Originally Posted by 4DRDB8GSR

Thanks Leofski So I THINK That The SPTs Are The One, I Just Wanted To Research ALL Of My Options Before Buying Tires That I'll Be Stuck With For At Least A Year.

Originally Posted by nsxtasy

There are lots of good tires out there. No tire does everything better, so it really comes down to what your priorities are. Here's a summary of the best summer tires for our cars.
The Azenis (Falken Azenis RT-615) is still the stickiest street tire available for dry pavement, and is an excellent choice for those who want a street tire that they can also use in autocross and track events. It has two major downsides - rapid treadwear (you might get 10-12K miles to a set and then you'll have to buy more) and so-so performance in rain and on wet pavement (better than its RT-215 predecessor but not as good as most other street tires). $77/tire in 205/50-15 at Vulcan. If you care about dry traction and don't care much about anything else - and this describes many of us - this is the choice for you.

The Hankook Ventus R-S2 Z212 is similar to the Azenis; it offers very good dry traction (but not quite as good as the Azenis), so-so wet traction, the same short treadlife, and a similar price ($86/tire in 205/50-15 at Discount Tire with free shipping). I don't see any advantage to the Z212 over the Azenis.

The Bridgestone Potenza RE010 (our OEM tire) offers great handling feel. It has excellent dry traction, pretty good wet traction, and treadwear is fairly good (expect 15-20K miles, although I'm up to 29K on mine and they're not quite done yet). The downside is that they're expensive - $140/tire in 195/55-15 at the Tire Rack. If you want great handling and very good performance and you don't mind the purchase price, consider those. Disclaimer: I am selling an almost-new set (see sig).

The Bridgestone Potenza S-03 is being discontinued, but is still available for now. It offers excellent dry traction, excellent wet traction, and decent treadlife (15-25K), but is expensive ($141/tire in 205/50-15).

The Yokohama ES100 and Kumho Ecsta SPT are the leaders in the "bang for the buck" category. They offer very good dry performance (they're not at the Azenis or S-03 level, but still very good), excellent wet performance, and excellent treadlife (expect 30-40K miles). The ES100 has been around for several years and is well regarded (see this previous topic for comments about how good they are in the rain). The SPT is new within the past year. Comparing the two, they are almost identical on dry pavement, the SPT is even better than the ES100 in rain (the ES100 is not bad though), the SPT has a higher treadwear rating, and the SPT is usually less expensive. This past Sunday, my experienced Prelude student at Road America switched to his SPT street tires due to pouring rain all day, and the traction in the rain was absolutely awesome. So between these two, I would choose the SPT, but the ES100 (which we have on our GS-R) is still very good. In 195/55-15, the SPT is $62 and the ES100 is $63 at the Tire Rack. Either one is a great choice for daily driving and those looking for good value, with very good performance in a long-lasting, relatively inexpensive tire.

If you're looking for something very similar to the ES100 or SPT, but for less money, you might consider the Dunlop Direzza DZ101, which is $48 in 205/50-15 (and $67 in 195/55-15) at the Tire Rack.

I don't recommend the Fuzion ZRi. The performance is a notch below the ES100 and SPT. In some sizes, it's less expensive, which may make it worth considering, but in 205/50-15 it's actually a bit more ($65 at the Tire Rack). Lower performance and higher price make it not as good a choice as the ES100 or SPT.

If you're looking for performance a bit better than the ES100 or SPT, but you don't want to spend as much as the S-03 or RE010 and you don't want the short treadlife of the Azenis, consider the Kumho Ecsta MX or the Toyo T1-R. The MX is $74/tire in 205/50-15, and the T1-R is $84/tire in 195/55-15.