The Toyos are supposed to be one of the top STREET tires. Key word STREET - autocross them hard and they show flaws. The RE-01R is supposed to be like an T1R with less tread life and no performance "barrier".

Seriously, splurge on tires. You're going to have them a year and a half at least, and they make the single largest improvement to the feel and performance of the car. My car was a sloppy nervous mess on 225/45 Hankook RS2s, and it's a poised, stable, brutally fast track car on 225/45 Nitto NT-01s. One change is all it took.

Check out the Grassroots Motorsports August 2008 issue. They compared the following 'cheap skate' tires and used the Bridgestone RE-01R (not cheap) as a reference tire.

Test car: 1990 Miata, NA, KYB shocks and FM front sway, Kosei K-1 15x7 wheels
Each tire road tested over a fixed course
Each tire tested on a kart track (auto-x like) and lap times logged
Tires tested, in order of rank, and their mean lap times:
41.08 Kumho ECSTA AST
41.05 Sumitomo HTR 200
40.87 Fuzion ZRi
40.58 Yokohama S.drive
40.57 Falken Ziex ZE-912
Control tire
39.89 Bridgestone Potenza RE-01R

The street related comments were more subjective, so get the article. They liked the Falken as the best of the cheap tires based on its lap time. But the Fuzion was only 0.3 seconds behind it on lap time, felt the most like the Bridgestone (a good thing), and is the quietest of all of the tires tested. Point being the Fuzion is hardly a crap tire, and is actually the better selection for duty as a street mostly, auto-x occasionally tire.

I had a set of Falkens before on my truck (Ziex) and hated them in retrospect. One of them failed with belt separation before the tread life was used up, and they handled terribly. Wheel squirm under braking, etc. And they were really noisy. I did not know just how bad they were until I scrapped them for a different set of tires and everything improved dramatically. Granted they were two different cars and two different models of Falken. But tread separation is a quality issue.

I did not want to go there again with Falken so I got the Fuzions.

huh, nice article, I will try to check it out. I certainly like the sound of the subjective review of those Fuzions.

Having had a couple sets of Azenas (or however you spell it) and knowing several good friends who run them exlcusively, I can say that I wouldn't use that as a reason to avoid the brand - personally the ZIEX scare me a bit, I dunno why.


Can you get RE-01R's in a 15x7" size?

I'm 100% with you on getting good tires - I've had cheap tires in the past (the last time I drove my first car, in fact), and hated them, plus they take so long to go away.

My Falkens have been good, though they certainly got "old" - losing much of their grip after a year, and losing all of it recently. Of course, I am relearning the fun of sliding the car again, but it doesn't make it much of a tire, and with San Diego's 6 days of annual rain coming up, something at least with treat would be advisable.


edit: Bridgestones only avaialble in 195/50 which might be a bit small in both rolling diameter and width (the prior more concerns me) and the Direzza looks good, but is also only avialable in a 195 (though it's a 195/55)...

..195/50-15 is OEM for your car.

Personally I'd look for a larger (read taller) tire as to help with the shitty gearing the car has. But that probably hurts other aspects if you race your shit in turns. I don't, so it doesn't concern me. I got 225-50-15's and I'm wanting to run something bigger/taller.

Yeah, I just noticed that. That sucks. Those were my favorite tires hands down.

Hmmmm
Anyone got anything to say about this one?

"Latest word on solid street tires?"

Latest word is they still suck, pneumatic tires are still better.
<bada boom>

Well Abe, IMO 109$ is too much for street tires only. I don't know about Kumho XS. For myself, when spring will come, I'll go with Nitto Neo Gen.

I haven't heard any reviews of the XS yet, though Kumho is marketing it as a RE-01R killer.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. :cool:

MX-5 Miata Forum - Kuhmo Ecsta XS
The two or three reviews in here say good things, except the wet performance is supposed to suck. But I guess I'll just have to practice throttle-in-moderation those 4 days of wet in San Diego per year.