S-03's (205/50-15, W rated) are excellent tire for most of the year, great in the rain, even in cold winter weather, but never in snow..

I got ~ 38K miles out of these tires and still had ~2-3mm of thread left.
That mileage and wear was helped by 3K rotation/balance. Thread is still even across all 4 tires. Dry handling was still good until the last mile.

At first I had them mounted on 15x6.5 wheels and sidewall felt kinda soft on sharp turns, after every re-balance I felt very minor steering shake at high speeds.. At 30K i purchased 15x7 wheels and they felt more stable (less shaking at higher speeds) plus improved sidewall. S-03's started to get worse in the rain for past few thousand miles, so I decided to purchase another set of tires. I could get another 3-5K out of them, but didn't want to find out...

Installed Kumho Ecsta MX (205/50-15, W rated) recently on 15x7 wheels. Sidewall is softer than S-03's when comparing without the wheels. They do look very similar to s-03's, appear to be same width.. Road noise, - doens't seem louder than normal tires, maybe cause they're new, or my exhaust is kinda loud..

Is it worth saving $200 over S-03's? Too early to tell... Either way, Kumho Ecsta will do, may not be as good as s-03's but not too far behind..

 

I'm really bothered by the soft sidewalls after putting on a set of Kumho MX 205/50's on stock rims. On fast corners, they like to squirm just as I'm trying to get the car settled.

I've only had them on since yesterday. The tall tread blocks could be causing some of the squirm.

Next set of tires will definitely be stiffer on the sidewalls.

 

I almost bought a set of the MX's, but instead I decided to go with the new Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 195/50 on stock rims. Should be on in a week or two.

I'm a little worried about grip (I have Azenis right now) but from what I hear, they should be pretty good.

 

I'm an SO-3 lover. The best street tire for our car in my book. Incredible dry weather grip and unbelievable in the rain. Since I live in AL (where it likes to rain like a beast at times), and put over 30,000mi/yr on my R they are great. I can go kick butt at auto-x with them and dry home not having to worry about rain clouds.

However right now I'm trying out Pirelli P-Zero's since they are only $200 FOR ALL FOUR! A very, very good tire for the price, but not as good as SO-3's in any category. If money allows I'll be going back to SO-3's on my next set (will be my 4th) unless something better comes out.

I would love to try out some Azenis but since I drive my car so much and I live in one of the rainest parts of the United States I'm kinda weary. That and I'm still on stock rims and think running 205's would feel a little sloppy. I currently run 195/50's in both SO-3's and P Zero's.

 

If you want more initial bite/quick response in the tires bump up your pressures to around 40 psi all around. Makes a huge difference imo. Once my tires went down to 30 psi after the car had stood offline for 7 months. When I raised them back to 40 psi it felt like the BMW I had driven with 18s earlier that day.

 

I used to run my tire pressures around 37psi cold and they'd wear too much on the inner treads.

I still do it for auto-x'ing, but not for street driving.

 

i don't think that will help much unless you run slicks.. s-03's have stiffer sidewall, yet, didn't have a good response on 15x6.5 wheel, kumho seem to be working quite well on 15x7, they seem to bite well with no feedback if i throw steering wheel from side to side, where i'd get a little feedback with s-03's - but i never tried new s-03's on 15x7 wheels, only after 30K miles.

 

15x6.5" wheel needs 195/50 S-03's....amazing steering response
plus there only like $79 a piece from tirerack - best deal for stock wheels.
Now 7" wide wheels are a different story.

 

ive got 195/50-15 S03's on my itr wheels and they feel great. i use them as daily driver wheels for my hatch and ive got no complaints. they handle almost as good in the dry as my 205/50-15 Azenis and much better than any Kumho 711 or 712 ive driven. great deal for $79 each.

 

They aren't $79 each anymore, the price went up to $98

Edit: I just looked again, and it seems that they're no longer on the site?


Modified by SoCal ITR at 3:58 PM 6/22/2003

 

There were some confusions in the past, just FYI stock wheels (USDM and Euro) are 15x6.

S-03 195/50R15 on stock wheels is
Next time I will try 195/55R15 S-02PP, which is available in Europe but 40% more expensive than the S-03 195/50R15.