First of all cheers for all your comments & sorry for the delay in my reply (have to wait for mornings & lunch @ work ;-)

The reason i mention about mixing the front & back was due to a thread i read where someone mentioned about using S02's on the front & Eagle F1's on the back & experiencing instability problems? Was something to due with asymetric tread patterns?

Yes the wheels are 16" & yeah had ZZ3's on the back (full set replaced by previous owner). I've found them ok to be honest, they were ok in the wet & even in the snowy conditions were usable. The main reason for the query is obviously the longer i have the car the more i hope to enjoy its performance & as i dont know a great deal about the AVON's, i wondered if i'd benefit from changing to a better tyre?

I live near Olney, so yeah Bucks it is ;-) Do you need my address for black circles or Chesham? In fact how far is Chesham from me?

From everyone's posts it seems that the softness of the side walls are the main concern?

Am i correct in thinking that the Eagle F1's have a softer side wall than the bridgestones? Also the Toyo's are pretty soft?

I'm guessing that the Avon's are pretty rigid from "flange"'s comments (great name) as they seemed to work well with the bridgestones (again assume more rigid than the Eagles)?

Also flange did you notice any pro's & con's of the Bridgestones over the Avons?

In summary though so far:

Eagle F1's & Toyo T1R's - - - No good cos side walls to soft.

Avon & bridgestones - - - Preferred due to stiffer walls.


What about things like wear, predictability at limit, progressive release on the limit, wet weather, aqua plaining etc etc.

I know a lot of questions, but hey dont learn if you dont ask ;-)

Thank you all, look forward to all responses & comments.

Cheers

Brent

 

The Bridestones are better than the Avons, but not by a massive amount. I got the Avons on the back down to almost slicks and they didn't half slide in the wet (this was just before winter kicked in last year) but they were fine in the dry. Swapping to the Bridges I noticed it was harder to get the back out, but not a huge amount - they do stick better and the cornering is better, but for normal road use, it's not a massive amount. It's been ages since I've driven one with Bridges all round so I can't really remember what it was like. My front Avons are staying on the car until they get close to the 1.6mm limit, I can't justify the small improvement by spending 200quid on the fronts. I'd rather spend that money elsewhere - like getting the swirls out of the paint work ;-)

 

I run T1-Rs on 16s at all 4 corners and have no problems with "soft sidewalls" down at 32 PSi.

However, I run the original tyre size on the rear ie 225/50 R 16. A lot of people believe that in order to get the same contact patch as the SO2 you need to go to a 245. I suspect that this is the reason why people have sidewall problems.

My car is planted, with a nice confidence inspiring breakaway that encourages sporty driving but in usually fairly forgiving.

 

Ok so am i correct in thinking the old (S2000 Specific) S02's had a 245 profile & the new RE050A are the 225 profiles?

Would that mean buying the T1-R in a 245/45 R16 or 225/50 R16?

Also the bridgestones 225/50 R16's are only

 

The RE050as are very good tyres and work perfectly well on the S2000.

The old S02s had a slightly wider than average tread pattern for a 225, but not overly so, and the 225 RE050as are perfectly good tyres.

Hre's me with those tyres driving round a slippery Donington
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kROutFRqyMw

and a dry Rockingham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW3dcctqXqc

as you can see, they are pretty decent.