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Alon
1992 300CE

The Dunlop 8000 is a very good tire especially considering the price. It has very good dry handling, very quiet, and a smooth ride. Traction in the wet is good but definitely not as good as the AVS Sport. I owned two sets of the Dunlop and they were nice and round.

The AVS Sport is a couple of notches better than the Dunlop in wet and dry traction. In fact the wet performance is truely amazing. It has a very good ride and is very quiet. If money is no problem, buy the AVS Sport. I just ordered my second set on Saturday. Good luck.

I would recommend the Dunlop SP Sport 5000 if you want a High Performance tire that will last a while longer then you might expect, and still offer great wet and dry traction.
As an UUpgrade to them, I would recommend the Bridestone Potenza RE 730, which offer decent wear, great wet and dry and is an Ultra High Performance Tire.
After That, I would go Dunlop SP SPort 9000. Quiet, and great traction in wet and dry like the others, but in a Maximum Performance Tire.
I also recommend the 225/50/16 size, but you might have to get the fenders rolled from what I have heard others on this board say.

------------------
Chirag (Charlie) Patel

- 99 Mercedes-Benz ML 430 V8 w/custom TV, Video, UHF, speaker system
- 93 190E 2.6 (4-sale) w/ an amp, equalizer, and CD-changer, integrated w. stock stereo for integrated cellular phone speaker system
- had a 93 190E m103 3.2, 5-speed trans,
- had a 88 300E 2.6
- had a 84 300TD w/275k+ miles
- 2002 S500/S600 - Maybe in a little more then a year

Love the SP8000s on my other car. Have had 'em for almost a year now, no out-of-round problems. Tire wear is better than RE71s (the other budget high-pref tire) and cost about 1/2 of Toyo Proxes TS1s..

Tony

thanks, so looks like those are the ones I might get. I decided to wait on it for just a little while though.....

I still want to do more research to find out what the best tires for the car are, that have a high mileage rating and handle well and have good wet traction. but also have to be cost effective, or if I really must say it cheap... hehe

I do have another question though, the car right now has 205/55/16's, but it needs new rear tires definately. The fronts appear to be quite new as well. The Fronts are Conti Sport, and the rear which are very low on treat and also on the wheel backwards, so they dont look right at all, are conti 4000H's I believe. Would I be better off buying two conti sports to match the fronts in the same size, or 4 all new tires in the 225/50/16's? Or should I buy the two tires in the 205/55/16 and save up for the 17" AMG Monoblocks, and get tires at that time that are nice? I'd stick to 16's as well, but I dont mind a little bit harsher ride in favor for the look. Performance diffs between 16 and 17 whether better or worse, is not much of a concern to me.

As you can see I'm really just trying to justify how much my expenditure is going to be needed.

I think the 205/55/16's look too small for the car with the 16's. I think the 225/50's would look much better, and would fill the wheel wells nicely.

What do you guys think?

Go for two and save up for the monoblocks? or buy 4 tires in the 225/50 size and still save up for the monoblocks.. hehe

Thing is it might take several months for me to save the cash to get the monoblocks, and then I would want the best tires, and a suspension upgrade hehe, so I would then need to save for that too. so if I'm lookin at havin to save a few grand at least, I dont know if I should spend lets say 450 on new tires, or half that on only two? and just drive it for now until I can afford the sportline suspension with the 17" Monoblocks.

Personally, I would rather put on the 225/50's, and drive on them till I can afford the monoblocks and the suspension upgrade. But any objections to this obviously strange thinking is welcome. hehe

Thanks for your help,

Alon
92 300CE - havent even used up a tank of gas since I got it hehe

[This message has been edited by Ashman (edited 09-26-2000).]