I am looking for summer tires for the MR. I want something with a little more tread life and a little less road noise than the Advans yet not lose much on the performance side. Daily driver, no track.
Tire Rack suggested Dunlop Sport Maxx TT, any feed back or suggestions. I like the price on them.

 

Bridgestone Potenza RE050A get my vote. Not loud, very good grip and they work in the wet too and they survive quite a bit. I've manage dto have them for 20k miles of driving in the summer (daily drive to work and back at an average speed of 90 mph), a spirited run here and there and they finished their life at the end of the summer at a track (whole day on them, about 60 miles of track driving on a slow sharp track) And I still drove them home after that.

 

I suggest you browse this forum. This is not a new topic.

 

F%$k the tread wear You have an evo !
Get a Toyo R888'S

or the advan A048's


they good for one summer, if you not race too much. And they change the car for sure

the X doesnt eats tires like the older evos. also if you have a good aligment you are fine. I had an aggressive one and still i managed one summer with them .

 

Replaced stock tires with the Kumho XS 245/40/18s (wear rating 180) on the stock rims. Living in San Diego, I can run extreme summer tires year round and don't need to be overly concerned about wet or cold conditions. I used to track a lot in my old car but will use these tires for DD and canyon runs so I can't vouch for their track performance but they've gotten rave reviews by autoxers. I bought the tires from Tirerack for $174/each plus shipping.

I was considering the Dunlop Star Specs but went with the Kumhos because they had the fastest time on the Grassroot Motorsports magazine auto-x tire test and had an edge in dry conditions on the Car and Driver tire test. The kicker was a PM from an EVO owner on SoCalEVO.net who owned both the Star Specs and Kumhos and prefers the Kumhos.

It took about 200 miles for the tires to break in and display their full grip. While the tires are noted as having a soft sidewall which results in a decent ride on the hwy they turn in more crisply than the stock tires and grip much better in the turns. Based on my experience with other tires, the Kumhos are not as stiff as Bridgestone RE070s but not as soft as Hankook RS-2s or Michelin PS2s. The ride quality is amazingly good for a high performance tire.

So far even in the sharpest turns at speed they are quiet. Road noise on the hwy is about the same as the stockers. The shoulders of the tires are rounded so if you like square sidewalls you may not like the looks of the Kumhos. I've only got a few thousand miles on them so hard to say what the tread wear is like or if the tire will get louder as the tread wears down. Most likely that's the case.