Time for New Tires (What Tire?)

It's been a few years, and the S2000 is due for new tires. This is my 2.5 or 3 season DD. Minivan is my winter beater. I will drive it pretty early in spring and as close to winter as I can get. This car does not see snow or salt.

Looking for good summer performance, solid wet weather traction. Want tires that will stand up and be competent, punching above their weight class for ocassional Auto-X, but I'm not worried about a tire that will shave tenths.

I've had the BFG Sport Comp 2. They've done well for me thusfar.

Strongly considering Continental Extreme Contact Sport. That's an extra $160 premium (total) over the BFG.

Also considering Dunlop Direzza DZ102. Don't know much about these. They are a negligible $30 (total) over the BFG, so would be happy with whichever tire is overall better.

Thoughts on these tire options?

ECS are probably worth it. Not the best autocross tire but probably at least comparable to the SC2 and will be much better on the street and in the rain. Other option would be the Michelin PS4S which will likely be more expensive but better all around. I think they start at 17" sizes so depending on what variety of S2000 and wheels you have that might not work out.

The ECS are excellent.  Good road manners, decent life, exceptional in the wet and decent on track even.   We have been very pleased with them. 

I ran the Extreme Contact Sport on my 07 for 2 years. Good street tire. However, last year I swapped out to Yoko AD08R on my stook and my GSR sedan together, and absolutely love it, and not going back to ECS.

The Dunlop will be similar to the BFG in terms of performance. The Continental ramps things up a fair bit, especially in terms of wet performance, but has been seen to wear a little faster. The Michelin would be another partial step better than the Conti, but that comes at a price.

I'd go with the Conti for your use case.

After being a huge fan of the Sport Comp 2s, I listened to the Internet and bought a set of ExtremeSportContacts.

Listen to the Internet.

They are more expensive but soooo worth it.  They also ride extremely well and are very quiet.  Extra bonus is my fuel economy average for my commute is 20mpg instead of 17, although there was also an engine swap involved so the data is dirty.

Regarding a couple questions:

'03 S2000 on stock 16" wheels.

I'd be fine with wearing a bit faster. Tires have aged out before they've worn down the tread to unsafe levels.

Yoko AD08 are 200 treadwear as opposed to 340 for the ECS or Comp2, and are a full $250+ (+50%) premium over the ECS. Haven't had this car on track yet and don't Auto-X as much as I'd like to. Looking for *good* for auto-x, but not something that needs to *excel* at auto-x.

Sounds like the ECS is the winner.

Tire rack has the ECS for ~$60 all in more than the BFG. I haven't used the ECS, but I'd go with those for that price difference. The Firestone Indy 500s are a good choice too, I really like them and a lot of other people on here do too. They have nice turn in response. 

collinskl1 said:

The Dunlop will be similar to the BFG in terms of performance. The Continental ramps things up a fair bit, especially in terms of wet performance, but has been seen to wear a little faster.

I'd go with the Conti for your use case.

Came to say that ^

I ran ECSeseseses on my E46 330ci and abused the hell out of them in Kuwaiti traffic (think BTCC mixed in with a little stage rallye and auto-x).  Those things stuck to the road like it was their job.  Wet traction rocked.  Exceeding the limits of traction was smooth and predictable.  They did wear a little faster than I expected, but I was beating those things like they owed me money. 

GRM  test of the ExtremeContactSport. 

In reply to Beer Baron :

On my E46 I had the ECS's predecessor, the DW (not the DWS, which  also love).  The DW is a solidly good sporty tire in the dry, and an outstanding sporty tire in the wet.  I got 25k out of them as a daily and probably a hundred (?) autocross passes.  They were still on it when I sold the car.

I believe I have heard the same about the ECS.

Another recomendation for the Contis.

I'll throw another into the mix.  I recently mounted B-stone Potenza S007A to our WRX and they seem to fit your criteria.  They are about the same price as the ECS and are in the mountain-dew sippin' EXTREME performance summer tires with a treadware of 240 if that matters to you.  Supposedly they're a comfier quieter version of the RE-71R with nearly the grip, but better road manners.  I can't confirm that per-se as I've never had RE-71R's, but so far they feel plenty grippy as well as low NVH.  My usage is similar to yours so I gave them a go.

Tire Rack Test