I had an interesting conversation with the folks at Tire Rack. I ordered a new set of tires and inquired if I should go the S03's. The person at Tire Rack (I forgot his name) stated that they had received a bulletin from Honda stating that you should only use S02 as other tires make the handling unpredictable. Go Figure!

 

Russ,
Thanks. I took your advice on the tire size and went 225-50-16 F and 245-45-16 R

 

My friend told me about the S-02's. My fault.

 

that was the problem. do all your shifting and braking before the corner. I'm sure to most people it sounds like "ooh that only applies on the track when you are going fast", but actually it doesn't, and this car can provide you with some ill characteristics if you don't know what you are getting into. I'm sure we've all experienced this from time to time.

 

I replaced the factory SO-2's at about 4000 miles on my 2002 because of a flat. I decided to get the Kumho's Ecsta 712's because I use the car as a daily highway cruiser and didn't need the max grip of the S0-2's. At first I really liked the 712's and I swear the grip was nearly the same as the S0-2's, but as the miles went on the tires grip went down very quickly. Now with about 10,000 miles on the car the 712's have fair to poor grip I would say, although the treadlife does look pretty good so far. I think next time I will the BFG KD's a shot.

 

Performance degradation towards the end of a tire's life is standard in my experience. This will happen with pretty much any tire but seems to be more obvious with a high performing tire like the OEM SO2s, Kumho Ecsta 712s, Kumho V700s, etc.

Also, pay attention to correct tire sizing if going to an aftermarket model. it is important to get slightly wider aftermarket tires in the rear. For example, 245/45/16 is the recommended size for SO3 PPs and Kumho Ecsta 712s, among others. This is done to maintain the correct front/rear handling balance. The OEM tire that is labelled 225/50/16 actually measures a little wider than most other tires in the 245/45/16 size.