my birthday is comming up and my mom said she would buy me two tires for my car and i can buy the other two. i have two sets of rims so i want summer tires. i dont want any all season crap. i was looking at the kumho ecsta supra 712. they are cheap and have some good reviews. anyone know of some better ones?

The two that I've been most interested in getting:
Falken Azeni Sport
Yokahama AVS ES100

Are Toyo RA-1s ok for street use in MN? Thats what i'll be running in the spring. They should have pretty good traction. Definately NOT a all-season tire. I don't know about tread-wear though.

Bridgestone Potenza S-03 Pole Position tires are pretty good too. They pulled a 1.70 60ft in a 2G AWD.

Nitto NT555 work very well for me and they don't required a 2nd mortage to buy them. :3gears:

I agree with the nitto NT555 I have them they work great on my FWD :3gears:

I would steer clear of the Toyo tires, I have heard they will last you about one season's worth of use (tread life sucks in other words). I recommend the Yokohama's. They are a good tire. I have Nankang for summer use, they came with the rims from Wheelmax.com, and I love them! The tread wear is unbelievable.

There's my .02

The azenis have great traction and handle well, but are noisy and suck ass in the rain. I got the Kumho MX's. They are great! I was pulling pretty consistent 1.7's on them last year at RF. They are pretty decent in the rain and handle great. Not real expensive from the tire rack either. I will definately get another set.

The other really good option is the Nitto 555R drag radials. Don't get the Kumho 712's, they are crap!!

Bah, honestly I believe it's not the tires that make the good 60' . My best 60' was done on shitty Pirelli P3000s (1.72) and trust me, these tires suck and were dirt cheap all seasons. Just get something with a nice soft sticky sidewall. Til you're making 500 whp , I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I used to have the Kuhmo 712's on my talon. They are AWESOME on dry pavement but SUCK in wet. They are a softer compound that, once heated up, stick like glue. I would not suggest getting them though for a summer tire, only for a track tire.

We will be putting Terina's tires to the test this summer. She got the Continental Conti-Extreme Contacts. They were $88 a piece and seem to be real good for traction and very low noise. Nice, aggressive tread pattern as well.

i like the MX but how is the tread wear on them? how do the sizes work, do i have to get a 205/55/16 or can i get a different size?

I should get about 16k miles out of the MX's. I have 17's, so I am not sure about your size. On stock wheels I would not go wider than a 205/55 though. 225/50 is the same size, but too wide for stock wheels. They will fit, but bulge out the sides and not handle as well.

Erik, if you think 712's stick like glue, you have never had a real performance tire. My 712's would peel off instead of being wore evenly. For the little extra money I would upgrade to the Yoko ES100's over the 712's if you are looking for something like that. Neither stick or handle like the MX's though, but last longer and are better in the rain.

If I had the option I would go with the old AVS intermediates (or 520's or something). At least i think that's the one I'm thinking of. The CRX guys used to use them for autocrossing all the time.

The 712's were a cheap tire to get by with. When I raced it at the MNDOT track in St. Cloud I could not get it to break loose on me. The thread would peel up on each tread, but only under really hard driving. They squalled going around each corner but I could not get it to rotate around on me. Believe me, I know they aren't real performance tires and that's why I would not buy them again. I have Potenza re910's on the car right now and am happy with those (for an everyday driving tire).

S 03 Pole positions are the greatest street tire ever made, In my opinion.They are very predictable and the wet traction is almost perfect.But they are horrible in any snow(even light snow) or ice, I mean down right scary.

Because Nitto 555Rs are a drag tire, don't they have softer sidewalls and would affect handling other than going in a straight line? Just curious...

yes.

Good, so if you want your car to handle good and don't care for that little "extra" straight line traction, don't get the Nitto 555Rs.

Well, they don't make 555R's in the sizes DSMs can use anyways so you can't get them if you wanted to. The contact patch of the tire was pretty nice and plenty though.

i liked my Kumho 712s, and opus liked them too

Well, they don't make 555R's in the sizes DSMs can use anyways so you can't get them if you wanted to. The contact patch of the tire was pretty nice and plenty though. [/b][/quote]
Who said I would need stock DSM sized tires? ;)

Who said I would need stock DSM sized tires? ;) [/b][/quote]
They don't make ANY that fit ANY dsm applicated wheel sizes in 15(205/50/15), 16 (205/40/16's), 17 ( like 255's or 275's which are wayy too wide) or 18s. BFG has some usuable ones and M/T (235/60/15) are coming out with some good 15 inch'd sized ones, and... there's the Toyo RA-1s that I saw AMS use on their Evo3 that ran 9.7's. Good enough proof of traction for me if it worked for that car's launching(when he had good launches). All the available DR's for DSM sized applications are ~$150+ a tire now.

I'll stick with my Yokohama ES100 215/45/17 for ~$100 each...

Until I see any traction problems, I will stick with what I have. Why do AWD owners worry about traction? Most of us cannot even chirp a tire anyhow. Until anyone can make serious HP, why waste money on tires ($100/tire) when the money could be spent more wisely on some performance upgrades? $100 X 4 (tires/car) = used 550's and SAFC. What would benefit you more?

I am not worried about straight line traction... You can never have enough laterally.

Well, unless all you do is go fast in a straight line. :razz2:

PS - Read the sig. :bounce:

When I go fast in turns all I do is roast the toes of the front tires. Dsms aren't for handling anyhow. I cannot read your sig unless I highlight it. It must be black writing. If you have your suspension setup right (ie. camber, oversteer vs. understeer) tires still dont matter too much. All I see playing a role is tread wear.

Stiffer/shorter sidewalls and advanced tread patterns will increase lateral traction, as will bigger/wider wheels which allow for a bigger contact patch. It's pretty difficult to tweak stock suspension...

AWD doesn't help you turn or stop. You still need good tires. S-03's are awesome I use the 730 the predisesors(sp?) to the S-03's. They grip awesome wet and dry, where well, they would probably do ok on the track but might be a little hard. The new Perelli Corsa + is supposed to be the hottest daily/ track tire out now. They are not that great in the wet either.

For handling, your biggest limitation is always going to be your tires. Those are #1. All the suspension reaplacement and tuning in the world will not make up for garbage tires.

If you think that suspension is all that matters for handling, you have obviously never had more than one set of tires on your car. You can mod your suspension to the moon and use garbage all season tires, and I would bet you lots of money that a stock suspension car with hoosier race slicks will rape that car around any course.
As for traction, Im only in the 12's and I have traction problems in my AWD.

Tires are VERY important in every aspect of how a car behaves. This is the one area that you want to put a lot of thought into and buy the very best that you can afford if you are serious.

Wait a minute CVD I thought your old "winter" tires were awesome. They prove your theory correct though.... That was fun.

Yeah, my old "winter" tires were a summer only tire with hard tread badged as an all season. Not as good as my Yoks in the summer, and total shit in the snow. That is why I hated them so much.

Dont ever buy Dunlops. :razz2:

So, the toyos I had would handle better than the shitties I have on now with a better suspension? In my expierinces suspension has played a bigger role than tire. I burned through a good pair (front 2) of toyos with my alignmemt fine because the radials were coming through the toe. The middle of the tire had half its tread left while the inside had none. When I had the allignment done they said it must have been from hard cornering (which it was) as they didn't have to adjust it. If I had a better suspension setup I would still be using those tires and I would have better handling. In the integra we just sold, it was dropped and had shitty tires. The tires never gave out once in a turn. You couldn't really hear them squeal either. Yes, the integra was slower but it could take a turn a good 40 mph faster than my dsm without crying at all or any body roll. Yeah, when you get decent hp through a AWD traction becomes an issue but from what I remember, his car is going to stay pretty stock. Assuming these are for the new car of his. If anyone bought a dsm for the pure reason of handling bought the wrong car. Unless you auto X or make higher hp, I think there are better things to do with the tire money.

Better suspension is merely an enhancement item for your tires. Your tires are ultimately making the contact with the ground. If you put better tires on your car without changing your suspension, it will handle better. It won't handle the best, but it WILL handle better.

Sumitomo HTRZII's....cheaper than the ES100's and equal or better performance (says the people who have had both on their car). I have 2 summers on the Sumitomo's and couldn't be happier, I figure I should get at least one more good summer out of them, possibly two. They are really great in the wet too. Do some research online about your possible choices, but of course stay away from the 712's, you'll get maybe 10k miles of good performance out of them, after that they are junk. Falken Beta's also look like good tires, when I am due for a new set I am going to look at them and the Sumitomo's.