i just got some kumho SPT's... to be completly honest i cant tell the diff. between these and my toyo T1R's.. havnt been to the track or anything, but acouple of 1-2 redlines and some hard turns... im already incredably happy... also.. the contact patch is MUCH wider..

 

Kumho SPT tires will be my next set of tires for my S. I am not racing on public roads and I do not track my car, SPT may be all I need for my daily commuting on city streets. I hope that I will be happy with SPT too.

 

As far as the MXs are concerned, how are the contact patch compared to the stock S02s? Will it have the stretched tire look, or will it be flush with a 16x8 rear wheel? (Widest tire they offer on the site is a 225/50/YR16)

Thanks for the help,
Aaron

 

Just look at the "specs" link for the two tires on Tire Rack's site and you can compare yourself. Let us know what you find.

 

Well, I still need tires and haven't decided...

Its mostly warm down here so I want to get a summer performance tire. I do autox, drive "spiritedly" when a nice twisty road opens up, but I don't want the short life + cost of the SO2s. If I can get 95% of the S02 but get 15% more tred life, I'll take it.

 

I own the es100s. For daily driving, no problems yet. I live in San Diego, so not much rain or harsh weather.

From my exp, its good!

 

For about half the cost, almost double tread life, better on wet surface but not as good on dry road as S02 is: Kumho SPT.

This is the opinion of an owner of 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera Turbo on tire-rack:

This tire is remarkable in its value and performance. As a street tire, it it especially good because it has great NVH performance. It is much easier on the ears! Priced at half the Michelin PS2 but with 90%+ the performance (and better NVH), this is the winning tire for daily driving.
I posted earlier today but forgot to add that the tire wear is stellar. The tires look better with 6000 miles of wear than the Pirelli P-Zeros did (two sets worth) ever looked at 1000 miles.

Another review from an owner of S2000 of the SPT on 2005 Acura TL 6-Speed Transmission, the owner had good experiences with high performance tires:

These are the first Kumhos I've purchased. They're awesome. I can't believe how good these sub $100 tires are. They're great in the dry and the wet. I've tried Continental Sport Contact 2, Bridgestone RE50, RE40, and S03, and Yokohama AVS Sports on my 911, Audi S4, and Honda S2000. Though the Acura TL is not a great handling car so it's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, the Kumhos do seem very comparable.

Farther down, he said that:
... I'm tempted to put some on my 911 next. Road noise is very minimal, so far.

Based on test result from Tire-Rack and these opinions, I think SPT is a cheap but good alternative to OEM tires for our S2000's. I will buy SPT for my S when I need new tires in about 1k to 2k miles. I do not autox so that I do not need max performance tires like RE050 (my S is MY04).

The problem is you do autox, then you need max performance tires, Kumho MX may be better for your situations, it will lasted a little longer than S02, cost a lot less and almost as good as S02 on dry but better than S02 on wet.

 

Yeah. I am think ing I will go with the MX, I just hate the side wall design. Another thing is too, I need to get these before Wake the Dragon so I have ample break-in time. For those who have owned the MX, how much time do you think is needed for proper break-in?

 

I ordered the SPTs from Tire Rack two days ago, I will post impressions when I get them. Ive had the S-02s, Falken FK451s, andAVS ES100s. let me know if youre interested in my findings..

Aaron

 

Thanks Aaron