Chad D.

iTrader: (19)

My old tires

Tire Specs: Dunlop Direzza DZ101
Size: 225/45-18
Rating: 5
Vehicle: RX8
Location: Windsor, Ontario
Driving Conditions: Summer/Fall
Driving Style: Average / aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: 7,000kms
Would Buy Tire Again? No
Comments: Bad tread wear, slippery when wet, hydroplanes, was only good on a dry surface with no dirt, stones or dust. I hated these rubbers.

Current tyres

Tire Specs: Avon Tech M500
Size: 235/35-19
Rating: 7
Vehicle: RX8
Location: Windsor, Ontario
Driving Conditions: Spring/Summer
Driving Style: Average / aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: 8000kms
Would Buy Tire Again? Discontinued
Comments: I bought some used rims off of docgatorx8er and these tires were on them and I am actually greaty impressed with these old tyres. They are quiet and performance is good.

My winter tires

Tire Specs: Dunlop Graspic DS2
Size: 245/45-18
Rating: 8
Vehicle: RX8
Location: Windsor, Ontario
Driving Conditions: Winter
Driving Style: Average / aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: 7500kms
Would Buy Tire Again? Yes
Comments: Great winter tire, a little loud and soft but they are for winter conditions. The best thing about these tires is that I still drive with confidence in the snow without dsc.

burglar

There was an excellent article in SCCA's Sports Car mag comparing these with the Star Spec, Nitto NT-05, Yokos, and Stones. No link to the article, but all of them were very similiar in performance. The current crop of ultra-stickies are all quite good. Times only link

The test was done by one of the members of this forum, on an STX prepared RX-8.

dezau

iTrader: (3)

Tire Specs: Michelin Pilot Sport PS2
Size: 245/40-18
Rating: 10
Vehicle: RX8
Location: Central Florida
Driving Conditions: All Year around
Driving Style: Aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: 12000miles
Would Buy Tire Again? Yes & No
Comments: Best tire I've ever driven, road noise, grip, dry, wet. everything's seemed to be perfect. Downside is the price and miles, i have like 12000 miles on them and they are down to 3/12, not bad considering they only had 7/12 to start with.

maskedferret

iTrader: (1)

Baller!

Chad D.

iTrader: (19)

I think All year round in florida is "summer"

dezau

iTrader: (3)

lol i got a deal that i just couldn't resist.
and uh yea... hahaha summer all around

TheWulf

iTrader: (4)

Tire Specs: Dunlop Direzza Star Specs 245/45/17
Rating: 9
Vehicle: RX8
Location: Ottawa, Canada
Driving Conditions: Street, AutoX, Track
Driving Style: Aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: 1000
Would Buy Tire Again? Yes
Comments: Awesome tire. Amazing wet and dry traction, sticky as hell in the corners. A tad noisy but well worth it.

chino0314

iTrader: (12)

+1 falken 452's are the **** and the look good too

RingofStone

Tire Specs: Yokohama Avid Envigor
Rating: 9
Vehicle: RX8
Location: Dallas Texas
Driving Conditions: Dry / Wet / No Snow yet
Driving Style: Average / aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: ~15,000
Would Buy Tire Again? Yes!

These tires are the best I've tried so far. The first thing I noticed was they are very quiet and smooth. Much better than the Bridgestones I had on before. In extremely aggressive driving it is very hard to break these loose, and when they do break loose, they are very well behaved. They definitely try to stay in the driving line, rather than throw you completely to the winds like some of my previous tires. I've got ~15k miles on them now and there is no noticeable tread wear. They are rated for 60k miles. They were $140 locally, but I got them as a buy 3, get 1 free deal.

adamwzl

iTrader: (3)

^great deal you got dude.

REDRX3RX8

Ringofstone,
Yeah, those Avid's are good like my General Altimax Rt's on my dodge Dakota; love you long time, and pull .75g's on skid pad, but you'll be able to, drive in snow so no worry about being stranded.

Good for real driving, but traction can't be near these other 20,000 track tires, like even Hankook Ventus v12 k110 can surely beat the Avid in any wet or dry traction but you'll wear out three time sooner, and that tire can't work as well in winter.

jiggawha1

Tire Specs: Dunlop Direzza D-Spec 225/45
Rating: 6
Vehicle: RX8
Location: South TX
Driving Conditions: Dry, Wet
Driving Style: Aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: 5k
Would Buy Tire Again? NO
Comments: These are decent tires, good traction in dry but in wet they just don't seem to compare to others. For the price range these fall in I would consider the alternatives (see next)

Tire Specs: Falken 452s 225/45
Rating: 9
Vehicle: RX8 or any other car you own
Location: South TX
Driving Conditions: Dry, Wet
Driving Style: Aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: 20k+
Would Buy Tire Again? DEFINITELY YES
Comments: These are the best bang for your buck. These have awesome grip wet or dry. These lasted for over 20k, with aggressive cornering on DD, 2 autox events, and some hardcore rotary rallies through the hill country. Highly Recommended.

jasonrxeight

no one has used Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus?

Ryan2008

Someone on here must, this thread would be more helpful if more people posted their opinions. Come on guys, I know there's more than 30 sets of tires on this forum.

Ryan

Atilla

iTrader: (1)

nice thread - def needed this input on buying my new tires.

TopGear8

iTrader: (3)

Most Michelin Pilot Sport tires are overpriced...

Atilla

iTrader: (1)

Any opinion's on Yokohama S. Drives??

dmitrik4

iTrader: (5)

Tire Specs: Yoko Advan AD-07 225/45/18
Rating: 10
Vehicle: 2004 RX-8
Location: Philly
Driving Conditions: Daily driving - city/highway commuting
Driving Style: Average/Aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: 4500
Would Buy Tire Again? Yes...probably (see below)
Comments: I love these tires. They double as my daily drivers and my wet autoXers. I also ran them during an autoX test and tune. Bottom line...wow. I don't dare push the car hard enough on the street to break them loose, and on the autoX course they performed surprisingly well (they're not Hoosiers, but they worked much better than I expected). They also perform very, very well in the wet and are quiet on the highway. I got these for $99/ea on closeout at Tire Rack, which was a screaming deal...but I might not so eagerly buy them (or the new AD-08s) at full price.

Tire Specs: Bridgestone RE-01R 205/50/15
Rating: 9.5
Vehicle: 1991 Miata, preped for STS-class autoX
Location: Philly
Driving Conditions: Daily and autoXing
Driving Style: Aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: 7000
Would Buy Tire Again? Yes
Comments: Great in every situation. They seemed to be not quite as sticky as the AD-07s, but they saw a lot more abuse b/c they were autoXed regularly. I'd buy the successor RE-11 with no hesitation. In fact, I would probably buy the RE-11 over the AD-08s described above (price reasons), but probably not over the Dunlops described below for those same price reasons.

Tire Specs: Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec 205/55/15 <-- note that these are NOT the DZ101s
Rating: 10+
Vehicle: 1988 MR2 Supercharged
Location: Philly
Driving Conditions: Wheel-to-wheel endurance racing
Driving Style: Aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: ??? As far as actual miles, who knows, but personally I've had about 12-15 hours of racing on them.
Would Buy Tire Again? Yes
Comments: Having not driven these on the street, I can comment only on their behavior on track. Simply put, they are awesome. The are the only tires our team buys. They grip and grip, they are predictable in wet or dry, and they wear like iron. And they are cheap, at least compared to tires like the AD-08 or RE-11. They are head and shoulders better than the Falken Azenis 615, and not much more expensive.

9krpmrx8

iTrader: (46)

Tire Specs: Hercules Raptis WR 1 Ultra High Performance Tire 245/40-18
Rating: 8
Vehicle: RX8
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Driving Conditions: Hot
Driving Style: Aggressive
Miles Driven on Tires: 30,000
Would Buy Tire Again? Yes
Comments: I was a skeptic coming off of more expensive BF Goodrich tires but these thing have performed amazing and no one can believe it when they find out they were like $100.00 each. They are starting to wear now but i will replace them with the same tires. They are pretty good on the track and in the canyons but they are great on the street overall. Good wear, good dry traction and good wet traction. honestly I have no real complaints and mt roommates 8 went through expensive Good Years in half the time I have owned this set.

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

Tire Specs: Yokohama S.Drives
Rating: 10
Vehicle: 2005 RX-8 MT
Location: New England
Driving Conditions: 4th highest ranked city in the US on precipitation volume, most of it rain since 1ft of snow = 1in of rain, summer tire
Driving Style: Aggressive (street + autocross)
Miles Driven on Tires: 35,000 (Brand New to Wear Indicators)
Would Buy Tire Again? Yes, Absolutely
Comments:
Yoko S.Drives = Fantastic tire for the price.

You can pay more money for better dry grip, or better wet grip. You might be able to find a tire for a ton more that has better in both wet and dry, but I doubt it.

I found them to be a quiet tire with alot of dry grip (though not as much dry grip as my current Star Specs, though I have 245 vs my s.drives as 225, and for ~50% more cost per tire).

What I loved about them though was the wet grip. Until I hit the wear bars, I basically could not hydroplane. Their wet grip was almost as good as the dry grip. If I could take a curve at 45mph on dry pavement, I could do it at ~43 or so in the wet. I've hit sudden standing water at 80+ without hydroplaning, just the tug on the steering wheel from the resistance. The Star Specs it doesn't take much rain before I start losing contact with the road over ~60mph. Just damp pavement, the Star Specs still do fantastic, but in the 4th(?) ranked US city in rain volume, hydroplane resistance is pretty important.

The only con I can think of is that you can find tires with better dry grip. They are still much better dry grip than OEM or more other tires out there, and only a bit off of the expensive dry tires.

For a daily driver, where you want a good dry grip tire and outstanding wet traction, I don't know of a better tire. Considering it's cheap at $130-$140 compared to $200+ tires, it just makes it that much better.

You can't go wrong with them.

They also lasted me 35,000 miles, which is a record for me.

A side point that really isn't a selling point except maybe for people in areas that get a bit cold in winter but never really see snow. The lowest DRY temp I have driving on these was 5 degrees F, and I still had plenty of grip. It was less than higher temps, but hardly hockey pucks. I still had to try to spin the tires. As if I went from a 225 to a 205 or something instead. Of course, never try driving on these in the snow.


Tire Specs: Dunlop Z1 Star Specs
Rating: 10 (track), 7 (Daily driver)
Vehicle: 2005 RX-8 MT
Location: New England
Driving Conditions: 4th highest ranked city in the US on precipitation volume, most of it rain since 1ft of snow = 1in of rain, summer tire
Driving Style: Aggressive (street + autocross)
Miles Driven on Tires: 7,000
Would Buy Tire Again? Yes, though for dedicated track set only. I would not buy for daily driver tire.
Comments:
I got the Star Specs barely used from a local 8 owner for $200. Couldn't pass that deal up. What I love about them is the dry grip. They have so much of it. Quite a few people call them a "street r-comp", and I believe it. They have the most noise of any tire I have ever had, though I don't find it unbearable or irritating. Still below that threshhold. I test drop a Miata with a tire that had literally 4 times the tire noise, not counting the "top down" effect.

They have great "damp" grip. I would not say they have great "wet" grip, as any accumulated water on the road immediately challenges the contact patch of this tire. In actual rain conditions, speeds must remain greatly reduced to maintain contact with the road. With this in mind, I would use these in a heartbeat for a track set of wheels, but I would never buy them again for a street tire. Too much confidence is lost when the wet stuff starts falling.


Tire Specs: Nokian um...I'll have to find the model
Rating: 7 (winter tire)
Location: New England
Driving Conditions: 4th highest ranked city in the US on precipitation volume, most of it rain since 1ft of snow = 1in of rain, summer tire
Driving Style: Aggressive (street + autocross)
Miles Driven on Tires: 15,000 (>50% in the snow/ice, rest in cold conditions)
Would Buy Tire Again? No
Comments:
I bought these barely used as a cheap tire as I was broke that winter and couldn't afford a new set. They have worked out great, and just went through their 3rd winter, and still have life left on them.

Their snow grip is fantastic. Their ice grip somewhat less so, but decent enough for winter.

Their dry grip is terrible though. They are far too soft and "squishy", and it doesn't take much to heat them to the point that they are not usable. They are rated decently in speed, but much over 70 in them makes me uncomfortable. (Dry of course). I doubt I would buy again as I see too many dry conditions. If I was driving on snow pack or powder most of the winter, I'd take these easily. But then, I probably wouldn't be driving a sports car.

Grog

iTrader: (5)

Thanks for your review on the S. Drives, RIWWP. I'm having an extremely difficult time choosing between these and Falken FK-452's. I've heard nothing but good things about both tires in both wet/dry conditions.

Anyone else own Falkens?

TopGear8

iTrader: (3)

^Falken's are good, S. Drives are good as well...Whichever you can get a better deal on, get those.

Grog

iTrader: (5)

I think S. Drives are significantly cheaper. I dunno. They seem like the best ones to go with, but...

Beefy98

I wouldn't urinate on 90% of the tires listed. You guys have no trouble dropping 42 bucks into the tank every 280 miles but you're gonna cheap out on rubber that only has to be purchased once every 30K? Put the top dogs--Star Specs, PS2s, AD08s, etc--on your car and nothing else. Unless you drive in snow or course..

RIWWP

iTrader: (2)

...or any climate other than sunny and 70 year round. In even heavy rain, they fall on their face. The smart thing to do is to buy tires for the worst conditions those tires will see, NOT the best conditions.

I have Star Specs on. If i get a set of track wheels, i will put Star Specs on if i dont put on r-comps. But i wont buy them for my daily driver again. They hydroplane WAY too easy for the 4th highest precipitation volume city in the US.


Remember that not everyone is in your climate, situation, or drive style. Dont be so hostile about it.