Performance tires for 100% street duty?
 

I recently purchased new wheels and I have been searching for what tires to buy in 205/50/15. The car is 100% street driven at around 8k miles/yr but with a healthy amount of spirited driving.
I'm looking for something with good grip but also with decent tread life in the ~$120/tire price range. I've researched but there are so many to choose from and a lot of the information available is pretty dated.
Please be gentle, this is my first time shopping for tires.

The two tires that I've had my eye on are Yoko S-drive and Maxxis VR-1. I'm close to pulling the trigger on the VR-1's but I'm definitely open to suggestions.

I read that the S-drives have great tread life, seeing as they're 300 UTQG, but are not much better than your standard crap all season tires.
I've also read that people are pleased with the VR-1 for the street and the amount of grip they have for the dollar spent. I'm concerned they won't last very long.
How many miles could I expect from a daily driven 200 UTQG tire such as the VR-1?

As I said above I am open to suggestions. What do you suggest for a 100% street duty performance tire with decent tread life?

Rs4s are also a really good option, they have really good grip and last a long time

I like the s-drives because they work very well when cold too. I can't imagine needing more tire on the street anyway. Plus they last a good amount of time and are quiet. Like it really matters in a miata.

Continental Extreme Contact Sport.

I heard that RS4's are another popular tire but I don't believe they come in 205. You say they last a "long time" how long are we talking here, 20-30k?

If I can get at least 20k street miles out of a 200 tread wear tire, I'd be satisfied.

I have the rs4 for street duty and they are great in everything except rain

The 195 width RS4s are as wide as other 205s

That's good to know, I appreciate the tip!

S.Drives are a good compromise tire. They get greasy when hot, but at that point you're really pushing too hard for the street anyway. As noted above, they are pretty tolerant of temperature, and for that reason I ran them on my wife's DD NC. We don't get a lot of snow, but often see temps down into the 30's and 20's at night, and the S.Drives were never bothered by it, as long as your expectations weren't unreasonable. I found the S.Drives a bit noisy as they got higher miles, but most performance tires will...

I currently have Conti ECS on our NB, but they will be coming off shortly due to temps, as they are not recommended to be run under 40*F. I like them better than the S.Drives in the dry, but they can't go year-round for me.

Yokohama ad08r 205/50r15, maybe a little outside your budget though.

I had the AD08 on my MR2 Turbo and could not fault them. Amazing grip dry or wet, and they work in freezing temps too. Very good poor weather grip for the type of tyre.

And 225 RS4s are as wide as... 205 VR-1s.

Another important factor is weather. What kind of weather do you get. If you are prone to a lot of rain and only want to run 1 set of tires it might change some opinions. Such as i strongly recommend the RS4 for summer days but not at all in the rain. (I have roughly 3000 miles on my RS4 and they look almost new also)

If you need a good streetable rain tire i would probably go with the Toyo RA1

That's a really good point that I didn't think was a huge deal. Obviously wet vs dry is important but I didn't know you couldn't use certain tires below a certain temperature. We don't get much snow here but it does get into the 20s pretty often in the winter. I'll start looking into to tires that work fine in the cold.

I really appreciate all of the responses guys. I guess to further filter my search, I'm not looking for a super plus ultra summer tire. But one that works well in dry, wet, and now cold. So one with good grip for a street car and I can use them year round.

Aren't the federal 595's available in a 205/50/15? How do those compare? I've read good things about them on this site and elsewhere.

I believe they do come in 205. They're a good price, too. I'm curious to how do for a street car (tread life, wet, cold etc.)

1) Bad
2) Bad
3) Bad

No 200tw tire does well in cold. Period. Don't do it.

Sorry, missed the bit when OP was asking about cold weather driving. I always default to fair weather daily when I see anyone talk about spirited driving etc on these.

OP, OEM wheels for these cars are cheap. You may be better served by having a set of oem wheels with all seasons and a different set of wheels with performance summer tires. You can likely get the OEM wheels with all seasons for 200-300 bucks. I've seen a bunch get sold pretty cheap from folks that just bought the car and are swapping to more aggressive wheels/tires and sell off the set that the previous owner had recently replaced.

RS4's are awful in the cold. Cold and wet, gg.

Now that you mention this, I may actually do this. I have oem wheels with all seasons on them now. It just never crossed my mind the need to have "winter tires" living in the south (TN).

When I referred to a "cold tire" I am talking about not warmed up.

My R1Rs are absolutely shit when at ambient 60F temperature.

I've been running 205/50/15 595RSRs for a long time. They seem decent in all conditions - do well in the wet, a little less grippy in the cold (temps around freezing) compared to warmer weather, but not to the extent that you think they are trying to kill you at every corner. I can't remember how many miles I've put on them (car was off the road for a few years) but they are wearing well. I'd certainly get another set - it's just a shame that I can't get them any wider than 205!

I like my Dunlop DZ102s.. Quiet and grippy. On my second set.

I've been very happy with my SM7's on the street, except when it's raining on the Cherohala Skyway.

Since my current Miata has always been a city-commuter car, I stopped buying the Potenza RE-series which were my mainstay tire in CA and FL, and have been running Direzza DZ102s (460 TW) on it in summer. They do very well in the rain, and are functional down into the 40s in spring and fall. I expect they'd probably overheat quickly if exposed to any kind of serious AutoX use on a warm day in Florida, but as an inexpensive "anything but snow" commuter performance tire, they're good bang for the buck.

Wow, thanks again everyone for all of the suggestions and insight. I'll comb through all of the tires mentioned here and try to make an informed decision.
I'm most likely going to go for a 200tw tire and swap back to the stockers with all seasons when the real cold weather hits. "real cold" is only just below freezing here.

I do have a few last questions for the council. Say I buy 200tw tires and use them in colder weather (~40s). Will that cause them to simply have less grip since they can't get up to operating temps?
Would it be considered unsafe to do this? Lastly, would it ruin the tire to run them in ~40 degree weather?

I apologize for the ignorance. As I stated in the OP, this is my first time shopping for tires that aren't typical all seasons.

Edit - After searching a bit, it seems that it's okay to use summer tires in cool weather (40-50). Less grip seems to be the only result.

Be careful, especially with newer design tires. The competition for high performance tires is pretty fierce, and they're pulling out the stops making sticky summer tires at the expense of all-around performance. Many of the manufacturers warn of potential tire damage in low temps.

Example warning from TireRack's site for Conti ECS:

I appreciate the warning Roda, I will definitely read more of the fine print for each tire before purchasing. The coldest temp I'd use the summer tires (most likely 200tw) would be 40-50, and the stock all seasons for anything colder than that.
If 40-50 degrees means less grip but not at an unsafe level, that's fine. if it's unsafe or can/will damage the tire, that's a different story. If this is a dumb idea, please chime in and call me a noob. I'll reconsider in a heartbeat.

These. All day long.

I've been running them on my 2.5 NC this season and have been thoroughly impressed with everything they can do. I've used them in low temperatures in the rain, done thousands of hard mountain driving miles, and even did a track day at AMP.

I actually wound up placing an order for the Conti ECS. So far everyone has great things to say about them. I'm excited to get them mounted on my new wheels and see what they're about.

Great choice. The S.Drives are a good second, but the Contis are my personal favorites. I've driven them on more car models than I can count, good across the board. I put them on my wife's G37 as soon as I had an excuse.

I've been using Sport Comp2's. They have a little stiffer sidewall than the S-Drives, but do well overall with plenty of grip without getting into too much trouble ;) Though they only come in 195. It's a "wide" 195, but it causes a little stretch on my 15x8's unfortunately.

I too have this. Driving through Vail Pass, coming in from Grand Junction and headed back to Denver, a light snow storm greeted me as I exited the Johnson Tunnel (East Bound) on I-70.

I was a bit shooked up, because I've read so much about the Contis not liking cold weather. Good grief! FOr the 12 miles or so that I drove on snow/sleet, the Contis behaved AWESOME! I mean, no I would not want to make a habit of driving them on snowy roads and that storm moved up on me by a good 6 hours, meaning it arrived earlier than forecasted, but still; it was a great relief to feel that the tire was outperforming recommended parameters!

I remember vividly making the exact opposite drive.

In a Penske 16' box truck.

With a car-hauler hitched up behind it carrying my NA.

In January.

In a blizzard.

At night.

After I'd passed several flashing signs saying "Trucks must use tire chains," and thinking "I rented this truck in Florida, with a destination of San Diego, and stupidly decided to visit FM on the way. I do not have tire chains."

Darn. I bet that once you came out of the Ford Tunnel (west bound) and saw the way down to Frisco, your truck cab got really smelly, FAST!

Visibility was maybe 50' feet that night. I couldn't see the next turn, much less Frisco.

As I was leaving Denver, I recall thinking "Maybe I should stop here for the night. The weather kind of sucks. And, yet, I've still got a few hours of daylight ahead of me..."

I did not appreciate at the time how little there is west of Denver in terms of accomodations.

I remember being passed by a convoy of three tandem-tanker trucks which I judged to be going suicidally fast. An hour or two later, I passed them. Two were stopped on the shoulder, one was down in a gulley, and I remember thinking "They're going to need a crane to get that out. After the snow melts."

My biggest problem was that the headlights on the Penske truck had apparently been aimed with the cargo box empty and no weight on the hitch. Thus, they were useful that night mostly for illuminating the snow ten feet above the road, rather than the road itself. I actually experimented with turning them off, and found that the moonlight was a more useful guide at times.

About an hour after sunset, a tractor-trailer (wearing chains) crept past me at about 15 MPH. That's 15 MPH total, not that he was going 15 MPH faster than me. His forward-facing lights were like staring into the face of God, and he seemed to be driving cautiously and skillfully. As soon as he merged back, I got right into his draft, following the clean-ish trail left by his tires, and stayed on his tail until I reached a turn-off into a little ski resort town a couple hours later. Can't remember the name of the town, but I found a rustic little motel where I paid an unreasonably large amount for a room which resembled a hunting lodge (faux-log-cabin walls, deer-antler chandelier, the whole nine yards), and got the best nights' sleep of my life.

Although I wasn't carrying a CB at the time (which is weird, as I usually did in that era), I like to think that the driver of that truck knew he'd helped out a guy who was way out of his league.

Yeah, no hotels between Denver and Silverthorne. And it sounds as if you stayed in the Beaver Creek/Cooper Mntn area, as all other ski areas have large resorts. But my observations are post 2010, as that was the time that I got to Colorado, and I have no idea which year you drove through.

One thing though, chain enforcement is a lot more common this days. They're like hawks over a deer carcass!

I just looked up an old thread I'd made during the tip. "The Journey West."

It was Georgetown, CO, pretty close to the area you spec'd. The hotel is presently called "Americas Best Value Inn", but I think it had a different name back then. This was Jan 2010.

Photos from Gmaps:

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ba984e599e.png

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c1a427a05c.png

Pretty much exactly how I remember it. I have never in my life been so glad to see an overpriced motel.

Nah, Georgetown is by Keystone Resort, which is pretty small. Georgetown is within the boundaries of the Pike National Forest, and it is actually before one takes the tunnels, when heading westbound. Mount Evans, Beirstadt, Torreys and Greys are all within a 20 mile radious of Georgetown. They are all 14'ers.

Living in Blighty 225/45/15 is basically unavailable without some sort of ball tickling with a dealer. So what sizes are these tyre recommendations in?
205/50/15 I've seen and 195 mentioned but not all numbers I'm guessing 195/50/15 but have no basis for that.
I also noticed OP didn't state wheel size which concerns me as I'm looking at 15x9s

I'm just trying to find a tyre source over the pond that doesn't involve ball tickling niceties.