Tires DUNLOP or FEDERAL
I have Dunlop Star Specs and I absoutly love them! They are sooo grippy its crazy, some say they are a little loud but who cares when you can corner like a gecko on glass!
its a very good tire but dont expect a loong life out of them. good life for a sticky rubber but if you after long life this is not the one to get. this is more performance oriented. i prefer RE-01Rs / RE11 for the stick or G force sport for long life. depends on what your after. but great for autoX / daily driver mix in my opinion.
I had them stock on my .:R32. I easily got 25K miles out of the first set, but could easily have gotten 30K had I not bubbled one and blown out another in on of the 3 winters I have had the car. At 25K I got 2 more tires and the noise is about similar, so they didn't get too loud after 2 years. They actually are a lot quieter than the new Contiprocontact tires on the new TDI, designed to be low rolling resistance and quiet.
I have them (Dunlops) on my MINI (215/45/17) as my summer road set. They've seen some auto-x (6 events) over the past year and a couple of track days (4-6 hours total). They've held up quite well. Great feel when breaking away from traction, handle heat well and for the type of tire they are, wear quite well. I've had them for ~10,000km.
These are not the tires for you if you are at all concerned about economy. I got 13,000 out of mine last time plus two HPDEs. That last time being the last time I daily-drove those tires too.
my 195/55/15 direzza's lasted last summer. approximately 7k, with over 40 autox runs, and 4 hot laps at a local track. they were about 50% remaining tread. keep in mind they were on a miata.
Federal Tire Quality- Just like any tire it truly depends on the model/size. I have had 165/45's and they are junk for daily driving. I am currently rolling on 205/40/16 Federal 595's and I love them.
One of the front tires is leaking a small amount of air (5-10psi/ month) out of the valve stem and one rear lip is bent but still holds air.
On my S2000, about 2 weeks ago had brand new Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs installed by a local garage. A few days later, the driver's side rear tires was extremely low on air pressure, that I noticed after the car was pulling to one side during acceleration/letting off the gas pedal.
These tires are notorious for sidewall bubbles. I went through about 6 or 7 in a year and a half, eventually bit the bullet and bought a new brand of tire.
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