the tracking was out when i bought my car at the end of November and subsequently the inner edges of my front tyres wore down *really* quickly.

I went to my dad's friend's garage when i was in cornwall over christmas (i get a large discount, see?). I had the geometry set up and spoke to the guys there about fitting some new tyres.

I wanted to fit the same S02's (i've found them to be pretty predictable in most situations) but they had to order them in, and they would have arrived after my holiday was up, and i'd have been unable to take advantage of the discount...

Anyway, my dad's mate convinced me that the S02's (while still good) are old technology. The best new tyre in the same price bracket, i was told, was the Kumho ECSTA SPT KU31. After all, he uses them on his 05 M3 - he's done trackdays on them and i know he generally drives like a nutter, so they MUST be ok, surely?

So, i drive back from cornwall to guildford, bedding them in nicely with a bit of gentle driving. Now i've done about 1k miles on them and have recently started to push a bit, once the tyres are nice and warm (as i used to on the S02's). I have to report that i have never, ever, ever experienced 4-wheel drifting and MASSIVE understeer before (with exception to driving a colleague's focus RS!). It's frightening to the point where i'm tempted to whip them off and stick them in a skip. Anyone else experienced the same with these tyres?

IMO i would warn anyone off these tyres...

you could say, why didn't you wait til you got back to Guildford to get the S02's? Well, the long and short of it is the old S02's wouldn't have made it back!!!

 

The roads are evil at the moment, greasy and salty, wait until the roads are cleaner before making your final choice.

 

Someone else posted similar thoughts on the Kumho's

S2000 tyres always wear the insides down quickly due to their geometry settings. When you say you had someone sort out the tracking. Did they do the full Geo to honda spec?

 

most definitely! i absolutely will not leave things like this to chance/ monkeys...

good point about the roads, but to be fair, i had enough confidence with warm S02's to 'play around' with drifting/ sliding the rear in the wet...

maybe i should wind my neck in and start driving sensibly...

 

I would do a search for Kumhos (if the search works) as I'm sure that someone else had real problems with them.

 

The first thing I would check is the tyre pressures. Different tyre, different compound often will mean a different pressure.

Normal pressure on S2000 is 32 psi but on my tyres I run at 34 psi and only inflate when the tyre is stone cold.

You may find that an extra couple of psi may work - or indeed a couple of psi less. If you can't get concrete information experiment a bit.

My 2 p's worth.

 

Since the S-02s were specifically developed for the car and have unusually stiff sidewalls, it is not surprising.

I hate understeer...

 

Fitted a set of Toyo Proxes to ours last Friday - hoping for better cold/wet weather perfomance - keeping the SO2s for summer

So far rather disappointed. Originally ran on 32psi, upped to 34 all round last night & they are a bit better, but not what I was hoping for.

The car seems 'loose', they are much more progressive than the SO2s were, but overall grip is less, and the SO2 rears were totally worn. Not had any rain yet, so cannot judge on that aspect - but not happy with the performance on cold dry roads compared to SO2s...

The woman had a 'lost the back' moment on them - something that never happened pre-toyo fitment.

Will take it for a long drive at the weekend to scrub them in more & maybe play with the pressures too.

Anyone else found this with the Toyos?

 

Keep the eSO2jz's, Honda do not scrimp on the tyres, they tried that in the early days of the NSX, when Senna threatened to leave the project because of it they realised how important the tyres were.

 

SO2's are terrific in the dry but can be tricky in the wet.

Because my factory-fitted SO2's had to be replaced (the compound was just not too sticky enough to keep the car glued on the road) I went for some Michelins Pilot Exaltos (I think), which have a relatively soft compound.

I was really disappointed. Although the car's rear end felt ok, I could feel the S ride somewhat taller than before and I just didn't feel as inspiring to throw into the corners.

So I paid a little extra money and after two weeks I had two pairs of new SO2's fitted. Needless to say, it just feels great again.

If one hasn't changed wheel size, I say: stick to the factory fitment - you'll be better off.

And just because a certain tyre performs well on any other car, that doesn't necessarily mean it's good for the S.