I want your thoughts on Sumitomo tires especially from those of you that have experience with them.
I’m going to be purchasing/replacing stock tires for my Z32. I’ve come across Sumitomo’s that are much cheaper than most of the performance brands in the same class. Reason why I’m considering these tires is because I will use them for a season while I’m still deciding which rim and tire setup I want to upgrade to. Once I purchase the new setup the stock rims and Sumitomo tires will be the winter storage setup therefore I was thinking to spend less on stock replacements now.
What are your thoughts regarding the brand? Should I stay clear? Are these decent tires?
J.
They’re cheap.
They may last a season, but realistically, go for a set from Samson (GB Tires), he’s got mad prices, and they’re actually something worth trusting your car on.
I have Sumitomo HTR+ tires on my 1982 Datsun 200SX. I haven’t driven it much on those tires but I must say they perform really well. Some of the best All Season Performance Radials that I’ve ever driven on, and they’re Z speed rated too. I have 225 35 18 on all four corners and it handles really well.
Summitomo owns Dunlop. Well, through a joint venture with Goodyear, they both kind of own Dunlop. At the time I was looking into purchasing these tires around 2004, there was a tire in the Dunlop lineup that is the exact same as the Summitomo HTR+, but it was 3 times the price.
For my Z32, I bought Bridgestone tires through Samson. Great tires, they grip better than most that I’ve driven and when I really drive it hard, the tires grip better as they warm up. Only thing I have to complain about is the sidewall flex and that the sizes of the tires are not proportionate to other equivalent tire sizes in the market. I had to get my front tires stretched a large amount whereas, my last Kuhmo tires that were the exact same front size fit perfectly.