Paul Hawker
Enthusiast
I called Jon B a couple weeks ago to get his suggestion on new tires for my 09 Coupe. I had read about the new Pilot Supersports, and he was the only one I knew that had experience with them on Vipers. (naturally).
I have a lowered (KW Variant II shocks) car, and was running Nitto Revos as they were the tires that came on the car when I purchased it. (used).
The Nitto's were 345/25/20's in back and 275/30/19's up front.
Jon told me of a customer that was really happpy with installing puting wider (295/30/19) tires up front, as the on ACR-X. Sounded great to me.
Jon, as usual had the best prices and could save me the California sales taxes, and could ship them directly to my office, or to the installation shop of my choice. He even researched several shops to locate one with specific Hunter high end road force balancing equipment to do the best possible mounting and balancing.
I told Jon that I would check out the various shops and tell him where to send the tires. At this point he would most certaintly have assumed I was going to order my tires from Parts Rack, and that he was going to get the sale.
I need to apologize to Jon right here (expecially after calling him on one of his famous Mondays, when he had a cold, and was getting ready to travel to Florida to work the Pace car duties at the Sebring event).
Took the car to several local installers, and they were all worried about putting on the higher profile (345/30/20's) on the rear. They were all worried about rubbing, as their computers told them that the fitment was too large.
I was worried about Parts Rack shipping me the tires, and that I might have problems with them rubbing.
I went to Temecula to confer with our local tuner that also expressed concerns, but assured me that he had a great tire guy, and that combined with the adjustability on my suspension that they could get something to work.
Feeling lousy all the time about not giving Jon my business (that he had well and properly earned) I gulped hard and put my faith in our local tuner and gave him the go ahead.
I ended spending several hundred dollars more than Jon had quoted me, and knew that he would have every right to be upset with me for ordering from someone else after he had given me much great advice and more than competitive pricing.
Went to the tire shop where they had a legendary tire and wheel specialist (Hal). He looked over the car and gave me a thumbs up on the higher profile rear tires. Said the car probably should be raised up a bit to avoid rubbing, but the higher profile tires filled out the wheel wells so beautifully, that ended up being no problem.
In the end the problem turned out to be the front tires. I wanted to upgrade to wider fronts, but upon measurement, my 360 forged fronts wheels were ony 9.5 inches wide, not the standard 10". No way the wider fronts were going to work well being scruched on such a small rim.
End of story, The rears supersports fit great. The fronts had to remain stock width, and the car needed to be raised up a bit and realigned.
So for Jon, on this also Monday morning, I need to say thank you for your sage advice, and hope you will understand what happened.
Sequel: Took the Viper up the back roads to Julian. It road much smoother and quieter than the worn out Evos's and stuck like glue. These Pilot Super Sports are the real deal. While fittment takes some extra effort, the results were exactly what I hoped they would be.
Hope I did not screw up another of Jon's Mondays
I have a lowered (KW Variant II shocks) car, and was running Nitto Revos as they were the tires that came on the car when I purchased it. (used).
The Nitto's were 345/25/20's in back and 275/30/19's up front.
Jon told me of a customer that was really happpy with installing puting wider (295/30/19) tires up front, as the on ACR-X. Sounded great to me.
Jon, as usual had the best prices and could save me the California sales taxes, and could ship them directly to my office, or to the installation shop of my choice. He even researched several shops to locate one with specific Hunter high end road force balancing equipment to do the best possible mounting and balancing.
I told Jon that I would check out the various shops and tell him where to send the tires. At this point he would most certaintly have assumed I was going to order my tires from Parts Rack, and that he was going to get the sale.
I need to apologize to Jon right here (expecially after calling him on one of his famous Mondays, when he had a cold, and was getting ready to travel to Florida to work the Pace car duties at the Sebring event).
Took the car to several local installers, and they were all worried about putting on the higher profile (345/30/20's) on the rear. They were all worried about rubbing, as their computers told them that the fitment was too large.
I was worried about Parts Rack shipping me the tires, and that I might have problems with them rubbing.
I went to Temecula to confer with our local tuner that also expressed concerns, but assured me that he had a great tire guy, and that combined with the adjustability on my suspension that they could get something to work.
Feeling lousy all the time about not giving Jon my business (that he had well and properly earned) I gulped hard and put my faith in our local tuner and gave him the go ahead.
I ended spending several hundred dollars more than Jon had quoted me, and knew that he would have every right to be upset with me for ordering from someone else after he had given me much great advice and more than competitive pricing.
Went to the tire shop where they had a legendary tire and wheel specialist (Hal). He looked over the car and gave me a thumbs up on the higher profile rear tires. Said the car probably should be raised up a bit to avoid rubbing, but the higher profile tires filled out the wheel wells so beautifully, that ended up being no problem.
In the end the problem turned out to be the front tires. I wanted to upgrade to wider fronts, but upon measurement, my 360 forged fronts wheels were ony 9.5 inches wide, not the standard 10". No way the wider fronts were going to work well being scruched on such a small rim.
End of story, The rears supersports fit great. The fronts had to remain stock width, and the car needed to be raised up a bit and realigned.
So for Jon, on this also Monday morning, I need to say thank you for your sage advice, and hope you will understand what happened.
Sequel: Took the Viper up the back roads to Julian. It road much smoother and quieter than the worn out Evos's and stuck like glue. These Pilot Super Sports are the real deal. While fittment takes some extra effort, the results were exactly what I hoped they would be.
Hope I did not screw up another of Jon's Mondays
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Can only wonder what thesetires cost
