Hi folks. Here's the deal. I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster in desperate need of some educated opinions. I own a 2006 IX MR with stock wheel specs. My tires are officially dead and I'm looking for new options. My last set that I purchased (and loved, might I add) were the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A Pole Positions. Now I keep hearing from various sources that I can definitely find just as good of a tire for a lower price. What I am concerned about are losing the qualities that that specific tire has that I hold dear. What I'm looking for is reasonable price, decent tread wear, autocross ability and WET TRACTION. I live in Louisiana so even though winter is coming up, ice and snow isn't an issue here like elsewhere. I would like to try and spend less than I did on the pole positions if possible. I don't autocross near as much as I did, but I would like to have tires that can handle it on days I feel like going. We also have rallycross coming up in January.

All help greatly appreciated!

Nicole

 

Cannot have all here. AX tire means higher daily wear and lower life.

Wet traction can be had in an AX type tire. But remember they have lower tread depths to help with handling.

Price is subjective.

Z1* are one of the top AX tires. Great in wet (I have tracked on them wet with full tread).

One that I like and others too - Hankook Evo 12s. Will be my next tire when my OE set on the new car wear out. Good price point and good handling. As good as Z1*, no, but will last a little longer.

 

May also want to check out the Federal 595RS-R. Not sure how they are in wet, but they are great in dry and wear well, as well as not being too expensive.

 

I'd check out the Z1's. Tons of people running those with great results in dry and wet. May also want to view the BFG KDW2's for good wet and dry, but a tad more life. Noisier than the Z1's though and in a perf class one below the Z.

 

I have been looking at the star specs. I am typically a Bridgestone fan but more from lack of branching out to other things than any other reason. I'm just so hesitant to switch because I don't want to end up hating them. LOL. I've heard great things about the star specs but want opinions of Evo owners specifically just to make sure.

 

I love my star specs. I have ran events in the rain with no problems (AX/track) I switched to my snow tires for rally cross. In our region you cant run high performance summer tires in RX.

Good Luck!!

 

Dunlop Star Spec Z1s or Nitto NT-05s

 

Have you considered the RE11 in keeping with your fondness of Bstone? They're aren't cheap but I'll bet you like them.

 

The Dunlop Star Specs are an excellent performing rain tire, about as good as you can get, in reality. Forward traction in the rain is downright impressive and lateral grip is really good, too.

I recently had an autocross in the rain, and the only car that beat me was a 2009 GT-R Nissan with 305mm rain slicks.... I am 3900+ lbs with 255/40/17's. I dont think he would have beat me if he was on his regular street tires, and I think I could have beat him if I had some 275 rain slicks.

Also I dont drive an Evo, but my VR-4 is pretty much like a fat understeering big brother of the Evo with lots of torque!