S2000 Tire suggestions needed

I have a friend (Dave) who is starting to look for tires for his 2005 S2000. He’s considering many of our favorite brands, Kumho’s, Summitomo’s and several others to replace the stock (expensive) Bridgestones. I asked him to hold off on his purchase for a couple of days, while I asked the GRM “Braintrust”.

Background data: Dave uses the car for spirited driving, not crazy stuff, just fast corners, etc. and as a fair weather commuter. Since we live in the Pacific NW, some damp weather performance is needed, but the car should not ever see snow. The car is not Autocrossed, although a track day or two is possible during the life of this set of tires.

Suggestions on reasonably priced, high performance tires?

Thanks in advance,

Jack

Falken Azenis RT-615, Kumho Estca XS

I have Falkens on my Vette, they are ok in the rain for "normal" driving.

If he is not going to be autocrossing I would recommend the Falken Ziex 912, they would not be any good for a track day though. I also recently bought a set of Sumitomo HTR200s and they are quite good as well for spirited street driving.

The Kumho XS are quite good. So are the Dunlop Star Specs. I run them on the RX7 since the car sees track duty. I suspect the Kumho XS might be better in the rain but check Tire Rack's tests on these tires.

I run the Kumho SPT on the Mini Cooper S for fun street driving. Cheaper than the above tires and I'm enjoying them on the Mini on the street. Good grip. Good in the mild wet weather we get here in CA. Good communication from the tires. Breakaway is progressive. Decent wear. I think we'll get 30k miles out of them.

Here's what I run on the street (on my Sentra, I mean):

Sumitomo HTR Z

Cheap and sticky. Good in rain, too.

Dunlop Star Specs

I agree that the Star Specs are damn good in the dry, and pretty damn good in the wet. Honestly, on my S, I would NEVER get anything that grips less than the OEM Bridgestones. This is not the kind of car that you want less grip than the factory sent it out with!

+1 on the Kumho XS's

Toyo R1R? T1R?

my vision is teh suck. i thought you were going to spend two grand on tires...

The HTR ZIII is a decent tire for spirited driving and is quite good in the wet.

AngryCorvair wrote: my vision is teh suck. i thought you were going to spend two grand on tires...

+1 every stinkin time I skim the thread title.

Hankook Ventus R-S2 or the softer R-S3 would be a good choice.

I have the R-S2s on my Miata and they are excellent. I also have a set of RA1s on rims for track days with the Miata. Honestly, the Hankooks seem almost as good and they are decent in rain. An excellent compromise tire that leans towards high performance. Fairly cheap. You will not get super high mileage out of these. They have a treadwear rating of 200. I'm figuring about 20K-25K on my Miata.

I had the Hankooks on for ~This Damp Track Day~

The Sumi HTR-Z is a softer tire (like the R-S3) . They may work well on that Honda too. Again, don't expect them to last as long as normal tires.

Just FYI, I had the Sumi HTR-200s on my Sprite (for autocross) and I have them on my MGB right now. They are cheap and look nice, but seem too hard to be real sticky (threadwear rating of 380). They probably will last a long time but I wouldn't say they are a performance tire.

I had the Yokohama AVS ES100s previously on the Miata. A decent mid-range tire but I prefer the Hankooks.

05 = 17" rims. It also = a stock tire that is closer to it's rated size than the earlier 16" tires, but still wider than the indicated rating.

He MUST compare actual sizes of the tires and not their rated size. Tires can vary quite a bit from their rated size. When I was looking at 265/35 x 18" I found as much as 2" variation between tires at the same rated size.

Many people find the S2000 to be tail happy when they come from FWD OR when they go to aftermarket tires of the same rated size without checking the real widths of the tires. This is the basis of most of the S2000 oversteers stories.

To give you an example I went from a 225 stock rear to a 255 rear and the 255 was 1/2" narrower than the stock tire. Obviously I got lots of oversteer. (BTW I have an '02 that came with 16" rims)

Because the stock sizes are underrated for their width what I do is compare the percentage of rubber on the road from the front to the rear. On the '02 the rears are 1.197 times the width of the front or another way to say it is that the fronts are 83.5% the width of the rears. As long as I keep those ratios the car should handle like stock with the ultimate stick determined by the tire itself (hint never use the Ziex 912 as the limits are soooo much lower than the stock tires)

Awesome info guys. I appreciate the help!

Jack