Morning all!
My daily driver is a 2014 Mini Roadster S (essentially the same as a Mini Cooper with no back seat and no top).
I drive the car weekly from Reno to San Francisco (3.5 hours) and use it as a fun runner and canyon carver the rest of the time. I do run dedicated snows from November until about now.
I am running the standard 16" wheels and don't see a good reason to go bigger until I go to a bigger brake.
I am looking for some recommendations on a good sticky street tire that is not too loud or too soft to live with daily. 195/55/16 is the stock size and most seem to move to a 205/50/16 as tire selection is better.
As the tires are cheap (under $100), I am not all that concerned about treadwear but do need a livable tire.
Appreciate any input!!
NickD
SuperDork
3/7/17 12:20 p.m.
Really cannot go wrong with Dunlop ZII Star Specs. A bit more than your $100 amount you listed, but they are surprisingly long-lived (at least in my experience, 20K miles and easily 200 autocross laps and some beatings on the Tail Of The Dragon) and pretty well behaved in the rain.
tl;dr:
I agree with NickD
Longer:
I had 215/40R17 ZII StarSpecs on my '12 Clubman S for OneLap last year. They're not fun in heavy heavy rain, but I don't think you'll have to worry about that.
About a year later, and maybe 5kmi total, plus 1 autocross... and the rears are 1/4 worn, and the fronts are ~2/3 worn...
One of the rears:
They're noisy... but still quite enough to hold a conversation at... erm... 75. The bluff nature of the MINI bodywork/windshield does no favors to highway noise.
I'm really happy with the Firehawk Indy 500 on my GTI. Only ~$330 in your size.
The big outer blocks really seem to help the camber-challenged front of this car.
