Summer tire - down to two, help me choose.

I know there are others, but have narrowed it down to two tires that seem to fit my budget, needs, and what I want in a summer tire (steering response and good tread life are probably my top two, with reasonably quiet being third).

So, which of the following tires should I go for based on your experience? If you want to suggest something else feel free, but would need a compelling reason to shy away from these. Not interested in a Star Spec-type tire with low treadwear rating. This is for my DD WRX and they'll never see the track or even autocross.

1. BFG G-force Sport Comp 2. At $108 on T/R and the highest-rated in the category it seems tough to beat. That said, something about them makes me a bit skeptical.

2. Bridgestone Potenza RE760 Sport. They have a good treadwear rating, price is reasonable, and they rate high in steering response (I really hate sluggish-steering tires). Tread seems to be more of a performance tread than the BFG, but also rates lower in wet handling (though not a huge concern for me, as even the supposedly-crappy Dunlop SP Sport 01's I've had two sets of have been pretty decent for me.

I absolutely adored my Sport Comps. Sadly I had to give them up when I changed bolt patterns and sold off all of my old wheels/tires.

I did autocross them. Well , I SuperRallycrossed them, which is way better because it has the words "rally" and "super" in the title. And also it was fun as all hell and a shame not more people were doing it.

I had a set of the bfg's. berkeleying brilliant tires. Dd, rain, autocross, open track.

Sucked in snow and wet grass.

I run wintersports in the winter, so these will never see sub-40 degrees :)

Sport Comp 2's are a great tire for everything short of track days or serious autocrossing.

For the guys who had either of these tires.....how many miles did you get out of them (on what car)?

The RE760 Sports are my favorite all around summer tire. I went through two sets on my '05 Legacy GT. Great grip, great steering feel, very quite, and long lasting ( a little over 50,000 mi on both sets. ) The performance is close enough to an ultra high performance tire that you would need a stopwatch to tell the difference, yet the ride, noise, and wear are leaps ahead.

wait, you're saying 50k total for both sets, or 50k each??

And they're classed as a UHP tire on TR's site, FWIW...same class as the SP Sport 01's that I've been using (which I thought were pretty good other than low wear, but are rated the LOWEST on TR's ratings, lol).

I have some Comp2s and honestly, on the stock Insight i have them on they never really made me think they were anything special. Not noticeably different (on that floppy car) from the less-well-regarded sporty tires ive had on it.

I have this suspicion that the RE760 is a vastly underrated street tire. But i dont know why i suspect that. Time to go read.

In reply to irish44j:

Each set. I couldn't believe how little grip I was giving up for how much more mileage I was getting. Bought the car new, and immediately swapped the stock tires for a set of BFG KDW's from my other car. Put 40k miles on the BFG's. Great grip and wear but very rough and noisy. I thought I had a bad wheel bearing they were so noisy. Went to the RE760's, and they were just as grippy, but smooth and quiet. Got 50k miles out of that set, and bought another. Put about 45k miles on those, then moved them onto my Galant VR4 for at least another 10k miles. I had replaced them on my Subaru with Continental DWS's for ski trips, and immediately missed the RE760's. When they finally wore out on the VR4, I replaced them with Hankook Ventus V12's due to cost, and they aren't as good as the RE760's.

The Bridgestone Potenza RE970AS are as good if not better than the RE760 sport in the dry and tons better in the wet.

I know they are an all season tire but I ran the previous version, the RE960AS on my Malibu at VIR and was averaging 2min 35sec with nothing but uprated brake pads. They lasted a good while too, 10k miles road use and 8+ track days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-dcKjFXzNc

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Potenza+RE970AS+Pole+Position

I've have those BFGs on my 06 wrx. installed at 122k and I'm about 140k now and they still have what looks like around half tread. I love them. I wouldn't autocross them especially on a heavy car like the wrx but for twistys or little bits of off roading they work great. Get them and be happy with a great and cheap dd tire! I think I paid about 96 a tire through discount.

I'm running those BFG's on my 97 miata and put them away for the winter with 32k miles. I didnt take any measurements, but if I were a guessing man, I'd say about 20-25% USEABLE treadlife remaining. Considering I'll retire them with something in the realm of 40k miles, they've done good by me and I'm surprised by how well they grip given the longevity I've gotten. I don't have any personal miata tire history to compare with, but in my old WRX i ran through a set of star specs in 16k miles, so I'm pretty pumped about the performance / life tradeoff considering these are 80% as good as star specs for 60% of the money and last 250% as long.

Didn't read whole thread, getting on the road soon BUT- I had Sport Comp 2's on my e28 and loved them. I sold the car before they wore out, but they performed impressively and wore well for the 20k or so miles I put on them. Would buy again.

THREADJACK! I'm currently shopping as well. Though I'm looking for 245/45 18's.

The sport comps are looking good at that price, especially with the reviews here. I've been happy with the performance if the Goodyear Eagle GT's I've been running, but sadly they're discontinued and I've barely gotten 15k miles out of each set (though some of that could be attributed to smoke-shows.)

Any dissenting votes on a better bang for buck?

The only thing I have to add is the tire with the best steering response I've driven on the street were a set of all season Bridgestone Potenzas.

Its looking like you cant go wrong with these two.

So just how BAD would either of these be in the snow? I just moved to North Carolina, so there's maybe 3 days with actual precipitation on the ground. Will they handle 1/2" of slush? (For comparison, I made it through this year's NC snow event on 'balder than I thought' Continental DWSs).

Most summer tires absolutely suck in the snow. I once took my e30 out in 1" of snow on star specs and it couldn't get up my street :)

Also, just to follow up, I ordered the 760's. Thanks for the inputs all. Will review them at some point in the future.

davidjs wrote: So just how BAD would either of these be in the snow?

I store one car at work. Got caught out by an unexpected snowstorm when I had the RX-7 on the BFGs at home and my winter car at work. Gingerly tried to drive to work on a couple inches of heavy wet snow that night, so I wouldn't have to deal with morning traffic.

Nope.

Any time - ANY time - I tried to accelerate, the back end would slide out and bang the curb. Frickin' LSD makes it impossible to drive. Stopping and steering were not much better. Slid straight through a stop sign in slow motion. I limped the car to the nearest largish parking lot and called a tow truck to drag my stupid ass the seven miles to work - $65 well spent IMO. The car was a traffic accident waiting for a location on those tires.

yup, summer performance tires in the snow are a really bad idea. Rent a car for the three days of snow you get if you need to.

I have also been looking at the 760's as my next tire. Discount tire has them for reasonable prices. Looks like a set of 245/40/18 up front and 255/40/18 out back, installed with tax still comes in under $700. My previous tire, Hankook Ventus V12evo were about the same price back when I bought them years ago, but man they seem to have jumped in price now!

I'm happy with the Sport Comp 2 on my Firebird. Got into the top 10 at the Challenge with these! Miss the old KD's from many years ago. KDW2 is a POS.

Both good. I like my Comp-2's, and would be much happier with them if I didn't cram a 225 on a 7" wide wheel. If I had to do it over again, I'd actually spend the extra couple of bucks for the Continental DW- everyone told me to get them and I should have listened. The compound on the BFG's was great for my semi-serious autocross adventures on my crappy, overweight, slow FWD Accord. They heated up great right out on the first run, and just stabilized from there on. Mid-corner grip was comparable to the Dunlop Z1 Star Spec's I had previously, but turn it wasn't as sharp. Should be noted my Z1SS's were 205/50/16 and the Comp-2's I have now are 225/50/16. Awesome rain tires.

760s are great for a dd. Good performance, quiet, comfortable and pretty good deal.

Willing to bet the comp 2s are lower in driveability scores and slightly higher in performance scores.

Loved the 760s on the z28 so I bought a set for the Corvette. As much as I love most bfgS and as good luck as I've had with them I'd still go with the potenzas on a dd.