"dual purpose" auto-x tire, help me pick?

So the old S-drives are near down to the wear bars, time to pick up some tires for The Answer.  The S-drives always got greasy when hot, and grip just went away; don't like them that much, won't get them again.  The last two or three auto-x's, they skipped the greasy part, and just let go.  It has forced me to improve my inputs, and I've gotten faster as a result.  I digress.  Often.

While I am thinking about picking up some 15x8s and going 205s, (leaning towards the 15x8 Konig Wideopen's found on Goodwin's site...), I'll probably stick with 195/50s for another year and continue to improve my driving....  I digress.  Again.

BFG Sportcomp-2s:  Had those on the Focus and they seemed to hold up better than the S-drives.  They took a lot of abuse when my boy and I were doing back to back runs, pretty consistent.

Hankook R4S (I think?): At the auto-x last week, a guy had some , he said they had pretty good life to them, nice and progressive at the limit.  As I read on Tirerack, these are a 200tw tire, so maybe not that much life on these?

DZ102's?

Kuhmo, any offerings from them that might fit the bill?

I want some decent grip, but I'm not ready to commit to RE71Rs yet, I hear they wear pretty fast.  I still spend a fair amount of time daily driving the Miata - in fact, it IS the daily driver right now - so a little bit of tire life is important.

I had ZII Star Specs on my DD/roadtrip Miata before the RE71Rs, and those had solid grip, behaved well in the rain and held up to about 20k miles, 2 drives from NY to TN and 2 seasons of autocross.

Ive got dz102s on my miata. They've been holding up great, but only 6k miles and 20 events on them so far.

They don't like sub 45 degrees very much, but they're pretty good in the wet. 

Love the BFG Sport Comp-2, they are my DD and I swap them for the Rival S for autocross use.  (They actually outperform the Rivals in the rain, so I don't swap them if Mother Nature isn't cooperating.)  I would not count on 20K miles though, they grip well and are a Summer-only tire and don't last all that long.   

pinchvalve said:

Love the BFG Sport Comp-2, they are my DD and I swap them for the Rival S for autocross use.  (They actually outperform the Rivals in the rain, so I don't swap them if Mother Nature isn't cooperating.)  I would not count on 20K miles though, they grip well and are a Summer-only tire and don't last all that long.   

I have about 20k on my set and they're down to 4/32 of tread.   They're still stellar in the rain but they're showing their age.  Suprisingly they don't glass over when the temps get down below 50, although this may be helped by them being 195 width on a 2900lb front driver.  They get more heat into them faster than, say, when I had 225 width Sport Comps on a 2500lb RX-7 and had to call a tow truck when the grip level got so low below freezing that it was too unsafe to attempt to drive.

Granted, our idea of DDing only puts maybe 8k a year on the Mini, but the RE-71Rs still look like they're going to go two seasons, unless I make a lot more autocrosses next year, or have more courses like the one with the extended skidpad feature.

Put them on in... April? Did four or five autocrosses (local PCA club gets in 6-7 runs per day) and drove around on them daily, just swapped them out for the winter tires. They show the wear where I ground away on them pretty good at AXes, but didn't seem to wear much in daily use. Of course, I really tend to drive sedately on the street, much of our driving being creeping downtown and back.

I don't think I'm looking back for anything that's going to get autocrossed in a class that allows 200TW tires.

Continental Extremecontact Sport - They're popular with the One Lap crowd, they're the Nationals Autocrosser's choice for wet tires, and they're Andy Hollis approved.  

In reply to red_stapler :

Good to know!  That is what is going on next summer.

Couple of things:  you're planning to buy wheels anyway so why limit yourself to a year round DD tire that you can autocross?  Get some 195/50 all seasons for the wheels you have and on the new ones mount up something decent, doesn't need to be RE-71s but they aren't that expensive compared to the rest of the 200TW fleet. 

Second point: what class are you running?  ST classes are pretty restrictive about wheel widths and an 8" wheel on an NA Miata throws it into STR and you'll want 225 width rubber there.

How cold does it get around your hood?  If it gets too chilly, you want to be careful with the 200tw tires.  Pick wheels based on auto cross class, tires baed on wheels.

I like my Falken 615K+ on the Mazdaspeed Miata.

I was going to suggest the 615k+ as well.  I think I am going to go that route for the mr2.

I have been happy with the RS3's I have been running on the s10.

I think the coilovers put me in STR anyway, but not sure I'm ready to pull the trigger on the 15x8s yet.

I think I have some time to shave as a driver, and I'd like to see if I can get within 2-3 seconds of the "average" times of the class.

I'm around 5-6 seconds now, and the crappy S-drives have forced some discipline in my driving style and mechanics. 

If I improve to my target, I can throw the 15x7s on the 320i (which, thanks to motivation from my boy, is making progress towards running again!).  It'll need something since the tires on it now are 15-20 years old. 

 It doesn't really get cold in Tucson,  sometime in January we'll have evening temps in the 30s, day time will be low mid 60s.  

I'll look in to the 615s.

Heck, if RE71s are getting a couple years, that would be interesting.   Hard to wrap my head around that, especially when I don't think I've gotten two years out of the S-drives.

I found Nitto's on Discount's site, those used to be grippy back in the day,  and the boy ran those before his RE71s.  I'll have to send him a note... 

I have the sport comp 2s on my Mazda 2. 195/50-15. For a high tread wear tire very good for autocross and street driving. Very progressive at the limit. Allowed me to finish mid pack overall (usually first in class) at my local autocross. One negative? They're noisy on the road. Probably  go up to 205 next year.

Following closely. Im going to attend some auto-x events with a stock P71.

This doesn't have much to do with the original post, but we got about 4 inches of snow Friday night, and I got a call this morning to drag my buddy and his E30 on Rivals across town to my shop, where his winter tires were.  It was funny to watch.

Actual advice: we got 14 hours on a set of RS4's at this years Edmonton Chump race, on an aggressively driven Integra. They have 6or8 hours left in them after a flip, and they drive really nicely.  I like the feel much better than Rivals, but they are not a lot faster.

Another vote for the Conti ECS, fantastic tire for the wet, no slouch in the dry either  

(Currently running those and RE71's as my two pairs of tires for winter AX, DWSes as backups for 'actual' snow used)  

(Disclaimer: Running BS with AWD, YMMV. Also worth noting that I have run a winter season on RE71's exclusively, reacted favorably, even in temps dropping down into the 20's)

I put RE71s on my MSM in March for dual use street/autox.  After 11 events and around 8000 street miles, they are done.  I might get a few months of street driving out of them, but they are heat cycled out as an autoX tire.  So if/when you go to RE71s, I wouldn't recommend dual use.  As others have said, get a second set of rims and run something like Conti DWSs on the street.  This will keep your autox tires performing for what they were meant for much longer.

I've always had great luck under the same parameters with several versions of the Z1/Star Spec line for a mixed use DD/Autox tire.  They  are typically a 1/2 tick off the newest/greatest/fastest at autox, but are very predictable and compliment a "smooth" driving style well.  On the street, their only vice is that they tend to track somewhat unpredictably in grooved pavement.  (I suspect that's true of pretty much any tire in this class).

I picked up Falken 615K+'s for this season, but only ended up getting out 3 times, so I just bagged them and put them in the basement for next year.  Allegedly, they share same compound with the Z2/Star Spec and behave similarly.  The best part is that I got them for less than $70 a corner this spring.  Hopefully, I'll have feedback on those next year.  

red_stapler said:

Continental Extremecontact Sport - They're popular with the One Lap crowd, they're the Nationals Autocrosser's choice for wet tires, and they're Andy Hollis approved.  

Came here to post exactly that.

Ran the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 this year locally on the BRZ, and was consistently at the top end of the time sheets and ended up finishing 2nd in D Street behind a E36 M3 on RE71's.  

They are dirt cheap in most sizes (there is even a rebate right now), have handled a couple track days and a full season of auto x, and will continue as my street tires for some time.  You can definitely tell they are heat cycled now, as the ultimate grip isn't quite there anymore, but they will more than work for daily driving and the odd weekend canyon run.

Re. the RS; I'm pretty sure it's an endurance tire that needs to be kept pretty hot to be at it's fastest.

Ok, so anybody got experience with Hankook Ventus HRII H405's?

340 treadwear rating (S-Drives are 300) and at 18lbs a tire, pretty light.

At the moment I'm probably leaning Sportcomp-2s, but I need to look at the 615s.  My boy said the Nittos got greasy, but had good grip; I don't like greasy, those are out.

Edit: 615's only available in 205s - planning on 195s.... so those are out.    Believe it or not, trying to stay away from 200tw tires, for decent life (i.e. hope to get a couple years out of them - I think I got 1.5 out of the S-drives), but still have some grip; though some have said they've gotten decent life out of 200tw tires...

In the 300tw range are the S-drives (no), Sportcomp-2s, Nittos, and the Hankooks I reference above....  We shall see.

Any reason you're not considering 205s?   They should fit on any of the 15" miata wheels.  The ECS really are the easy button these days.

Eric Foss just did some testing on his E36 325 for the upcoming WRL race at CotA, and was impressed with the Conti’s.

”Great day of testing for @RaceWRL. We put the @continentaltire Extreme Contact Sport 340 TW tire against the Hankook RS4 200 TW tire. The ECSport was within tenths on pace and exhibited excellent wear characteristics.  #NewStrongContender “