How do I find the quietest 17”tires for my second wheelset for my dual-duty car?

I have a Toyobaru that is my dual-purpose daily/trackday/auto-x car. I have two sets of wheels, and keep 200TW tires on the lightweight set for motorsports use. I need new tires on the other wheels, and these new tires need to be the complementary counterpart to the sticky tires. And the twins are noisy inside, so they need to be quiet.

I feel like Tire Rack used to have a road noise category for ratings/tire selector, but when I looked earlier today, noise is rolled into comfort, which makes the reviews maybe useful, but maybe not if reviewers equate an umbrella comfort/noise rating primarily with ride quality. I started looking into tires with noise suppression technology, but my web searches almost exclusively lead to press releases about the technology, but no lists of tire models or anything useful like that. I dug further and found that many of them only come in huge diameters, except a model of Turanza that comes in 17", but that tire didn't show up in any of my Tire Rack searches???

Soooo....quiet 215/45-17, 225/45-17, or similar size to fit 17x7. Better cold (35-45) wet grip than UHP trackday tires is important. Snow/ice grip isn't important, but I wouldn't be mad if it was included. Dry grip not a complete league worse than the stock Michelin Primacy is fine. Wear/durability doesn't matter. What should I consider?

TL;DR--Quiet 215/45-17 or 225/45-17 that works OK in cool/cold wet weather...GO!

The EU has a tire labeling system that includes noise. Maybe see if you can find those ratings for your short list?

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) 

I'll suggest Continental DWS06 series, I have a set on my Mustang and they are night and day better in terms of vibration / road noise than the OEM Pirelli tires.  I haven't had any issues in cooler weather and wet grip is significantly better as well.  The Tire Rack selection tool says they are available in 17" for your car.

Michelin Crossclimate 2 is a good quiet tire. The Conti DWS is good too.

Firestone  Firehawk Indy 500?  I've had them on 3 cars now, love the wet weather traction for daily use.  I think they're quiet, and when I went from Federal RS-RR it was like night and day but that might be an extreme example.

215/45R17 is on sale for $99 each, that's a killer price.  If that fit my 944 I'd be hitting Buy Now.  225/45R17 is $164.

A few years ago I put General Gmax as05's on one of my cars. Great performance, but after a day I was trying to figure out how I was going to get rid of them. I pulled them and sold them at a loss. They were the loudest tires I've ever owned. Hard to beat the value in Indy 500's

I have Continental all seasons on my MINI Cooper and love them. My recently purchased ND Miata has the Continental Extreme Contacts and they're nice, too, but a bit noisier. My wife's Scion xB has some Toyo Extenzas that are a cheap, but quiet tire.

Keith Tanner said:

The EU has a tire labeling system that includes noise. Maybe see if you can find those ratings for your short list?

 

185/60R14!

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Yeah baby! 240 TW and a sidewall that's stiff enough to be responsive but soft enough to be comfortable. The perfect stock+ NA tire for those running the original wheels.

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Might have to dig my Daisies out of the attic. 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

I found out about them from some guy on the internet.
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/news/need-for-a-new-rad-tire-for-your-old-rad-car/ 

David S. Wallens said:185/60R14!

The perfect size!

That's a pretty good example of how easy it is to read the EU labels. Peabody's tire has about the same rolling resistance as mine, but is not so good in the wet and is slightly louder. It's got the snowflake, though, which means it's going to be a lot better in the snow than mine. As one would hope, given that it's called a North Pole :) Scan that QR code and you get more high level info on the tire.

Also, a MOMO brand tire?

In reply to Keith Tanner :

Well, at one time, Momo’s U.S. site did show tires. (Guess they have come and gone since then.)

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Walmart sells Momo tires.

Found the link: Momo Tires. 

Keith Tanner said:

Also, a MOMO brand tire?

They were on sale and very reasonably priced. And since I bought them from a Quebec company and the reviews were excellent, I thought I'd take a chance.

There's a local dealer selling pretty decent looking Chinese snows in my size for $145 in freedom dollars. That's a set of 4. I was tempted to try my luck. The Momos were $100 more to my door

I'll add to what others have said:  I recently purchased a set of the Continental dws06 plus and they are very quiet on my GTI.  They also grip well for an ultra high performance all season tire to be used on the street.  

Are tires meant for fuel economy automatically less noisy?