I think I'm swaying toward the Kumho XS. I have never been a big fan of kumho, but those tires look serious. Can anyone chime in on the XS's vs. the stockers.
Cornering, launching, straight line performance, tread life, ect?
I've had the XSs on my car for almost 3000 miles, and they've been great so far. Substantially better dry grip, and wet grip is decent enough (but probably not as good as the OEM tires). They seem to be wearing along the lines of similarly rated tires (about as quickly as Falken RT-615s wear) and will probably last at least as long for me as the OEM RE050As.
I just bought myself a set of Falken 452's. When it came down to it, I was choosing between the Kumho XS and the Falkens, I went with the Falkens for better tread life, price, and comfort!
What size are you looking for? I was thinking of the General Altimax UHP summers for my next... only 108$ I think, 380 AA A UTQG rating. And it's a really well reviewed tire, not some cheap piece of crap. But I only have 2700 miles on the stockers as of now so I'm not really thinking about it too hard.
EDIT: No it was General Exclaim UHP Summer... not altimax... altimax is not as high performance... just like Potenza > Turanza with Bridgestone.
Tirerack has a closeout on Potenza RE-01R right now. 225/45 for $78ea. (wow) Have heard nothing but good things about them. I just ordered 235/40 for $105ea. You will have to call to order. The website shows the prices and being available but says not available when trying to buy online. My tires should ship on Mar 5th. I'm sure they won't last long.....
I have Kumho Escta SPT's Summer High Performance and I love them. They are very quiet and the grip was great in the summer and rain but they suck in winter...well they are not designed for that weather. I will be getting them again for my upcoming 09' MS3.
My Potenza's wore out pretty damn quick (only got 13,000) out of them, and I just ordered some BFG Supersport A/S with some new wheels for cruising around. As for performance tires I use the BFG g-Force R1's for auto-crossing.
you want all season ?
I've been running on NITTO NeoGen for almost 1.5yr & 15k miles and they've run very good, I've been through 2 winters and made it "alive", these aren't good in deep snow but light snow are good enough.
As far as dry and wet they perform very good IMO.
I've done couple of drag races/street races and hold good enough.
NeoGen obviously aren't the best but for the price they are perfect.
