Pick me a tire that I can autocross and drive to work.

It is time to replace the OEM tires that came on the Fiesta ST, so I wanted to ask the hive here at GRM for your recommendation. The OEM tires were 140 tread wear and lasted about 5000 miles. That kinda sucks IMHO, especially because they were not super competitive nor were they great on the road or nor are they cheap.

What I want is a summer max-performance tire that I can daily drive in good weather, sometimes wet weather (never snow, I have winter tires) and occasionally autocross. I am willing to sacrifice outright track performance for longevity and a decent price. I don't particularly care about comfort or noise.

I am sticking with either 205 or 215/40-17 size, so my options are pretty limited (in price order):
Sumitomo HTR Z II
Yokohama S-Drive
BFG Sport Comp 2
Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sport

I think that the BFG strike the best balance for me, what do you think? Any other options out there?

The ZIIs weren't great tires when new and have been made entirely irrelevant by the ZIII, which is sadly not available in that size. Skip them. S.Drives are okay but pretty much a decade old design at this point. Federal 595 Evo is a budget option, Azenis RT615K is also an option but maybe a bit hardcore for a daily.

I think you're on the money with the BFGs.

Been running the Azenis RT615K on the fleet for a while.

Will mount a set of Rivals on the FRS when the taxi tires that came with it wear out.

Azenis might do fine. Shame the Dunlop offering doesn't have an option in that size. :-(

I am in the exact same situation and I am planning on going with the BFGs. I've done a lot of research already, and I can get a full set mounted for like $300 locally.

My friend who is hardcore into autocross says the Bridgestone Potenza RE71R is the hot ticket right now for the serious guys. I don't need hardcore performance though, and those tires run 120 a piece.

I have the Continental DW on my E46 and me love them long time. They've worn very well and they are far from embarrassing on the autocross course. These probably have 30-35,000 on them and I won't need to replace them before next spring at the earliest (I also have winter tires).

Desmond wrote: I am in the exact same situation and I am planning on going with the BFGs. I've done a lot of research already, and I can get a full set mounted for like $300 locally. My friend who is hardcore into autocross says the Bridgestone Potenza RE71R is the hot ticket right now for the serious guys. I don't need hardcore performance though, and those tires run 120 a piece.

120 apiece is actually fairly cheap for good, sticky tires.

In reply to Duke:

I love the DWs and was going to recommend them, but sadly they are not available in either of OP's size options.

I had Yokohama S-Drive's on my xB. Not as quick as your ST but they still let me take some sharp corners at speed without too much argument. A little autocross and a trip to the Dragon was made more fun thanks to them. Decent price too.

I'm mainly here as a placeholder to see what GRM says though. The Abarth apparently is going to need tires soon (~30k on the Pirelli P-Nero Zero whatever the hell they're called)

EDIT- I think the Sport Comp 2 is what I put on the MR2 recently but haven't tried autocrossing it yet.

I'd go with the Azenis RT615Ks. It's better to over-tire your car than under-tire it.

G_Body_Man wrote:

Desmond wrote: I am in the exact same situation and I am planning on going with the BFGs. I've done a lot of research already, and I can get a full set mounted for like $300 locally. My friend who is hardcore into autocross says the Bridgestone Potenza RE71R is the hot ticket right now for the serious guys. I don't need hardcore performance though, and those tires run 120 a piece.

120 apiece is actually fairly cheap for good, sticky tires.

Its not bad, but I just cant justify the money considering my driving skills probably arent at a level where I can take advantage of that much grip. Also, I'm talking Miata tires so, thats like a 205/50-15.

Desmond wrote:

G_Body_Man wrote:

Desmond wrote: I am in the exact same situation and I am planning on going with the BFGs. I've done a lot of research already, and I can get a full set mounted for like $300 locally. My friend who is hardcore into autocross says the Bridgestone Potenza RE71R is the hot ticket right now for the serious guys. I don't need hardcore performance though, and those tires run 120 a piece.

120 apiece is actually fairly cheap for good, sticky tires.

Its not bad, but I just cant justify the money considering my driving skills probably arent at a level where I can take advantage of that much grip. Also, I'm talking Miata tires so, thats like a 205/50-15.

Tires for my cutlass (205/70R14s) were $130 apiece for kinda crappy ones. When you look at that, suddenly $120 apiece for nice, sticky tires sounds like a bargain.

Have you checked the car's alignment? 5000 miles stinks.

I had good experience DD/track/autocross on Direzza Z1, now on RS3 but less street time.

pinch- what's your schedule?

In a month, the SoloII nationals are happening- and the results of that will show you some great street tires that autocross well.

It's a pretty easy way to filter choices.

G_Body_Man wrote:

Desmond wrote: I am in the exact same situation and I am planning on going with the BFGs. I've done a lot of research already, and I can get a full set mounted for like $300 locally. My friend who is hardcore into autocross says the Bridgestone Potenza RE71R is the hot ticket right now for the serious guys. I don't need hardcore performance though, and those tires run 120 a piece.

120 apiece is actually fairly cheap for good, sticky tires.

God, I would kill to get RE71s for $120 a pop. Guess that's what you get when you run 275/295s though...

I had a set of Sport Comp 2s on my E36 and currently have a pair on the front of my Camaro. For mixed DD/auto x use they're quite good, in my rather uninformed opinion, however I haven't driven a very wide variety of performance tires to compare to. My biggest complaint is that they tramline like crazy on both cars. They're also on the loud side but not obnoxious. The set on the Camaro is cupped pretty badly on the inside shoulder (bought them that way, as they came mounted on a set of Z06 wheels I was buying), so that probably ups the noise quite a bit.

I think they're pretty easy to drive at the limit in an auto x and, aside from the aforementioned tramlining, have no adverse characteristics in day-to-day use. They're fine in the rain (until you wear them down to the cords and the ass end kicks sideways at 70mph between two big rigs on the hgighway...but that's not the tires' fault.) Wear isn't bad either, I got probably 35-40k hard miles out of the set on my Bimmer. When the Camaro's are spent, I'll likely replace them with either more of the same or a set of Conti's.

I've been running a set of Direzza ZII Star Specs for DD/Autocross duty for the past few months. I take it easy during heavy rain, however I have not had any issues with lack of traction in nearly any situation. No comment on wear quite yet, they only have around 3,000 miles and 4 AX events on them. Next DD will get Re71's though!

-John

Could you run a 205-45-17? The Hankook Ventus Evo is a darn good tire. $96 each at that size. 320 treadwear but not embarrassing at AX. A national champion friend ran them on his STi daily and the car was about a second down on proper sticky tires and the shoulders wore very well. This was about a year ago so they might be down a bit more on the current crop of AX tires of course.
I have these on the 911 and love them as a street and occasional AX tire.

johnp2 wrote: I've been running a set of Direzza ZII Star Specs for DD/Autocross duty for the past few months. I take it easy during heavy rain, however I have not had any issues with lack of traction in nearly any situation. No comment on wear quite yet, they only have around 3,000 miles and 4 AX events on them. Next DD will get Re71's though! -John

I've got over 8k of street driving and autocross on my ZII's, and they are better in the rain than the high treadwear tires they replaced.

Thanks for the input. One other factor is that this car is a lease, and next summer I decide on trading it in or keeping it. If I keep it, I will go to a lightweight rim in 16" or 15" with dedicated autocross tires. So either way, this selection just has to make it though one year of street driving and the fall/spring autocross season where I stay in Street/Stock class and just have fun. I pulled the trigger on the BFG and am happy to move on to other things to obsess over...

ExtremeContact DW is available in a 205/45-17

I'm running 225/40-18's on my NC Miata as a daily

RS3 would be my first choice for dual duty.

Had a set of RS3's on a miata (V1's) they worked well as dual duty tires for about a year, wear wasn't the issue, but they got hard as rocks after a year and were crap in wet and cold and got much worse with age, the dunlops worked much better in the cold and wet and didn't age out as bad.

I'm just chiming in that the Extreme Contact DW tires on my 91 Camaro are great. They ride and handle really good in the dry. The noise levels are low, and they shine in the rain.

RS-3's and first style BFG Rival (non-s) were/are good compromise tires. They've both been relegated to the "has been" stash but are still very competent tires. The BFG's (mine were 225/45/17) lasted almost 8k miles of street driving and about 100 competition runs before I removed them for Nationals last year. Gave them to a friend who ran them for another 2-3k miles and 50-ish comp runs.

The RS-3's I have (V2's) have seen almost 9k street miles, over 120 runs and after I flip them on the wheels I'll get another 30-40 runs and 1000 miles on them. Both are good tires.

The problem with autoXing a FWD car is that your tires are gonna wear most on the front outside shoulders. If you autocross frequently, you'll cord the outside edges long before you wear the tread down across the width of the tire