Jason S8

What tyres do A8/S8 drivers recommend, once the stock SP8000's on the S8 wear out?

I don't need them for the track - just excellent
allround ability (dry & wet, but no snow), lowish noise and durable.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

KjellA

I would higly recommend Falken GRB FK451.

They are far better than the SP9000's in every performance aspect, simply outstanding on wet, quiet, comfortable and no tramlining so far. I have more than 5000 Km's on them now (~3200 miles), and they keep impressing me more each day I use them. I have 255/40-19.

The only negative will probably be the durability. No signs of excessive wear on mine so far, but I'm quite sure SP9000 will last a bit longer. But then again, the Falken's will be a bit cheaper, and offer better all-round performance. I will choose them again without hesitation, even though I drive more than 20K miles a year.

IMHO they are all the way up there with Pirelli Pzero Rosso and Bridgestone Potenza S-03. Simply great tires!

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/Kjell A

Jason S8

What's the mileage on your A8 at the moment ?
How long are you planning to keep it (until it becomes too expensive to maintain, i.e. 200k to 250k miles)?

April

The performance characteristics are not always the same from on market region to another. Found this out the hard way once when buying tires on another continent.

Potenzas are the heaviest tire - my Honey went and weighed some wheels and tires last week. Pilots where light as were Toyo Proxes T1S

KjellA

It has 156K Km, or about 98K miles now. No weaknesses discovered so far, it looks and feels almost like new.

I was planning to change it for an S8 recently, but I think I will keep it a while longer. Resale value is terrible here right now, so I might as well keep it and keep on improving the car.

Car import taxes here are very high, the new price for a base S8 is $145K, and that sounds good only because the USD is so strong. It is more than twice the german street price....

I will probably keep it a couple of years more, about 150K miles I guess. Really love it, it's a great car!

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/Kjell A

KjellA

Good point April.

Tires are often made with special compound for the market they are ment for. Lots of people over here discovered that when they bought grey import Goodyear F1 tires ment for what I believe was the south american or asian market. Different compound to match higher temperatures than northern USA and europe has. Meaning that it was very hard to get the right temperature in the tire when used over here.

My Falkens are grey imports from Japan, but have exactly the same compound as the europaen or north american version. They are both E end DOT stamped.

My impression after discussing this issue with several people is that europe and north america mainly share the same compound. Some brands might market different versions for different parts of the US, but probably not the foreign brands. If you buy tires ment for a similar climate region you should be safe.

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/Kjell A

chris8l

245/45/18 on BBS-RC's, and am quite pleased (2000 A8L, BTW). Excellent wet and dry grip. A little stiffer combo then the stock 17 inchers, but surprisingly not any noiser or less comfortable. Being a New Englander (central MA) I am looking towards a decent winter tire for the 17" stock rim. The Winter Sports will probbly find their way into my garage again since they worked GREAT on the S4 in stock 225/45/17 size.