Bad luck has struck again! Long story short, one of my rear tires has a super slow leak and today the other rear tire got jealous and decided to run over something sharp that left a giant slit at least 3 inches long in the tire.

Theres probably threads about this, but what is the best tire I can get for the street? Im not too worried about price, but dont want to spend more than say $230 or so a piece. I dont drive on the track, but I do enjoy the occasional spirited road drive. Ill need the best grip I can get and some decent life since the car is my daily driver for now. The size Im planning to get is 255/40 17 and they are for my AP2V1 wheels. Ill need to get them tomorrow, so any help is appreciated

 

Hey man, sucks to hear what happened to your tires. i'm currently rolling on some hankook v12 evo's, a friend of mine bought before i did and he had nothing but great things to say about em'. so a couple of months ago i was in dire need of a new set of rubber, went with the v12's and couldnt be happier with them, the grip is moderately great, the ride quality is pretty nice, no loud tire noise on the highway, could be a little stiffer on the corners though but all in all for a street/daily tire it is fantastic. if you want some more stick for the buck, i'd go with the rs3's but from reading reviews on em' apparently tire tread life suffers since they are stickier so not sure you would want that. anyway just my $0.02, gl on the purchase.

 

Sounds like any tire in the Extreme summer category is where you want to be shopping if your looking for max grip and price isn't the sol issue. Tire longevity is going to be compromised if your looking for max grip, you cant have both, but you can have some balance. I run the Kuhmo SX and although they are one of the best dry grip tires Ive run to date, they don't wear as well as some of the others. The RE11 might be a better option. The Z2 Starspec may be another. v12 as a DD tire that doesn't get pushed at all will work, but it is a soft sidewall budget tire that just isn't suited for the S2000, if you appreciate what the car has to offer on the weekends.

 

Give the bfg comp2's a try. I mounted them on my rear 255/35/18 and i love em better than the nittont555's i had and if my fronts needed replacement id put the bfg's up front

 

I wouldn't go with anything but an Extreme Performance tire(AD08, ZII, RE11, RS3). They will make the car feel the sharpest, and just make the drive that much more fun. These tires obviously have way more limits than any other street tire, but you really don't have to push them to the limit to enjoy them. Out of all the extreme tires that I've had, the RE11s were hands down the perfect ones for the street. Rode VERY nice, and gripped liked crazy. Plus, they're one of the quietest extreme tires out there.

 

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I got out of the car and loooked back and it was so obvious I felt like I got slapped! hahaha! Im going to inquire about a few of the above and will decide tomorrow. Ive read good stuff about the RE11's so I may lean towards them. I may also look into the Kumho Ecsta MX XRP. Noise doesnt really matter either... My car is so loud, it drowns out everything else.

 

My Sumitomo HZR2 are a great value consideration in the high grip category. I have them in the size you want and they've been tremendous. I keep a separate set of rims for my larger high grip kumho XSs but the sumis have way better life and similar grip levels. I think if you buy anything else in the high grip category for doing what you've described you are paying too much IMO.

 

Ive never run the Kuhmo MX XRP, but those aren't going to be in the same league for grip that SX are. Just FYI the SX was the only tire TireRack was able to break 1G on the dry skidpad with their test vehicl out of any of the other Extreme summer tires line up. Handling precision is excellent with these as well, given the proper width rim, as with most tires. They are fussier though, with less then stellar wet traction and a narrower heat range that you can find max grip in (they need to be hot) to get a proper representation. They do heat up rather quickly though in the right environment. In my experience, the SX seems to mimic more of how an R comp does. I'm not sure why more people don't run them, especially when you consider they cost very similar to an RS3, which is about as inexpensive as you can get these days. All I can think of is community like ours seem to like to stick to something that's proven to them and not explore much even if there is something better out there. Just the nature of things. But as mentioned with such a focused dry traction tire like the SX, its wear isn't quite as good as some of the other extreme summer tires if that's also important to you.

 

The all new RE11 A was just added to tirerack's website. Otherwise dunlop Z2, RE11, Toyo R1R or if you dont mind running a 245 then Michelin Pilot Super Sports.

 

FWIW Ive run the Ecsta XS in 255 all around before. The car is daily driven but sees a lot of track time and this is based specifically from a track perspective. I will agree tha they did have great dry traction and took heat well but R-S3s are hands down faster and last longer (for me anyways) while being cheaper. The grip is also more consistent with the R-S3s, they seem to be fast down to the cords where I noticed that by my 4th track day the XSs were heat cycled out and the car became a little harder to drive and slower lap times were obviously the result. Still a great tire and I will undoubtedly try the new version (Ecsta V720) when it comes to the US.