Performance Tires

When enthusiasts talk performance, you may hear about superchargers, cams, headers, and other parts that help an engine make gobs of horsepower, and coilovers, fat sway bars and poly bushings that can make a car seem like it’s cornering on rails. Big drilled and slotted disc brake rotors and multi-piston calipers that create the force to stop almost instantaneously may also be mentioned. But all these goodies are useless if the tires don’t grip, so if you want to realize the full potential of your vehicle’s acceleration, handling, and braking capabilities, you need our performance tires.

Now when you think of performance tires, wide, low-profile sticky meats for sports cars probably come to mind, and we certainly have a large selection of them, but if you look over our performance tire range you’ll see we offer tires that can improve the performance of many types of vehicles, in a variety of driving conditions. Whether you drive that sports car on twisty roads, take your 4x4 truck or SUV on off road adventures, or want to relive the glory days in your muscle car, we have performance tires that can boost your vehicle’s competency, from all the top brands and in sizes up to 32”.

Two important factors that determine a tire’s performance capabilities are tread design and rubber compound. Tread configuration will vary according to application, but in general performance tires have fewer and shallower grooves and voids, which puts more rubber in contact with the road for better grip. Rubber compound also depends on application, but as a rule performance tires have a softer compound. Hard rubber is slippery and prone to spin under acceleration and slide during hard cornering or braking – performance not only suffers but a car with tires that are spinning and sliding isn’t under control and could result in an accident. In contrast, the soft, sticky rubber of performance tires will get the power to the ground and stay planted when turning and stopping.

Track/competition tires for drag racing and road racing in dry conditions, like drag radials, have no tread or minimal tread and the softest rubber compound for maximum traction. Such tires are not legal for use on public roads and the soft compound means they don’t usually last very long. Some racing tires have just enough tread to make them DOT (Department of Transportation) legal for the street, but extensive street use is not advised because they will also wear quickly and the grooves are not really sufficient for driving in the rain. Performance summer tires are best for street use when ambient temperatures are above 40ºF. They have less space between tread blocks, shallower tread depth, fewer grooves, and commonly feature continuous, unbroken ribs to put more rubber on the road.

When shopping for performance summer tires you may see adjectives like “ultra”, “extreme”, and “max” used with the words “high performance”, which means such tires have softer rubber compound and are even stickier than regular performance summer tires. In addition to compound and tread optimized for maximum road grip, the low profile performance summer tires for late model vehicles with large diameter rims have shorter and stiffer sidewalls for less flex and more precise steering and handling. And even though the tread is shallower on performance summer tires, the tread design is optimized to expel water and prevent hydroplaning on wet summer roads. We offer performance summer tires in all of the top speed ratings including V (149 mph), Z (149 mph and above), W (168 mph) and Y (186 mph).

However, before choosing performance summer tires you should consider your driving conditions. It goes without saying that the tread design makes performance summer tires useless in snow, but the ambient temperature must also be taken into account. Because the tread compound was designed to perform in hot temperatures, when the mercury drops to 40ºF or below performance summer tires get hard and traction will suffer. More importantly, when the temperature drops below freezing a vehicle with performance summer tires should not be driven or even rolled as the rubber compound can crack, irreparably damaging the tires. If it never snows where you live and you rarely see temperatures below 40ºF, performance summer tires are a great choice, otherwise performance all season tires may be a better option.

All season tires are designed for a variety of year-round driving conditions, including light snow, so their tread has to be more aggressive and deeper, which means less rubber on the road and more flex than summer tires. But if the weather in your area dictates the need for all season tires it doesn’t mean you’ll be forced to drive your sports coupe or sedan conservatively. Performance all season tires have tread compound that will grip better on dry and wet roads than ordinary passenger all season tires, but of course the tradeoff for this is shorter tread life. They come in all of the popular diameters for late model performance cars so you get the benefit of stiffer, low profile sidewalls, and with speed ratings that coincide with modern performance car capabilities.

But if you live in an area that gets much more snow and ice than the occasional storm, and where the mercury routinely drops below freezing, instead of all season tires you need the superior snow and ice traction, and cold weather grip provided by winter/snow tires. However, this doesn’t mean you have to give up performance. Performance winter/snow tires come in sizes for all popular performance cars and trucks, and with the high speed ratings to match these vehicles’ speed capabilities. Like performance all season tires, performance winter/snow tires have more grip than their passenger-rated counterparts, albeit with shorter tread life. Performance winter/snow tires bear the mountain/snowflake symbol, indicating they deliver the highest levels of traction on snow, ice and in extreme cold.

Speaking of traction, if the OE rubber on your 4x4 truck, Jeep or SUV isn’t getting the job done when you venture off the pavement, check out our performance all terrain/off road/mud tires. Whether you’re charging across desert sands, over forest dirt trails, or through muck and mud, we have the performance tires that will provide the grab you need, with the toughness to withstand punishment leveled by the roughest landscape. And if your vintage car is rolling on bias-ply rubber, you can enjoy substantially improved acceleration, cornering, and braking with a set of our classic/muscle/retro radial tires. These tires are available with wide whitewalls, redlines, and raised white letters so you can have the authentic look you want, but with modern performance and ride quality.