Tires Hankook or Pirelli
I run Hankook RS4s on my dedicated track M3. I street drive mine to tracks, including one 120 miles away. I get about 20 track hours out of them, which equals about 18 track days. The downside is they don't work great when cold, and when they heat cycle out they turn into bricks.
Based on this description I would recommend Hankook RS4's they in the 2nd tier of performance, you'll be leaving maybe 1s per lap of performance over an A052 or an RE71R. But they last forever, are reasonably priced, feel good, won't kill you in the wet.
I'm gonna come out of left field here and recommend either the Falken Azenis FK510 or Hankook Ventus Evo 2. Both affordable (the Hankooks moreso than the Falkens), both grip great for spirited street use, both have respectable tread lives.
I'm speaking from experience with both.
My VW dealer gave me a good deal on Hankooks. They’re pretty good. No complaints here.
I ended up deciding on Hankook R-S4's. Seem like a very good, though not quite RE71r level, dry autocross tire, better in wet than dedicated dry tires, able to take the heat of a track day, livable as a daily, and supposedly wear like rocks, so I'm assuming they end up being cheaper in the long run than the federal rs-pro's, or most any other 200tw tire.
If track is becoming a priority, the grip and durability of the Hankook R-S4 us tough to beat. I just bought my second set. Ran 10 track days and 9 autocross events on a single set last year
Our 18 SEL came with Pirelli Scorpion Verdes which have been great.
I'm coming up on 20k with my original 20in pirellis. The original back set is pretty much done.
I found the kinergy GT Tires that came with my 18 to be lack luster. Torwards the end of the life of the tires I thought they were junk. They were comfortable up until 30k miles. They wore down quick for me. 38k miles and they were at 2/32 left.
mine lasted easily 30-40k miles but they sucked the whole time. i once got stuck on slight inclines where there was a stop light because it was raining. didnt even set off aggressively but the wheels just spun on me, it wasnt cold or anything...just slightly wet.
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