The best decision I've ever made with my S is replacing the tires the (used car) dealer put on it with good ol' S02s. (It's an AP1, obviously.) I love how the car feels with them on. I don't track or autocross, so I really don't care about absolute roadholding, but I drive very aggressively and I dearly appreciate control and feedback, which the S02 gives better than any other road tire I've experienced.

So why the question? I'm thinking that maybe, just maybe, with the cold(er) weather here it may be time to look for other options. The Bridgestones' wet whether performance is, of course, legendarily bad, but it doesn't rain that often down here and I can live with that problem. But for about four or five months out of the year, when temperatures get down into the 50s or so, I just can't get everything out of them without worrying about swapping ends.

So the question: is there anything else that will give me the same sense of control, but won't stink quite so badly in suboptimal conditions?

Note: stock AP1 wheels and suspension.

 

hmm read up on the POTENZA RE01R's.

 

Does not come in appropriate AP1 sizes.

 

ive seen some people running them in 205/55, 225/50.

 

225/50-16 is only correct for the OEM S02. For all others you must run a 245/45-16 to get an equivalent contact patch at the rear. The OEM S02 was very wide with very square shoulders...nothing in a 225 series comes close to its contact patch.

 

sorry for giving the wrong info, i thought that since the S02's were replaced by the RE01R's that they would have about the same sizing.

 

Tire size is absolutely the issue -- there exist fabulous tires out there, but our sizes, particularly the rear when you do the correction neg camber mentions, eliminates most good possibilities. To me this would be the reason to go +1, and if it were free or cheap to do so, I probably would, even though it's aesthetically displeasing to me to go with an inherently heavier setup in order to achieve, on a theoretical level anyway, more absolute grip with less feedback.

But I digress. Anyone else?

 

Light weight 17s and put some all seasons on your OEMs. But that's gonna be a tad expensive.