14" Tire Options

Tire shopping for my Miata with 14" Panasports...

It's a lightly modded car that sees 10-15k street miles in a summer, and maybe a couple of light track outings. Street manners are a higher priority than lap times.

The trouble is all I'm finding in Miata friendly 14" sizes is passenger all seasons and 200TW extreme performance weapons. I'd like something in between those two entities... something decently grippy, but will last more than one summer. Anything out there?

I've been using cheap crappy all seasons for the last couple years, but have had a couple sets of Star Specs in the past (on 15" 6ULs). Right now my top contender is 195/60-14 Falken Azenis RT615K's... I know they're only and probably left behind in the current crop of competition, but the price is a lot friendlier than Dunlop Z2's.

Any suggestions?

Strictly speaking, the RT615K IS one of those 200TW weapons. But for price and longevity I don't think you are going to beat it. Ever considered moving to a 15x6.5 or 15x7? Tons of the 300TW class UHP options in 195/55-15 or 205/50-15.

Yeah, I have thought about going back up to a 15" wheel but I much prefer the 14's on rough roads. My commute includes ~12 miles of dirt roads daily.

Well, keep in mind that 200tw on pavement is not going to be 200tw on dirt. Gravel especially tends to eat tires much quicker.

Check out what vulcantire has on closeout for the Azenis. I would call and check the date code as they are old stock but crazy cheap. Cheapez Azenis

My man, sounds like you need a second set of cheapy rims and tires. Run the cheaps daily. Change tires for autocross.

You can get Yoko S-Drives in 185/55-14s. $78 a pop from TireRack, cheaper other places.

Yoko's