I am on the market to buy some new tires for my Camaro.

I need 2 315/35/17 and 2 275/40/17.

I am looking at getting Nitto 555Rs for the rear and Nitto 555RIIs for the front, problem is that they will cost me over $700 just to get them to my house not to mention mounting/balancing.

Which would be another $20 a piece.

Total, looking at about $800.

Then there is a guy on EBAY selling a set of sumitomos in the exact sizes that I want for only $385, SHIPPED. That is $465 after mounting.

So roughly half the price.

The Nittos are twice as expensive, Are they twice as good?

Thanks for any insight.


This is on a a street car with around 375 HP and TQ to the wheels that is justa bout daily driven.

 

If they are HTR Z II Sumitomos they are are a very good performance tire for the price (good tread design). I have a set on my car since 2002 (245/45ZR17) and they are very good in the dry, wet and good traction. Now that is for only that model tire. Check Tirerack out for other comments and reviews. There are more then one model of Sumitomos.

 

Screw it, I found some Vredestein Sessanta that I spent over an hour reading about on vette forums and they LOVE them. Not a single bad statment about them. And only about $200 more for the set of 4 off ebay. I am picking up a set and will provide a full review.

 

Screw it again. After shipping I would be looking at a $700 bill for tires, unmounted.

I am going with Sumitomo's since I can get them MOUNTED and balanced for more than $200 less.

Maybe the next round of tires I will indulge. For now the car is too new with less than 2000 miles. Still need to tune before I spend crazy $ on tires.

 

Relax,

When I had ZO6 wheels, I used Sumitomos, they worked out great.

You always get what you pay for but they worked out wonderfully.

 

Yeah, believe me, after building an entire car from the ground up, I am a HUGE advocate about the "you get what you pay for" saying. Its just that $400 Seems like the right price range right now. Maybe next year when the car is all dialed in and buttoned up, I will opt for the upper scale stuff.

Thanks for the good words about the tires. I feel confident that they are the right choice now.

 

I have Sumitomos on the Formula, while they are okay, thats just it, they dont do anything great or anything very bad.

I would prolly go with Kumho's or something rather than sumitomo again if I had to do it over

later
Jeremy

 

Yeah they don't seem bad. Now if they made any tires in 315, I would consider them.

I could get them for the front though, but as they are sold on ebay for dirt cheap (sumitomos) I might as well stick with all the same on all 4 corners for now.

 

Hey, do the Sumitomos have a rim protector? Any pics of your sumitomos anyone? Thanks.

I am buying these on Sun (ebay) so please post before then.

 

I've had Sumitomos previous to going back to BFGoodrich and while they were a good set of tires they didn't last long, I just broke 20K when they needed to be replaced.

 

HTRZ-II 245/45/17

 

thx

 

I have Kuhmo on my GTA and Sumitomo on my Formula.
My personal opinion is that the Kuhmo's are decent DRY. Rain sucked. Did a 270 spin in the middle of a 4 lane road in downtown Rockford. Never drove this car in the snow.
The Formula has the Sumi's. Not bad. Can't complain especially for the price. Even does fine in the snow. They have about 20K miles on them now. The rears need to be changed but the fronts are still quite nice.

 

Great. Thanks for the input. The sumitomos are pretty much my only cheap source for tires in the 315/35/17 size. After them, the prices jump up to the $170-$240 range. Not too bad, but since the car is still in its infancy, I see no need to slurge on exotic meats.

 

Just make sure they are the HTRZ II Z rated and not the all season ones.

 

They are not the HTRZ IIs. They are the normal HTRZs

 

The all season ones, I would pass. Not a performance tire.

 

They are not all season

go to tirerack.com, the HTR Z tries are summer performance tires. Not sure why you thought they are all season.

 

Because my prefernce is the HTRZ-II and my opinions were based on my experience with only that tire not what you are buying.

 

I have Sumitomo HTR-H4s(235/55HR-16)on my '83 Z28.These are the all season variant DJP87Z28 might be speaking of.I'm happy so far with the way they perform and can't argue with the price.I ordered mine from Tirerack and had them drop shipped to the local Tirekingdom to have them mounted/blanced.

Edit:Forgot to add the picture.

 

Well turned out the auction that I wanted to buy these from went over what is worth the trouble. I would have only saved $20, if that over tirerack.com. So I am just gonna take my time and buy them when I need them from there. Turns out to be something $419 shipped I think, so after mounting/balancing, should be around $500. Not too bad. Thanks for all the input.