esqdg

There seems to not be many recent threads on the issue.

The usual routine.. I need new rears... looking for a recommendation on tires. The car will never see snow. I need something functional in the wet (i.e. driving normally in the rain won't be dangerous). The tires i have are ps2s (265/35/18). i find that there isnt enough traction. i don't care about treadlife or cost. I only care about grip and being able to handle the wet safely.

recommendations please?

vexige

You won't find much info for R171 here.
Go to SLKworld dot com Plenty of info. Hankook V12 seems to be the favorite.

esqdg

thx. posted there too..

SLK55R

I still loves the PS2s ... The first question would be have you upgraded the size to 265 in the rear? If not that would be the first change.

If you have and you still don't have enough traction, I'd be a little surprised unless you have heavily modified your SLK55. You must have a really heavy foot!

Personally when I ran my SLK55(supercharged) I ran Michelin Pilot Sport Cups.
It doesn't have great traction in the wet but I never had any issues. Obviously if its raining I was very light with the pedal. The main problem with the Cups was if there was a lot of water pooling.

esqdg

awesome question. i updated my initial post to reflect that info... i have 265/35/18... and yes.. i have a heavy foot. typically turn off traction control unless the roads are wet. i have from time to time driven around in dynomode as well.

w/ traction control off, i really have to feather in the throttle from a stop to avoid massive wheel spin. i was really hoping on this set of rears to minimize this from happening.

i guess that the pilot sport cups are a step or two above the ps2s?

the other background is that my old car, i ran bridgestone re01rs. never had issues with traction then and had a heavily modified car. i switched to this one and i am having issues putting the power to the ground from time to time. was hoping to get more grip on the tires to help solve this problem.

thanks again.

SLK55R

yes the cups are practically racing tires with a low tread. I would get them heat treated by tire rack and if I was going to the track, I would get them shaved. They are considerably more expensive than the PS2s.

Even when I didn't shave the tires, I don't think I got more than 4k miles out of the rears. Even then they were rubbed down to the metal showing ... : )

Thats the problem with the SLK ... not enough room in the back to put a sizable tire.

Best of luck ... there might be something even better out there today.

esqdg

im hoping for better suggestions.. i am running short on time to decide. im leaning towards keeping the ps2s on the front and getting cups for the rear...

mac911

Have you ever had the Conti Sport Contact 3s that come on many SLKs?

I like them, but can't compare them to anything else.

They're fairly popular though.

Ppower

You able to run that size on stock rim?! Thought 255 was widest you could run on it.

esqdg

many sources say this is outside the size of what should be mounted on the wheel. so, dismissing their wise advice, i opted for 265s in ps2s on the rear. i recently replaced them with the pilot sport cups of the same size. i asked if the ps2s were weird in wear or if it looked ok to the shop tech. he said no issues, normal wear. again, it has been said that 265 is not recommended on the stock wheel and i do remember seeing somewhere that someone had rubbing issues with 265s, but i am not sure if they lowered their slk or not.

Havoc

I installed 275/30/19 Nitto NT05 tires onto my 19x9.5 Brabus Monoblock S rear wheels! These wheels came from Brabus with spacers which I had slightly shaved for a perfect fit. The pics were taken before I had the spacers shaved.

I would recommend installing a LSD to help with traction than going with a slightly wider tire which won't help much and if it's taller it'll just slow you down even more.















The 275/30/19 Nitto NT05 tires look great and are 1 inch wider than the stock tires which is good for traction, even though I can still light them up, but they also are 1 inch taller than the stock tires which slightly increases the final drive gear slowing acceleration and shifting slightly.

I installed 255/35/18 Michelin PS2 tires (.5 inch taller than stock) on my stock 18" AMG 2-piece wheels, but will be going back to the stock size of 245/35/18 to keep the overall diameter and final drive stock. I'll install a Quaife LSD to help with traction. Now if only these wheels were lighter!