Tires FEDERAL or IRONMAN
Federal 595's are to my knowledge, the best bang for your buck.
I have used the 595-RSR tires for 8 years now, several sets. yes they are noisy, get worse with miles but I noticed the newest ones were even louder! These tires are the ultimate in grip/handling, one of the few that can put FWD power to the ground. Make my cars handle like its on rails and they don't squeal when pushing to the limit around corners. They are so sticky they pick up all the rocks/debris and throw it up in your wheel wells/rockers. I think they are easily one the best handling tire out there. Very stiff sidewalls, but extremely loud (like louder than winter tires). If you can handle the sound and dont expect a lot of miles out of them, go for it.
I got the ironman iMove gen 2 as, for about 600 CAD plus instal they are a all season and have been really good so far, just terrible in snow and ice other then that I'd recommend
I've gone through at least 5 sets of 651's over the past 4-5 years of daily driving and autox (07 scion tC & now a 17 BRZ). as a budget tire, really can't complain for learning without breaking the bank.
I really like the federal command tires, they were an amazing price (around 60$ for 2). They also have a very pronounced grind protection lip on the side wall. On a super hot supper day they have amazing grip and wonderful feedback.
My only complaint is because they are a slick tire, you get amazing rolling, but the second there is a dusting of sand on a hard surface you can slip out pretty easy.
RS-RR's are good for wear also but way longer to overheat when pushed. They squeal and moan like crazy though and finding the limit of grip is very hard.
Federal 595RS-PRO 275 width - Lower grip levels than RE71 or similar, but they wear like rocks. I am on heat cycle 15 and they have no significant wear. Time deltas for me on a short, technical track are ~1.5-2 secs slower than my other tires, however.
I use 245-45-17 but ironman gen 2s have slightly less grip, and will last about as long. Only big downside I noticed is off throttle the ironmans will "float" alot more than the 595s. I started running the ironmans when the federals started going out of stock everywhere this summer
I have a set of Federal RSRR. They only have about 3,000 miles on them. I took them to a track day and there was no feedback on when the tire would lose traction, the car would go from full grip to zero in a snap.
Had horrible experiences with these tires on my Focus ST, chunked really quickly and weren't as fast as the RS-RR's
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