They are SO much better than the Conti Aqua Contacts they replaced.
Straight line traction is as good as I've experienced this side of slicks and in the twisties do not squeal yet they are forgiving and give you plenty of warning if they are about to lose traction.
My experience and research would say that both the BFG and the S-03 are very, very good tires, almost comes down to which one you like best as they are very comparable in every category... perhaps BFG slight advantage in super dry, but even middle of summer has sprinkler runoff puddles, etc. For the street, I always recommend tires with decent to great wet traction, especially for high power cars and leadfoot drivers.
You can probably get 90-95%+ of the performance of those premium brands for about half the cost by taking the advice of others above on the other brands mentioned like Yoko, Toyo, Kuhmo, etc.
The Yoko ES100 and Kuhmo MX would probably be my top recommends.
Well this has been a problem for me as well I have tried every tire on the market on my 03 GT it is my daily driver and weekend cone killer. I have a complete Maximum motorsport suspension package from front to back. The best combo that I found was 265-40-17( front) Falken Beta's and a 285-40-17 (rear) Nitto 555 R extreme..I have found that tire wear is great with the Nitto's and that straight line trac and cornering is superlative..They suck in the rain but on dry pavement I have yet to feel a tire that can compete for the money. so a 255 front and 275 rear all Nitto would be my suggestion...Good luck
Just recently tested a few sets of tires for my brother, we tried:
4. Michelin Pilots : Good tire wear, last long, very good wet traction, low sidewall flex. A good all season performance tire.
3. Yokohama AVS Sports: great dry and wet handling, but the sidewall flexes a bit too much
2. Goodyear F1s: great in both dry and wet, lowsy threadwear
1. Pirelli PZero asymetrico: Best overal, handling over wet and dry, almost zero sidewall deflection. Threadwear is not that bad for such a sticky tire. This is one of the best street/performance tires you can get for street handling and ocassional road racing or autoX.
Things to consider when you buy a good "cornering tire"
1. Threadwear: 180-200 (lower numbers wear faster)
2. Together with threadwear there also thread DEPTH, PZeros are DEEP, so are Yokohama AVSs. This makes the tire wear slower even though they have a low threadwear value.
3. Sidewall construction, the more plies they use the less flex
4. Low profile: 35-30 (better with 18" wheels)
5. Contact patch: the more grooves in the tire the smaller the contact patch. Wet/Dry tires tend to compromise. The groove desing has a big effect on wet traction. The more modern tires will use large "V" grooves with one to three central channels to direct the water out.
Why the different sizes front and rear? Rim width or offset? I have seen SCCA National AutoX champs running different and even more unusual sizes front and rear to provide turn in bite, or exit traction, etc, but short of running after a crown like that, isn't the tire life reduction and cost increase due to limited tire rotation tough to swallow?
