Tire recommendation, please.
 

hello everyone!
TL;DR: which tire do you recommend to have fun with on a DD?

So after ~18k miles, my stock a13c's on my X are coming to an end. I've been doing a bit of reading trying to see which set of tires to grab next. A little background, I DD drive my car and occasionally go on spirited/canyon runs (who doesn't) here and there, when time and safety permit. For those wondering if I will be doing any sort of AutoX/tracking, im not quite sure yet. As much as I want to, I think I'm just a bit intimidated by it even though there can be lots of knowledge behind it.. With that being said, I don't really mind a loud or harsh ride or at least nothing extreme. and I think I can get by tread life too since I don't constantly go carving through back roads. I live in So. Cal as well so I only have to worry about rain maybe a couple days out of the year but would still like a tire that does well in the rain though. Ultimately, looking a bit more for performance than anything else. After a bit of reading I've narrowed down my list to three, possibly four. I don't see myself getting new wheels anytime soon so they will be going on the stock X enkei wheels. thank you for your guys help.

AD08R
RS4
S04
RE71R-
PSS - even though these have been praised for their versatility, I've read a bad thing about them is their soft side walls.

It sounds like you want slightly more performance than the mileage/life yield, correct?

The S-04's are nice, but they are dated now. I would look into the Toyo Proxes T1 Sport (240/AA/A) or Falken Azenis FK510 (300/AA/A) that succeeded the FK453. I used both on my X before switching to the Falken Azenis RT-615K+ (200/A/A). The T1's wore out fairly quickly but are nice and sticky with a mileage warranty (25k? IIRC). Most of the other Max or Extreme summer options that you listed will probably last even less with lower tread depths new, although YMMV if you autox/track. I believe the R888R's on my VIII have ~6/32" new lol... compared to 8-10ish

On the list you provided above I would lean for the Hankook RS4. Not sure about some of the others.

On your list, I would go Hankook RS4. Off list, another option is the Dunlop Z3.

I would avoid the Bstone S04 and the MPSS. THey won't have the ultimate grip I'm sure you're looking for.

I've had the hankooks and the potenza's gotta say for me the potenza's RE71r's win out in my book, but tire life and noise and anything other than sheer grip aren't important to me, take it or leave it. regardless what you choose all of those tires are damn good. when it comes to size going larger than recommended width wise on a rim will actually decrease the contact patch to the road. so for the stock 8.5 inch wide rim ya shouldn't go larger than 255 / 245 depending on who you ask. basically the larger the width on a smaller sized rim will curl / knurl the sides and not allow for a larger "correct" contact patch to the road. just not the best in performance can you mount the tire, sure, go for it, will it out perform a correctly sized width tire on the same rim, no. the choice is yours.

I hate to hijack this thread but I have a related question. The best tire setup I ever had was the first gen RS3 255/40 on the stock 8.5 rims.Second best setup was RE71 265/35 on same width rims, but outer wear was very bad, on stock Bilsteins. i now have Ohlins and 18X9.5" wheels and V12 265/35. Speedo is off by about 7 MPH (compared to ~3 on stock) and I'd like some more meat on the tires.

The car lives for the track but is also a daily driver for now. I'm going with the RS4 but I'm debating the size - 275/35R35 vs. 285/35R35. I don't care about clearance and I will have fenders rolled as needed.

Love to hear some more about this too, i've always been told to stay under the 275 width, due to issues presenting themselves at the differential, relating to running wider tires... And for reference my wheel wells are rolled but i'd imagine depending on your hieght GotKT ya might need more of a pull at the fenders over just a roll if ya went with the 285 width....

Im running the A052 which is the best competitor to the RE71R. The A052 wears muuuch better. Grip is insane and the way it handles itself at the limit is amazing.

R-S4. They perform surprisingly well. I'm basing my opinion after using the R-S3, R-S4, and NT-01s. Not only do they work really well in wet and dry, but they live a reasonably long time. Since getting another set of wheels/tires for track, I've been using the Hankooks for daily driving duties. Zero complaints. I'm a huge Hankook fan, though.
The 615 is a **** tire. You're going to hate it after using the R-S4.
The R-S4s I'm daily driving on now are on VIII wheels and are stock size. I ran a 2:45 at Laguna Seca with a broken transmission, open rear diff, and passenger in the car. Oh. and some traffic. :lol:. Not an epic lap time, by any means, but just a testament to how well the stock-sized Hankook works. Had the car been working better, I could have done much better. They grip, are fairly responsive, and take heat REALLY well. You can go with squishy marshmallow sizes, but I can pretty much promise you won't see any improvement in performance, unless you do AutoX.

TLDR: Stick with the stock 235s.

Whoever told you that is wrong. As long as all 4 tires are the same, you can run whatever size tire you want to try and squeeze there.


Stick with the stock tire size on the stock wheels.

I decided on 275/35 RS 4s. While I agree that 285 on 9.5" rims will work, I'm concerned that the sidewalls will be soft. When I ran 265s on 8.5" rims I had that problem. They stuck to the track well enough but wore badly on the sidewalls. 255s on the stock rims should work fine, but so do 245s. If it's just a DD, I'd stick with stock size on stock rims. I would also think that the RE71 is a better choice for a DD since it doesn't need heat for optimum performance. If you are not tracking or auto X, then there are allot of other good tire choices available.

I would go for the 615k+ if you aren't competitive in autocross or something. They are like 95% of what an re-71 would be but they are way cheaper and they are great cold or hot. I've had the RS-4, RE-71 and 615k+ and my last pick would be RS-4 due to grip falling off very badly when it gets close to the wear bars, but probably the slowest wearing 200tw tire you can get. They will heat cycle out before using up all your tread though, same as 615k+. Also the RS-4's are meh when cold. 615k+ will do the same but they still have good grip when cold but not as good wear as the RS-4's but don't wear as fast as 71's. Regardless, all those tires will heat cycle out before the tread even gets to wear bars if you just daily drive.

The reviews for AutoX concur. Not so much HPDE, though. They seem to not like the heat and fall off after 2-3 laps. Very much like the RE-71R, which is also a very good AutoX tire but performs the same on the road course. Great for Time Attack, though, where you're only putting in that many hot laps per session.