NA Miata Tire Opinions

G'day Renegades,

After the Test&Tune today, it has become quite clear that the All-Seasons on my NA are inadequate so I'm now in the market for new ones. I need them to be street-worthy and rain-worthy since I don't plan to swap tires between autocross events. Rob has suggested the Kumho ASX but these don't come in 14-inch and if I were to get them, I'd have to get some 15-inch rims as well. I'm on a pretty tight budget so I'd love to know my options. What do you think? I'm currently thinking of the Bridgestone Potenza RE960 AS because they have a special on TireRack.com but I've read on other forums that they can be "spongy". I'm not sure what they mean but clearly I'd trust your opinions more

cheers,
Ivy

I would go with the Direzza
Sport Z1 Star Spec if it is in your budget. They are $96 at the tirerack and there is a $50 rebate. It is a great autox tire and it is good in the rain.

That is Dunlop Direzza
Sport Z1 Star Spec.

Thanks for your suggestion rtsap!

Ivy,
Here is another tire you might consider. Not as good for autox but better than an all season tire and
should last longer than the Dunlops.

Rob

http://www.thetireclub.com/content.wws?fname=proxes_t1r.html
http://www.onlinetires.com/products/vehicle/tires/toyo/195%252F55-14+toyo+proxes+t1r+82v.html

These tires look awesome and are exactly what I need! Thanks heaps! I think I'll get these.

Ivy, essentially there are several tires that you should be looking at:

Dunlop Direzza Star Spec
Falken Azenis Rt-615
Kumho XS (I assume that's what Rob recommended, not ASX)
Goodyear F1 GS-D3
Toyo T1R

I've been running Azenis for many years (195/60-14 size) on Miata and my other cars. excellent street/autocross tire. But every tire in this group will have its good and bad sides.

thanks mike

I'm trying to get a hold of 4 Toyo T1Rs at the moment because apparently Toyo USA has apparently runned out of them and so have them on backorder to get another shipment from Japan. Was talking to the dude from Tireclub this morning and apparently this is also the last year that the Toyo T1Rs will be made.... Just thought that this might be useful to someone else too....

You have to be a little careful with (soon to be) discontinued tires. If one blows out...

All signs point to Dunlop Direzza StarSpec in my opinion.

The Dunlops would be great but you can also consider the Falken Azenis RT615k.
I did not mention these before because the prices I saw were much higher than the
Dunlops. Here is a link to Vulcan tire they have them for $85 which would be about the
same as the Dunlops after the rebate.
http://www.vulcantires.com/azenis_rt615k_t.htm

Thanks Rob, I'll remember that for the future. For now though I've already ordered and paid for the Toyos, that's how I know that there's a slight shortage. I've basically ordered 2 from tireclub and another 2 from onlinetires. It's good to know that there are a whole heap of choices out there should I need to make this decision again

Thanks again for all your input!
Ivy