Regarding fitment and rubbing for 205/45/17 tires

These are some great posts. Thanks for sharing! I m looking to get a new set of tires as well. With the recent increase in my daily commute(~50 miles one way), I am looking for a way to make my FiST have a more comfortable ride. After reading this thread, I am considering getting either the ExtremeContact DWS 06 or Pilot Super Sports. But I am completely open to any suggestion for a different brand if it offers a bit more comfort than the two I mentioned above. Again, this is a a really informative thread and I appreciate everyone for sharing their experience.

I've spent a few weeks now with the PSS (Had to take them off briefly for winter tires because of the cold and snow that ruined my flirtation with spring weather, but they are back on now) and I honestly love them. They are comfortable, quiet, very grippy in the dry, have an incredibly warranty and tread wear rating, they're great in the wet and handle with amazing confidence, they don't seem terribly bothered by the low 40s we've had here in Chicagoland recently either, and they look great, too. I love these tires.

They do not rub. I cannot stress this enough because this fear has to go away. If you are on stock suspension; they will not rub. Period.

A few cons I've noticed is reduced power ouput. The larger diameter (Gained 0.6" over the winter tires I was tuning on) has taken me down from around 300 tq to about 260-ish on average. HP is down from 216 to 198. This is greater than I thought it was previous after some intense measurements taking. The performance hit is real. That said, a lot of that power I had before wasn't usable at all. All of my power is usable now and I don't break the tires loose in 1st and 2nd nearly as much or as badly as I did on either the winter tires or the stock re050a tires; it's just hook and go with some torque steer. That's actually a new thing that came with these tires for me. The car never used to torque steer very noticeably because it would just blow the tires off. It's not able to easily do that anymore and it translates directly into torque steer where it can. The tires were also very expensive. I paid $580 after a rebate through Discount Tire for $100; which means I actually paid $680 installed up front and out the door. For some people that might be hard to swallow; but I went in knowing this and knowing what and why I wanted to buy these.

There is a reason they put Michaelin Pilot Super Sports on Ferraris, Porsche's, and BMW M cars and it isn't superficial.

Will they dominate autocross and beat a dedicated tire such as the RE-71R or Rival S? No. Absolutely not. Will you be competitive? Probably. The extra sidewall hurts turn-in a bit, but they seriously hold traction well and I can feel the G force piling on when I whip it around an empty parking lot.

I don't have any experience with the DWS 06, but I'd buy another pair of super sports in a heartbeat.

I've spent a few weeks now with the PSS (Had to take them off briefly for winter tires because of the cold and snow that ruined my flirtation with spring weather, but they are back on now) and I honestly love them. They are comfortable, quiet, very grippy in the dry, have an incredibly warranty and tread wear rating, they're great in the wet and handle with amazing confidence, they don't seem terribly bothered by the low 40s we've had here in Chicagoland recently either, and they look great, too. I love these tires.

They do not rub. I cannot stress this enough because this fear has to go away. If you are on stock suspension; they will not rub. Period.

A few cons I've noticed is reduced power ouput. The larger diameter (Gained 0.6" over the winter tires I was tuning on) has taken me down from around 300 tq to about 260-ish on average. HP is down from 216 to 198. This is greater than I thought it was previous after some intense measurements taking. The performance hit is real. That said, a lot of that power I had before wasn't usable at all. All of my power is usable now and I don't break the tires loose in 1st and 2nd nearly as much or as badly as I did on either the winter tires or the stock re050a tires; it's just hook and go with some torque steer. That's actually a new thing that came with these tires for me. The car never used to torque steer very noticeably because it would just blow the tires off. It's not able to easily do that anymore and it translates directly into torque steer where it can. The tires were also very expensive. I paid $580 after a rebate through Discount Tire for $100; which means I actually paid $680 installed up front and out the door. For some people that might be hard to swallow; but I went in knowing this and knowing what and why I wanted to buy these.

There is a reason they put Michaelin Pilot Super Sports on Ferraris, Porsche's, and BMW M cars and it isn't superficial.

Will they dominate autocross and beat a dedicated tire such as the RE-71R or Rival S? No. Absolutely not. Will you be competitive? Probably. The extra sidewall hurts turn-in a bit, but they seriously hold traction well and I can feel the G force piling on when I whip it around an empty parking lot.

I don't have any experience with the DWS 06, but I'd buy another pair of super sports in a heartbeat.

I wanted to add to this thread since it was so helpful to me. Also, props to [MENTION=2740]commonplatypus[/MENTION] for being such an awesome forum member!

I previously had BFGoodrich g-Force Sport COMP-2, 205/45/17 on stock wheels. I just put on Michelin Pilot Super Sport 205/45/17, still using stock wheels. For both wheels, I am getting a tiny bit of rub during low speed lock-to-lock turns (where the steering wheel is turned all the way). Otherwise, I have no rub at all, even when going over bumps, etc. I am very happy with the Michelin PSS... they are comfortable and quiet. I really wanted to use 45s for comfort, and these wheels really do fit the bill. For me, they are absolutely worth the premium, as my day-to-day driving is much more enjoyable even with such a subtle comfort change.

When these wear out, I will likely get TD 16x7 and put 205/45/17 or 205/50/17 Mon them (more likely the former). I will stay with Michelin PSS tires. But for now, it's a bit to expensive and I'm happy with what I've got.

Hey all! So the power loss was from the extra weight and increased diameter the larger tires created. They offset the gearing by essentially making it taller and thus, that is where the power "loss" seemed to come from. Power wasn't loss, it was just that the gearing was made less efficient by runnign the larger tires.

I just got 205/45/17 PSS installed today to replace my OEM ones after 25k miles. They set the PSI at 33 all around. Does that sound right? the OEM PSI are different for front and rear. I have stock wheels and suspension, so I know I sacrifice a little performance with the increased diameter and weight, but new wheels would mean I would have to store more crap in my garage and good tires in stock sizes are hard to come by.

Like other members have stated, (I'm not the first to run these on stock setup) they work fine. I get no rubbing so far (drove 35 miles to work on some bad westside LA roads). I dont notice any performance hit on my commute so thats good. Im sure if i tracked it i would care. The thing with tires is by the time you get new ones you are used to the gradually changing old ones. So unless you do something like track your car, the changes are slow and steady. Swapping to new ones will (or should) be noticable. Ride seems a bit less harsh on bumps. I'll wait and see when my gf rides since she says the car is bumpy. I'll grab some pic later, I need to dress the tires since the tire place didnt do it and they look a bit dull. I will say the bigger size filles out the wheel well gaps nicely without the drop.