Looking for decent street tire suggestion for 15'
 

Hey,

So Discount tire kind of screwed me. I paid for 4 BFG sport comp 2 tires. Took me a while to decide on the new shoes....you know how it is!!

The last set in the country apparently, I was supposed to get. Well the store sold them out from under me! The guy I was talking to wasn't happy. I worked in retail so I know how it is so im not getting to butt hurt over it. But I do need tires still. The gf DD's the Miata, and she doesn't like being caught in the rain on bald r888's. Good thing she is a good driver and know to stay out of puddles and keep out of boost!

So. I don't track the car anymore, but I would like the option to track just incase. This is part of the reason Im staying away from 200 treadwear tires because I've read I will most likely heat cycle them out before they see a track. Not paying for grip I wont use

They have falken 512's on closeout, for 49 a tire. Im reading these have been discontinued long ago. Anyway to tell when the tire was built?

Any other recommendations? I wanted the Federal 595EVO, but shit are they ever hard to get!

Little about the car.
Gutted.
No Power anything
15x7 TDR wheels
FM2.5 handling kit
FM2 Turbo kit with all the bells and whistles
Looking to stick to a 195/50/15
Worst of all, its basically now a "park hard" car. I rarly drive it, and havnt tracked it in 2 years. GF daily drives it just so it doesn't sit, and its cheaper to drive than her truck. And she looks hot driving it.

Decisions decisions. I do need to get tires soon though before an accident happens. If I was driving the thing, I would have hit a curb by now since I have no restraint for staying out of boost. HELP ME!

Yokohama S.drive?

595RSR seem to be showing pretty favorable by the people brave enough to try them. Otherwise rivals vs RS3 vs ZII all have their benefits and draw backs. ZII is probably the better idea for this use.

I'll echo the comment about the Federal RSR, great tire for the money and relatively sticky.

The problem with buying closeout tires is that when one fails and can't be repaired you have to throw the other three away.

I would (and did) buy Rivals as street tires.

--Ian

Above 200TW I like the Yokohama S Drive. Dunlop's DZ102 and Toyo's Extensa HP are both good as well.

I ended up going with the s-drives for 380 installed in 195/50/15.

We shall see how they are! I really wanted to get the el-chepos but I don't want to have to hate them and then ruin them.

Getting them installed sometime this week

Good choice. I was pretty happy with my S-drives dailying my car.

I was going to come in and suggest the BFG Sport Comp 2 as that's what I just put on my daily... so uhh...

What's wrong with just letting tire rack decide by doing a tire search?

Sport comp-2's are sold out. I tired getting them through tire rack, discount tire, and another place.

I wanted to get miataturbo to help me, since we all have turbo miatas

205/50 neovas??

friend of mine just got s drives, I was impressed with them.

Yoke AD 08R

So I got the s-drives. 384 installed and out the door for all 4.

Ill do a quick review.

These are 195/50/15 tires. I just came off r888 in size 205/50/15.

The reason for the street tire is the car is driven 95% by my GF. She wanted something safe for the rain.

This tires flexes a lot compared to the r888. The car used to be VERY tight. There is a noticeable sense of delayed communication. I might need to stiffen the suspension up a few clicks to take some compliance out of the system (kyb agx)

In the corners, the throttle steering is way more sensitive. I can now really tuck the car in or push it out with the throttle. This is probably 2-3x more sensitive than with r888's.

Grip wise, It almost seems like the worn and cycled out r888's still had more grip than these sdrives. Ill update on this once I know for sure the tires are scrubbed.

Low speed steering is much easier now, due to all the voids in the tread lol. The GF will appreciate this parking the car with the depowered rack.

Cant comment on tire noise. I have AWR engine mounts, no interior, race seat, full exhaust, and the top down. Seems the same to me.

Only so much testing can be done on the drive home from the tire shop, 90% of which is highway.

I have a feeling I might regret buying street tires. Time to get on the hunt for some 15x8 or 9's and put some federal 205 rsr's for the track.......oh ya. I stopped going to the track........I might need to start going again.

SM7

Lol, does she enjoy driving it?

I'm confident you'll be more impressed by their performance when its raining. With new tread, I would see significant amounts of water being thrown to the side and over the front fender. These tires have treated me well in the same size for DD and autoX use. Try not to compare dry grip with r888s. So unfair!

Ya she does. She understands what the car is built to do, and she has autocrossed it a few times. I think she knows she looks hot driving it lol. 26 and going back to college, the car gets her some attention Im sure!

She calls it the "temperamental turbo", mainly due to some bucking/surging between 1-2k rpm I have not yet tuned out or fixed. Once it starts you either need to go WOT, or push the clutch in. I might try to fix it this weekend...it was driving me nuts the other day.

I do know dry grip between the two is incomparable, but its the only thing I can compare too. Wet grip, Ill have her comment. I never drove it in the rain. Im bad enough in the dry lol

I put Yoko S.drives on my last miata and RX7. They weren't bad, but I wouldn't say they were great in any aspect except in the rain. They were awesome in the rain.

I have always used a tire tread depth gauge, and the Miata basically didn't wear the tire at all with about 1.5 years of use, approx. 20k miles. I think it wore 1/16" if I remember right. A slightly softer tire would probably be a good idea, but you won't be too disappointed. Just not impressed.

If I were to do it again, I would probably buy Rivals.