HRMINI

OK, I have decided to start looking for new tread for my MINI. I am keeping stock s-heavies (s-lites) on but I was thinking I am going to go with some good old tires and nix the idea of run-flats. I am open for all suggestions on tire choice, as well as where to find the best deal. I was quoted $450 mounted and balanced for a set of 4 brand spanking new Dunlop SL Direzza 205-45-17. I am not huge into all this wheel and tire babble so, any useful information would be great. Thanks any and everyone!

I have Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3's and they are AWESOME. You are going to get a bunch of suggestions, but you have to figure out what you like. I have had mine for 25k miles and they have not let me down.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Goodyear&tireModel=Eagle+F1+GS-D3

I just put blue streak stilettos on my S-lites. They are made by Goodyear, and sold at Goodyear. I think I paid about $350 for the whole set, and I love em. I did go up in size to a 215/45/17. The handling is fantastic. there is hardly any roll. and stay planted really good around a corner. It has a 320 tread ware, so it will last. No problems in the rain ether, they stick.

Here is a shot of em..   


http://www.treadepot.com/group/stil.html (http://www.treadepot.com/group/stil.html)

Thank you both for the suggestions. I will continue my search and see what I can come up with!

I have the stock 205's on the s-lites, will the 215's fit without any issues in regards to being too big? Like I said, when it comes to the tire thing, I am a bit of an idiot because there are thousands of possibilities it seems!

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Nathan, here's a calculator to figure tire size differences, it's on HRMINI somewhere as well.

The 215 will be 0.3 inches taller than the 205's.

Happy Number Crunching!   :icon_eek:

I lowered my MINI 3/4" and have no issues at all with rubbing. So a stock ride hight MINI will have no problems. And it looks killer too. 

When I decided to leave the Rirelli RF on the 02 with S-Lites I first went to

Yokohama AVS ES100 @ $99 .... they were fine .... a softer ride than the RF's of course and wore OK but became a bit noisy as they wore, consistent with Tire Rack reviews.  After about 25,000 I replaced with

Kumho Ecsta AST @ $68 ... I replaced a bit early as I was turning the car over to son and wanted full tread when I did that.  The Kumho is the least expensive tire I found in the stock size yet gets good reviews.  I found them to be very similar to the Yoko's.  Both of these tires had the BIG improvement of not trammeling anywhere near as bad as the Pir's did.

I got both sets from Tire Rack, through Mike at Sports and Imports as he is a recommended installer from Tire Rack.  In each case I called in the morning and he had the tires the next day and I had them mounted before the end of the day....

Nathan, I recently moved to the Nitto Neo Gen tires.... so far, I love them.  I haven't had it in the rain to test wet performance yet, but if it tells you anything for grip, I used to be able to get the tires to chirp when shifting at redline into second... and now they just stick.  Actually... that kind of makes me a little sad.   lol.   They are engineered to work with lowered vehicles, and to wear better with vehicles with negative camber.  They are cheap too... I think about $73 per on wheelsnext and discounttire.com

Nathan
If you decide to go Yokohama's I can probably get you about 50% off.  look at parada spec 2, avs es100's, or the s drive tires.

Jeff

Nathan- Continental makes a very inexpensive run flat that has gotten great reviews on the Tire Rack site. It weighs about 7 pounds more than a simalrly sized non-run flat but if you're already in that deep with the s-lites, will it matter?

Of course, I could suggest the Rota RB in a 17x7.5 at "$150 per wheel and the Continental run-flat at $124 per tire that would total a mere 45 lbs per corner and still offer the convenience of a run flat in a lighter package....

Mark

PS- Please say high to my friends at CF- hope all's well for you!

Thanks for the info, will relay the hello to everyone.