Summer vs All season tires?
 

The sales guy at Tire Rack is telling me that summer tires ride harder and not as comfortable as All Seasons. Is this true?

i heard summer tires blow up if you drive them cold

It depends on the tire.

More like the car blows up when you fly off the road in freezing temperatures.

He drives a roadster with no real performance aspirations, seems like flying off the road would require…user error

That's right, no mods on the engine or suspension. I've had my fast cars through out the years. At 71 I just want to cruise through the mountain roads of Vermont with the top down. The Z is plenty fast enough for me and fortunately I don't drive it in the VT winters or my tires may blow up....

Experience talking here folks, pay attention.

A camry solara convertible would fulfill this guys needs

A Solara doesn't have a MT.

Neither does the thread starter. He actually bought an automatic, convertible Z

Oh, the humanity! :rofl2:

:wtf2:

It really must suck being so miserable that you feel obligated to be condescending ******* towards a fellow Z owner who was just asking a simple question.

I just wanna help him get a car that fits him

Wierd how you all wanna jump into this thread to talk about me and none of you even tried to help the poor OP get his comfy tires! I guess you guys would rather try to make yourselves feel better than actually help the guy you think you’re standing up for

Good job, guys, he still doesn’t know what tires to get or how to find out what tires are hard or soft to ride on

That's a pretty good rule-of-thumb, but ...
Tire technology has advanced enough that some Summer-only tires can give a decent ride. But you'll trade a little traction for comfort.

Unless you plan on changing tires with the seasons or only drive during the Summer, I'd eschew the Summer-only tires. YMMV

I'm only asking for a good riding tire for my Z. I love my car and the compliments I get. I'm not looking to trade it for something different. I enjoy the ease of the AT and use the paddle shifters when I'm feeling frisky. I have the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500's on her right now. I am considering putting on BC coilovers and adjusting them on the softer side in hopes to make the ride a little less harsh.

You've already got one of the most comfortable summer tires. What's wrong with them?
Are you thinking of switching to the new Firehawk AS? I've seen them reviewed as less comfortable than the Indy 500.
Every tire is going to be different I don't think you can make a blanket statement that all season tires are more comfortable than summer tires. Going to depend on the tire.
Maybe look into reviews for "luxury" "touring" tires and compare them to the indy 500.

Then if these are one of the most comfortable tires I will stay with them. I have lowered the pressure to 32 psi. When I'm on I-89 and I hit those expansion joints on the bridges the car really hits them hard, to the point that it skips the car to the side. Maybe this is common with the Z. If so I'll live with it.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ucazmxgd8c...20PM.png?raw=1

Maybe just try plugging tires into the compare function on tire websites. You can see they rate both the summer and all season Michelin tires the same comfort. More comfortable than the indy 500 but not by much.

You and I are in the same boat when it comes to our Z's. Our priorities are a little different than some others here. In my opinion, your choice to go with the coilovers will be the best "bang-for-your-buck" option that will allow you the most flexibility for ride height and comfort. I recently scored a great deal on Koni adjustable dampers to go with my Swift springs (which I am overall impressed with), so I went that route instead of starting over with a coilover set-up. Getting your suspension dialed in with as many adjustable suspension parts that you can afford will only aid in finding that sweet spot between driveability and comfort.

The tires that you choose play a huge part in that equation. I'm having to purchase new shoes for my Z since the Bridgestones are several years old now. I initially considered going with an all-season tire since I'm moving to an area back East that experiences light snow in the winter. I will probably instead go with an affordable UHP summer tire like the Firehawk Indy 500. Based on my own research, it seems to be a good all-around tire, even in cold weather. They likely don't do well even with a smidgen of ice and snow on the pavement, but I now have an incentive to buy something AWD before next winter.

That's my $.02 worth, since I had failed to provide anything of value to this discussion beforehand. :tup:

Thanks for the incentive to get coilovers. I'm going to order these tomorrow.
https://www.z1motorsports.com/coilov...d2cb357a3bdffb

Nice! Let us know how they perform after you put them on. Don't forget the adjustable arms if your alignment gets out of sorts. That in itself can ruin the ride quality and handling characteristics of the car if your intent is to keep it on the street.

Will do... I think if I keep it at the same height I should have no alignment problem. If I decide to lower it a bit. SPL adjustable arms will be the way to go.