https://www.discounttire.com/buy-tires/general-altimax-hp/p/32536
Edit: General Altimax HP. i notice the description says “for today’s high horsepower vehicles” and “aggressive tread design”. Are these just words? Or does anyone know/have experience with these? Looking for a firm sidewall in 195/60r14’s, and tread wear that’ll last on a car driven mostly in the warm weather, but also in the rain.
I’ve made a terrible spelling error!
It's all relative, I suppose. After much research, I settled on the Altimax HP for my 2005 Mazda MPV-ES. I wanted something that would NOT be the weak link in the vehicle's handling. I was very happy with them. When I wore the tread off the first set, I replaced them with a second. I'd likely be on the third set by now, but Tire Rack (and everybody else, apparently) no longer carries them in my size. They were significantly better than the Conti's I'm running now. I couldn't find a fault with them. Within the expectations of the All Season category, they excelled everywhere. Quiet, good dry traction, good wet traction, good cornering feel and grip. They even occasionally saw snow, and didn't disappoint. I would rate them at the very top of the All Season heap.
In my experience, at least in regards to a lightweight RWD car, those are just words to me. A few years back I had Altimax HP's on a stock 1992 MIata, possibly in 185/60-14. They were only all season tires in the sense that they sucked equally in all seasons. I autox'd with them a couple of times and found it to be akin to ice skating. With just 115hp and an open differential it was still drift city. They made a lot of noise, but not much grip...Not that it wasn't "fun" in it's own way. Beyond that, the sidewalls were not particularly firm, and to this day I'm not entirely sure that Miata would ever have been able to wear them out even with more autox'ing/drifting. So if you just need something cheap, long lasting, round, and black, these will certainly fill that role...But I would not actually recommend them for any type of sporting intentions.
If you're just looking at warm weather and a bit of rain, but little cold and absolutely no snow use, I personally think something more like BFG G-Force Sport Comp 2's are more likely the droids you are looking for...Even if it means moving to 15's to get get at least a reasonable amount of current and future availability. Presuming a lightweight car, I would get 20k+ out of 200TW tires, so I would expect such tires to be capable of at least 30k with similar use. Which is about as long as I am willing to trust the tires on a non-daily driver sports/sporty car to perform decently for anyway. If you really want longer life than that, I'd at least stick with UHP all-seasons rather than GT all-seasons. Either way though, with 14's you pretty much have to accept that either you'll have very grippy and stiff sidewall but short life tires, or not-at-all grippy and soft sidewall but long life tires...All with continually dwindling options.
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