Babbage

Hey guys new to the S life I need a little help selecting new tires. Just picked up my 08 in June with only 8k miles I believe it still has the stock tires and they are shot absolutely no grip. Trying to find a tire with plenty of grip and feel. Car gets driven only a couple days a week and when it does I like to put my foot into it no track time just spirited driving. My main complaint is at red lights left turns with just a little gas I keep kicking the back end out. Thanks in advance for any help

Tires I'm looking at:
Bridgestone Potenza S-04
Bridgestone Potenza RE71R
Bridgestone Potenza RE760
Michelin Pilot Super Sport

ZDan

You're looking at three different performance categories of tire there.
Best choice of tire for you depends on wants/needs/usage envelope:
Street only, or some track or autoX?
Tire life a factor?
responsive handling or smooove ride?
is it possible you may have to drive in snow/ice over the lifetime of the tires?
etc.

Babbage

Street only
Tire life isn't as big of a factor
I'm leaning more towards the responsive handling but don't want a harsh ride (I understand you can't have it all haha)
No snow or ice.

ZDan

Lots of info on tires at tire rack website. Here are 215/245 tires for AP2 in Max and Extreme performance summer tire categories:
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireSearchResults.jsp?zip-code=&frontWidth=215/&frontRatio=45&frontDiameter=17&rearWidth=245/&rearRatio=40&rearDiameter=17
Take a close look at the TEST results, in particular the brief summary on each tire at the beginning of the test report.

Personally I wouldn't go with Pilot Super Sports, I ran them on my FD and for some reason they lost ALL grip after a short time (18 mo to 2 years).

I'd probably go with Hankook RS4s, based on price and my general satisfaction with the RS3 on my AP1 for street and track usage.

Chuck S

You'll get as many opinions on tires as you will on motor oil! I'd personally only buy Extreme or Max Performance Summer tires, the top two tiers.

I ran Bridgestone RE11A tires, Bridgestone's previous Extreme darlings, on my '06 for three seasons and looked very closely at the RE71R Extreme tires to replace them. Noise in normal driving is reported to be quite loud with these and I got rid a previous set of Dunlap Direzza ZII Star Spec Extreme tires due to noise.

I took a baby step down from Extreme to Max Performance tires 16 months ago with the Bridgestone S04s in "CR" sizing. 215 front, 255 rear. Will probably try 225 front, 255 rear in a year or two when it's time to replace the tires. I didn't notice any handling difference from the RE11As. I obviously don't drive as fast as my wife accuses me as I rarely get any cornering tire squeal from the S04s nor did I with the RE11A tires. The S04 and RE11A tires are asymmetrical (no rotation arrow) which in concept allows for tighter cornering.

I've always thought Michelins were over-rated based on experiences on other cars.

-- Chuck

Babbage

Thanks for the info guys yea I checked out the reviews on tire rack just wanted your guys input on what has worked best for our cars. since the tires tested weren't tested on an s2000 I know every car drives different and needs a different tire. I think I'm leaning towards the s-04.

Chuck S

What did someone say in the past few days? Something about Chevy selling more Corvettes last year than Honda sold S2000s in the whole 9 years they were in production. We're a "small sample" by comparison. I've not seen Tire Rack test tires on other than current production tires.

-- Chuck

deception9

S04s are very good for the category, nearly as good as the MPSS but michelin doesn't make CR sized rears. +1 to 225/255. my bud with a CR ran the s04 until they were cords. he's in medical school right now so we stepped down a half notch to firestone indy 500s for $ reasons but S04s are great on this car.

s2ka

You also might want to consider the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500. Ultra High Performance Summer, Bridgestone based (RE003), aggressive tread pattern similar to the RE11, good size selection, good price on Tire Rack etc.

Chris_Lum

I personally think S04 will be perfectly fine for you. RE71R would be great too, but probably way more than you (or anyone) needs on the street unless you are a crazy driver (like 3 wheel it in the mountains). Keep in mind RE71R are very popular for the track b/c of their extremely high grip levels--yes i know they are still a street tire, but considering they're faster than the NT01 R-Comp on the track, it should give you an idea of how aggressive these tires are. RE71R are probably best described as a track tire that you can daily drive, rather than a street tire that you can take to the track, if that makes sense. I doubt you will need that stickiness on the street, but hey, you know your driving style better than anyone so ultimately it's your decision.

S04 will have less grip, but last much longer. Try out the S04 first, then if you feel like you want to trade off tire wear for more grip, move up to RE71R.