265/30 R19 Tyres

When i bought my Kia Stinger GT it had the factory mounted Michelin Pilot sport tyres on it. Thise where ok. But i wanted somthing more grippy and less expensive. I had the Nitto nt888 before on my well tuned Opel Adam Rocks S. So i searched for a adequate Nitto tyre for the extremely heavy Stinger. In Switzerland it is very hard to find Nittos. The only one i found in my desired dimensions wherer the NT555 g2's front 235/35R19 rear 265/30R19. I think, with Nittos you can't do anything wrong. They are better than the Michelins when cold. Up to temp, way better. I drive often in the black forest and the swiss alps. And I don't drive slow. Those tyres are incredible.

I went from worn Continental Sport Contact 6 to new Bridgestone Potenza Sport and felt the improvement in comfort as soon as I drove out of the garage. I also noticed the Bridgestone looked chunkier on the wheels. They run wider on the wheels which give better rim protection but if you're running a modified set-up, bear this in mind if you're already close to the arch. I went from Continental with no arch rubbing to the same size Bridgestone with very slight rubbing. I used RO1 (Audi Quattro) spec tyres on my BMW and I later came across non-oe spec tyres and could see the sidewalls on the non-oe were more rounded so maybe I should have used non-oe tyres and would have got away with arch issues.
I also noticed the RO1 tyres had less tread depth than the non-oe or other brands. The RO1 tyres only came with 6mm new. Generally most brands come with around 7mm or more.
When I first put the tyres on, I took it easy for the first 500 miles. At around 500 miles I started testing them and was disappointed. The traction control light came on unexpectedly and when I wanted to put some power down they'd wheel spin. The was at the end of Autumn and beginning of Winter so the temp was around 10 degrees celsius. It was at 750 miles when the tyres transformed. Now they were great. Once they are warmed up they have no problem at 10c. Grip and handling is excellent even in the wet. But on lower temperatures around 3c they still lose traction plus if it's wet too then they feel unstable.
Bridgestone prices seem to be lower than other premium brands right now so my overall conclusion is try them if you're making a good saving. It's a decent tyre. If you live in a warm climate they'll be superb but in the UK just take it easy during the colder months.
It's difficult for me to judge the wear as I've only done 6k miles on them and am now taking them off as I'm going back to Continental to stop the arch rubbing. The Bridgestone still have 4.5mm tread depth after 6k miles.

These tyres when new had exceptional grip in the dry. Falcon XR6 turbo with 524 rear wheel hp barely spun. However they were so soft you could see little stones being picked up like the were slicks. They wore out within 6000km on the rear, but what do you expect with that much hp. The tyres tram line and are not really comfortable. They weren't a bad drag tyre but as an all rounder not really.

In July 2023 I received my new Audi RS 3, fitted with Pirelli PZ 4 tires in size 265/30 ZR 19 at the front and 245/35 ZR 19 at the rear.
When I changed my tires from summer to winter in November 2024 and cleaned them, I noticed that the right front tire and the left rear tire each had a dent several centimeters in diameter on the outer sidewall. I've driven approximately 8,000 km on these tires and am absolutely certain that there was no external influence that could have caused such damage, neither hitting or driving over a curb nor driving through a large pothole. The rim and tire surface are undamaged in the affected areas.
I contacted my Audi dealer, where I bought the car, and asked him to contact Pirelli to report this damage.
I hoped for a generous arrangement, I researched in various forums that
There have been tire blowouts at high speeds here before. Thankfully, this wasn't the case for me.
Pirelli simply referred to damage caused by driving on the curb and showed no accommodating attitude.

In my 25 years of driving, I've tried every premium brand and various UHP models within each brand. I've also tried a few mid-range brands. Continental still remains my first choice as it's the only brand that has consistently never lost traction be it dry/wet or hot/cold. I've used Sport Contact 2, 3 and 5P in the past. They never let me down. These SC6 were just as good and surprisingly much better on wear. All previous SC's had a high wear rate and would normally wear out around 10k miles. All other premium brands would last longer. But somehow I've managed to get 23k miles out of the SC6 and still have 2.5mm remaining so it seems I'll get a few more thousand miles out of them until they reach the legal limit. This is the most I've ever got out of any tyre which baffles me as I wasn't expecting it.
Now that they are down to 2.5mm and Spring has started (UK), I can't comment on what they'd be like in Winter towards the end of their life but I suspect no summer tyre would be so great. This Winter just finished they still performed excellent at around 3mm.
The SC6 (non OE spec) sit nicely on the wheel (265 tyre on a 9j wheel). I don't like tyres that curve in on the shoulders, I like them to sit flat and flush with the wheel for a more square look and these do that. The wheel protection isn't great but being low profile tyres, it would be impossible not to destroy the wheel anyway.
I believe the SC6 is only available in rim sizes of 19 inch and above so it gives you a good feeling that you've got something that isn't available to everyone.
Going forward, if I was to buy any tyre to replace these right now, I'd buy the newer SC7 to try out. It depends what you're looking for, I'm going by handling and grip performance. But if you're looking for the better value for money then there are other brands with good performance for example the Goodyear Eagle F1 (I've used Asymmetric 1, 2 and 3). Michelin, Bridgestone and Pirelli were also well balanced so from my experience you can't really go wrong with any premium brand if you drive according to the weather conditions. The only one I wouldn't buy again is Dunlop (I tried SportMaxx GT and RT) as they were terrible in the wet and cold.

These tires feel quite grippy around corners and sharper turns, even during rain it never felt like they were about to lose grip while driving around a bendy road. I have never tried them on gravel or any other unpaved road simply because the side wall is a little small and I don't want to get my rims scratched up. But other than that I like these tires, the road feedback is there, sometimes a little too much feedback depending on the road.