Based on a lot of research from others here, I went with 205/55/ZR16 FRONT & 245/45/ZR16 REAR on the stock wheels. Mine (Kumho Ecsta 712) were in stock and came from Tirerack.com...arriving in 2-3 days in 2 big plastic bags
As some others have done, I have kept the original S02's on the front and have not noticed any handling problems. As stated above, however, they're not the best choice if you race or drive aggressively ALL THE TIME. You have to read the stuff and decide.

Oh, yeah...make sure to order them thru this site and kick back a small credit to s2kca!

 

I only replaced the rears and went with the 245s as well. Good tire for very little money.

 

Posted by Station
Rob/Station - you are correct in the truest sense. I do however believe your word "useless" is a bit of an over statement. There are some strong commonalties between manufactures and over the years I have found the UTQG Rating to be extremely helpful in picking a tire for a specific purpose.

What would be great is if we could get the opinion of the Tire Rack!

FROM THE TIRE RACK WEB SITE:
The Department of Transportation requires each manufacturer to grade its tires under the Uniform Tire Quality Grade (UTQG) labeling system and establishes ratings for treadwear, traction, and temperature resistance. These tests are conducted independently by each manufacturer following government guidelines to assign values that represent a comparison between the tested tire and a control tire. While traction and temperature resistance ratings are specific performance levels, the treadwear ratings are assigned by the manufacturers following field-testing and are most accurate when comparing tires of the same brand.

 

Jim@tirerack - are you there?

 

Gone fishin' I guess... (ice fishin' that is)

 

Station brings up an extremely valid point and I'm curious about Jim's reaction. And paS2K maybe you got something with the ice fishing thing, or was that ice racing???

 

How about a winter track event at Watkins' Glen...do they rent it out? You could set up a great event there and get 50 people from the FallColors crowd! Yeah, I did ice fishing and ice racing during 7 years at Cornell

 

The Glen completely shuts down for the winter. They are already doing pavement repairs and updates. As far as getting a date, the number of weekends is exceeded greatly by the demand and all the time that is available is already booked for 2002. I know this because I am involved with The Glen through BMW CCA. We run 3 - 4 schools per year from The Glen, and in fact BMW will be the featured marque at this years Vintage Event in June!
Ice racing is something I have yet to do, I have lots of friends who do and I have gone to watch and get rides but have never done so. My hat is off to you!!!

 

Since the topic of ice racing was brought up, I thought some of you might be interested in the following site http://www.cnyira.com/ To be honest, I much prefer sitting in the nearest restaurant/tavern and watching the the ice racers through the window There's just a little less than six months remaining until the next upstate NY autoX!!

 

Originally posted by Testut
Testut - good job, I like your positive point of view, it is tough living in the land of the snow!

Now if we could just get Jim to react to the question about UTQG...