The tires came in today I got them mounted, balanced and aired to 32psi, I love em
The extra width is no problem and I made extreme turns over a moderate bump with no scrapping. The steering wheel is a bit stiffer and overall car is much steadier at 200Kmh (even with a bit of a wind....30Kmh).
For the money I hope I get 2 years out of them, the place I got them from offers free rotations and tire repairs so that will help.
Total bill $775
4 tires
Mounting
Balance
New valve stems
Enviroment fee
Tax 15%

I changed the oil and filter while it was on the hoist, the guy was cool about it so no charge (I suppied the o&f). I have a small leak at the rear seal and wiped it up too. something to watch?

Interesting looking tire the SS595, very similar looking to the Bridgestone Potena RE730.



I didn't realise Federal made high-performance tires, keep us posted on how these trun out.

Cheers,

Yes the tread is like 11/32" deep yet still quiet at highway speed ,not that I could hear between the super charger whine and header growl

Hey PontiacDad, I think you should advance your "Radar Detector" from 'dreamin about' to 'on the way'.
Nice tread design and great price. I hope they perform. If you're only planning on 2 years life then they had better perform.
I can't wait to hear your first 60 ft claim, and better yet, the almightly quarter time.
Let'* not forget braking and handling. Just the fact they are wider by 3/4" should show a noticeable improvement. Z rated compounds are usually stickier, at the sacrifice of tread wear, but another gain.
I just wonder if the yaw response change will affect the Stabilitrak factory settings.
Also, if the 10" wide tire vs the original 9" wide tire on the same 17" x 7" wide wheel negatively affects high speed manouverability. Like the tendency for the tire tread to move relative to the wheel rim during lateral transitions.
My Firebird has 255 mm tires on 15" x 8" wheels and it handles great but the wheel is 8" wide. For straight line dragging, I could go a lot wider on the same rim but my handling would suffer badly and most tire shops wouldn't recommend it. In fact, the optimum
Handling is as important to me as acceleration and braking.
Usually as the wheel diameter increases, so does the minimum width requirement.
Those Federales must have a very special sidewall construction.

His wheels weren't listed on any of those sheets, not to mention none of those were for 2002, not saying that isn't accurate, just that his wheels aren't on there, so it doesn't really tell me his wheels aren't 7", which I'm pretty sure they are.

Because the car is primarily street driven, the goal in going to the wider tire is to:
1) get a shorter tire (the 245/50'* are shorter than the stock tire)
2) get better straight line performance
3) get better cornering performance
4) get better braking

It should do all of those. I know the car pulls .78g on the skidpad stock (according to the magazines anyways), and someone with the same suspension mods (sway bars, strut tower braces, etc...), and stock rims with 245'* (different brand, but very similar tire) on it pulled a .93g on the skidpad. A huge difference and plenty for the street. And these tires are going to stick better in the corners because they are A LOT better than the stock goodyears, if not anything else. Not to mention the wider tires will make the car look meaner!

And the 1st generation w-body was available with LOTS of different rim/tire combinations. For instance some of them came with the 16X8 & 225/60/16'* like you said, and some of them came with the 16X8 & 245/50/16'* (like our turbo gp coupe which ONLY handles decent because of the tires), and some of them came with the 16X6.5 & 215/60/16 (like my STE), there were the regular steel wheels and hubcaps (15" I believe and some fairly narrow tires, like 195'* or something, like my sisters '93 GP LE has), and I believe there were actually a few more tire/wheel combos.

Shawn

With the lower profile rating and stiff side wall construction I think it will be fine, but that is a valid point and something I'll watch for.
The first meet is'nt till the end of May, stay tunned for those stats

True they are 45 ratio vs the stock 55 ratio but because they have a larger width and you didn't increase the rim diameter, the sidewall heights are identical.
So now can you picture how one will be 'looser' on the wheel than the other.

Wishing you good luck for the May challenge.
I'm torn this year trying to choose between taking my Firebird or the SSEi to our May 1/8 mi drag race. Maybe this year it'* Bonne'* turn.