Hey guys, I have a G35 6mt coupe - 2005, and I currently have:
Front: Bridgestone Potenza a/s (put on by previous owner)
The Potenzas need to be replaced in order for me to pass PA inspection (currently have uneven wear due to me not aligning often enough)
Rear: Nitto motivo a/s (put on by me for DDing).

I have a bit of a dilemma. I live in Philadelphia, and I attend Drexel which means in the winter I am going to school (I barely use my car) and in the summer I have paid internships, so I will be DDing my car. I also want to start going to the occasional track day event in it. Car is basically stock, btw. I'm trying to pick between these two paths.

Path 1: Put Nitto Motivos on the front too, and just run one set of tires all year, and use them on HPDE days as well. If they wear out fast it's wtv, Motivos aren't too expensive.

Path 2: Switch my whole set up to summer performance tires on my stock 19s, and then when the winter rolls around in Nov, buy a second set of rims + winter tires. I could just sell the used rear Nittos for like 100 bucks to recoup some of my money. Also, my girlfriend is willing to put up to $1,000 towards my winter set up, because I'm the only one with a car (and have been for quite some time), so I'm the only one losing money from maintenance, depreciation. If I go with this option, I will buy some 18 inch enkeis + michelin x-ice winter tires, and it would only cost me 600-700 out of pocket

What would you guys do?

 

I'm always on the Fence with this one, but because you are a student still I would only recommend one set of wheels.

 

Since you're mostly driving in the summer, I'd venture down path #1.

I am on my second set of BFGoodrich g-Force Sport Comp2 tires ("ultra high performance summer" according to TireRack), and I am a fan. After some road debris put the nail in the coffin on my first set (after ~25k miles and ~10 autox events), I needed tires immediately and ended up with a set of Falken Pro G4 A/S. The Falken's were fine for daily duties but pushed pretty hard and were generally mushy on high speed autox courses. Granted, I am comparing a A/S to a UHPS tire, but if you're hitting the track you want something better than A/S. Also, for the record, I put this second set of BFGs on couple weeks before xmas.. then it snowed 2" on xmas eve. They didn't blow me away in the undriven snow but they got the job done.

Anyways, there are tons of great summer tires out there. If you have a library card you should be able to access Consumer Reports online databases to read their tire reviews (spoiler alert, the BFGs scored pretty high ). One trick I would recommend is finding the tire compound you want, then checking the sizes/prices available on TireRack. I was able to save $20 per tire for my OE 18x7.5" Rays by going with 245/40 instead of the recommended 235/45. My speedo reads a couple mph faster than I'm moving, but for $80 and a little extra tire it was worth it. Willtheyfit.com will tell you how far off your speedo will be if you decide to go with a different size.

Good Luck!

 

I should have mentioned this in the original post, but my girlfriend said she would contribute like $1,000 towards my winter set-up, because I am the only one with a car, so I am the only one suffering from maintenance, depreciation. And that will be the case until she is done with grad school in about 2 years.

That's why option 2 is somewhat viable. I would buy some 18 inch enkeis + michelin x-ice for the winter, and after my gf chips in it would only cost like 600-700 most.

 

Buy winter tires for the OEM wheels, buy the 370Z Nismo wheels and put high performance summer rubber on them then just switch between the two.

 

Is there any particular reason you recommend that specific set up? I figured since the stocks were 19s I would throw the summer tires on them, and 18s would be better for winter because of more sidewall

 

I agree. You have to put four wheels and tires somewhere though. That's a hell of an inconvenience.

 

My girlfriend's parents actually live about an hour from us and they said I could keep it in their garage. It's a minor inconvenience for them compared to having to move my G35 around while I had my GX470 in Philadelphia haha. Also I'm 24 and live in an apartment off campus.

 

If you break up you are gonna regret that.

 

I've been running the BFGoodridge g-force sport comp2 tires for my last two sets. I'm scared to switch to anything else but michellin because they perform so well in wet and dry weather. My only complaint is they get a little noisey after running them for a while. To me, it was the most affordable performance tire

 

Were you running all season or summer?

 

I'm running the BFG gforce comp2 AS and they are a fantastic tire, it's hard for me to grasp they're half as much as the Michelin PSS. Best tire for the money I've ever had on a car, I have them on the GTO as well and they didn't bat an eye when they're pushed hard. Tire Rack in the last 3 years has had comparisons of 27 UHP A/S tire comparisons and the BFG's have come in first place once, second place once and third once. Miniscule differences between several tires that are twice as expensive.

 

All season. I didn't know they made a summer tire. I was looking for the best tire for wet and dry season

 

That's 3 votes for the BFG's. You know what to do OP!

 

Yep I'm thinking that's what I'm going to go with haha. I am not enough of a baller to justify paying 2x the tire price for like 15% more benefit or something.

Now my debate is whether to get the BFG summers on my stock 19s with some enkeis + michelin x-ice, or to get the BFG a/s on my 19s and just call it a day