So I've read every tyre thread going on here, done some research and read a lot of reviews, and have come up a choice of a few tyres I'm happy with. Now I need help to choose between them and more importanlty knowing how much to pay!

Uniroyal Rain Sport 2 = £75 Fitted.

The mid-range benchmark, everyone knows them and they do well in both professional and personal reviews, a fair mid range price point also, my only concern is that a few reviews say wear quite quickly. I'd like to know the best prices you've paid for these and how long they lasted if you've had them.

Hanook Ventus Evo K110 = £75 Fitted.

On various review sites these seem to just pip the Rain Sports overall, however there's a lot less professional reviews out there to judge them on, basically they are a direct head to head as they cost the same locally. I'd like to know the best prices you've paid for these and how long they lasted if you've had them.

Toyo Proxes T1-R = £85 Fitted.

More sporty and better grip than the previous two, however there are some really bad reviews of the wear out there and I'm more inclined toward a sensible longer lasting tyre in my little Fabia 2 (HTP), so unless somebody knows where I can get these cheaper than the other two there out. I eliminated a lot of tyres, but seemed smart to mention these now, as they;ll no doubt get suggested.

GT Champiro HPX = £55 Fitted.

I never buy 'budget tyres' they simply dont last long enough or they don't drive at all well. But these little wonders keep popping up all over the place, I read a huge thread on the Jag forums of several happy Jag owners that had them!! It seems that if you must buy budget then these tyres really break the old stereotypes, they've won several of awards in European mags too. Bottom line: I'm afraid of the price, yes the reviews are good, but are they only 'good for a budget tyre', or are they a genuine mid-range competitor? Anyone actually tried them?

Worthy Mentions that didn't make my final cut:

Maxxi MA-Z1 victra

Pirelli P Zero Nero

Barum Bravris 2

Kuhmo Ecsta KU39

Thanks!

EDIT: I should mention I'm after 2 new front tyres, my back tyres are two original continentals that have done 26,000 miles and still have 3mm of tread!

Edited 31 August, 201114 yr by MiNiMaL_FuSS

Hi, first post here. Can't help with the tyre dilema but can I suggest you replace the rear tyres? Its been found having 3mm of depth increases the chance of aquaplanning significantly.

http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/2008/5/12/tyre-management-don-t-wait-for-tyres-to-get-to-minimum-tread-depth/27787/

Give it a google search, theres some damming evidence.

Even a set of 'budget' tyres for the rear would probably give you better wet weather grip.

I am a lover of the Uniroyal Rain Sport 2 (Formally Rainmasters). I have them all round on my Octavia Vrs PD TDi (225/40/18 set @ 32 PSI all round) and they are the best thing since sliced bread. A premium tyre at a mid-budget cost, wear is good and noise is minimal.

Awesome in the Dry and better in the Wet. Fantastic Grip. You will not find a better tyre for the price.

Just my opinion.

I am a lover of the Uniroyal Rain Sport 2 (Formally Rainmasters). I have them all round on my Octavia Vrs PD TDi (225/40/18 set @ 32 PSI all round) and they are the best thing since sliced bread. A premium tyre at a mid-budget cost, wear is good and noise is minimal.

Awesome in the Dry and better in the Wet. Fantastic Grip. You will not find a better tyre for the price.

Just my opinion.

Good stuff, I'm drawn to their wet grip as winter is rapidly approaching and as we dont believe in winter tyres in this country they'd be a nice middle ground. How much did you pay?

Whats wrong with the contis?

Just bought 2 RainSport for vRS for £75 off Camskill. Wear, from reviews, is acceptable. Softer sidewall but I drive easily kerbable rims anyway, so I'm careful.

Good stuff, I'm drawn to their wet grip as winter is rapidly approaching and as we dont believe in winter tyres in this country they'd be a nice middle ground. How much did you pay?

Can't remember the price off hand as they have been on for about a year and covered about 7K

about £80/90ish a corner all in.

IMO the T1Rs are the worst performance tyre ive ever had on a car, and would never have them again.

Im keen to try the rainsports myself. Have been looking at the parada spec 2 tyres, but they appear to be awesome in the dry, but beyond lethal in the dry.

The Conti 2's are fine, but not good. Mione are ruined after one trackday. and the cars has only done 4700miles. they ended up with blisters and almost delaminated with the heat, and now despite having loads of tread, they have literally NO grip. No joke i can spin my wheels in 3rd in the dry.

Im thinking rainsports, then save up for a set of steel rims and track tyres.

OKay i would go for Toyes T1-R's everyday of the week, they have unrivalled wet weather grip and useable dry grip, but as a warning a T1-R Toyo will have a very high wear rate if only driven hard in the dry and on a heavy car. My friend had a Jag xkr and was heavy footed and got about 7000miles out of his T1-R's on both front and back. strangely he switched to GT champiro afterwards and admitted whilst they had a little less grip and where less competent in the wet he said he preferred them(roughly 2yrs on he still has the same set on)

my friend had uniroyal's on his 350z and they said they where the worst tyres he had ever used.

Not to give the Toyo T1-Rs to negative light in terms of tyre life, i had them on the back on my Vauxhall Corsa for 3yrs and when i scrapped the car they still had a good 5mm tread on so i reckon they would have done 60,000 on the.

My MR2 had Champiro on and they where good enough in the wet to give confidence to push on, they do what they say on the tin, but they are a lesser tyre compared to the Toyo.

I would recommend Champiro or Toyo depending on bugdet!

I don't know anything about the Hanook, except that Ford now fit them to most of there new cars, so they are either very cheap or fairly good, depending on how you rate Ford as a company.

I would avoid the Uniroyals, i have always been deeply unimpressed with their wet weather abilities and have never bought them for my own cars.

from you "others" list I have just had Maxxis MA-Z1 victra on the front of my vRS, and ran rings around others in the dry at a recent meet

my review is on this site here... (the second one down)

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Maxxis/MA-Z1-Victra.htm

Whats wrong with the contis?

Nothing, the old ones have lasted remarkably well, but new ones are considered high end and cost over £100 a corner generally - top tyre, but not in my budget.

Okay I would go for Toyos T1-R's everyday of the week, they have unrivalled wet weather grip and useable dry grip, but as a warning a T1-R Toyo will have a very high wear rate if only driven hard in the dry and on a heavy car. My friend had a Jag xkr and was heavy footed and got about 7000miles out of his T1-R's on both front and back. strangely he switched to GT champiro afterwards and admitted whilst they had a little less grip and where less competent in the wet he said he preferred them(roughly 2yrs on he still has the same set on)

my friend had uniroyal's on his 350z and they said they where the worst tyres he had ever used.

Not to give the Toyo T1-Rs to negative light in terms of tyre life, i had them on the back on my Vauxhall Corsa for 3yrs and when I scrapped the car they still had a good 5mm tread on so i reckon they would have done 60,000 on the.

My MR2 had Champiro on and they where good enough in the wet to give confidence to push on, they do what they say on the tin, but they are a lesser tyre compared to the Toyo.

I would recommend Champiro or Toyo depending on budget!

I don't know anything about the Hanook, except that Ford now fit them to most of there new cars, so they are either very cheap or fairly good, depending on how you rate Ford as a company.

I would avoid the Uniroyals, I have always been deeply unimpressed with their wet weather abilities and have never bought them for my own cars.

Interested in what you say about the royals vs the toyo. Most interested in your views on the Champiro though, most people say they aren't quite up to the standards of the other tyres I've mention, but not quite at 1/3 less is a pretty good deal.

I asked my local tyre place to give me a low-down on the difference between the Champ's and the Hanook's (he stocks both), he umm'd and ahh'd and finally came up with "The Hanooks come with a puncture guarantee" other than that he said they were both a decent tyre. And I trust this chap as he told me not to change my rear Conti's yet, even though it's less money in his pocket.

I'm giving the champs serious thought, as worst case I'll be doing my other two tyres in a couple of months and could relegate them to the back.

+These are going to be everyday commuting tyres, they'll never see a track and barely ever see anything over 60mph (all A roads to work and back).

from you "others" list I have just had Maxxis MA-Z1 victra on the front of my vRS, and ran rings around others in the dry at a recent meet

my review is on this site here... (the second one down)

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Maxxis/MA-Z1-Victra.htm

For budget tyres the Maxxis are definitely one of the best, no argument there. But from everything I've read, the Champ's seem the best at this price point.

Plus they aren't easy to find locally....how much did you pay, as if they can pip the Champ's in price I'd consider them!

Edited 31 August, 201114 yr by MiNiMaL_FuSS

I did a dealer search on the maxxis website and turns out my local tyre place stocks them! I paid £70 each , but they were 205/40/17's

my friend had uniroyal's on his 350z and they said they where the worst tyres he had ever used.

Strange, I would say they were the best tyre ever invented.

Still we all have our own opinions

Strange, I would say they were the best tyre ever invented.

Still we all have our own opinions

I suppose it depends on what they are used for.... I have no doubt that if I had them on with the drive I did at the NW meet i would have melted them, maybe thats what happens to them on the back of a 350 z! but for general english weather driving, they are probably very good!

Not that you probably need this brand but on the RX8 forum which i came from they were always going on about vredestein tyres being really good. As the RX8 was RWD maybe it suited the car. The standard RX8 tyres were Bridgestone - good in the dry but not so good in the wet. Have not seen a mention of Bridgestone on this forum.

I know this doesn't help you but thought id chuck me two pence worth in..

Not that you probably need this brand but on the RX8 forum which i came from they were always going on about vredestein tyres being really good. As the RX8 was RWD maybe it suited the car. The standard RX8 tyres were Bridgestone - good in the dry but not so good in the wet. Have not seen a mention of Bridgestone on this forum.

I know this doesn't help you but thought id chuck me two pence worth in..

On my Octavia vRS I orignally had Michelin Pilot Exaltos which id say were Ok. Nothing special though. I used them up in about 8k with trackdays and binned them with about 5mm of tread on them as the grip started to drop off alot.

I then put on Toyo T1Rs and they were way way worse than the Pilot Exaltos by a huge margin. They seemed to wear well, and didnt lose much tread on trackdays, but i guess since the grip wasnt that good, its expected. They were great for standing water though. I was living 92 miles from the nurburgring at the time, so frequenting the nordschleife alot. I took the T1Rs off after a few thousad miles and sold them on EBAY as i just wasnt happy with them at all, really really didnt rate them.

I then put on Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas and no word of a lie, drove from the tyre garage in monchongladbach, to the nurburgring 90ish miles away and went straight on track for a full day, and already they were hugely better than both the Exaltos and T1Rs. They continued to just get better. The wear rate was really good, wet grip was phenominal.

I then fitted some Goodyear Eagle F1 Assymetrics which id have rated equal to the vredesteins, but had a puncture. replaced the fronts with some Michelin Pilot Sport 2 tyres which id also have rated equal to the eagle F1 and vredesteins, maybe slightly better.

Thats all with the same car, the same driver and being used alot on track.

As said above, i have destroyed my Conti 2 tyres after 4700 miles. That includes largely gentle road driving, but with 25 runs up the 1/4 mile strip and over 40 laps of rockingham(which is famed for being hard on tyres) which finished off the tyres completely. But in fairness the Conti Sport contact 2 is the lowest spec of the sport contact tyres available. IF you want a higher performing continental tyre you would get the Sport Contact 3 or 5.

I've been testing Hankook Ventus RS2 now for a couple off days and it must be the best tire ever!

I've had Toyo Proxxes T1R on my old SAAB and they wheren't lasting long there, not supplying sufficient grip in the dry... but they where quite smokey!

Continental SportContact 2 was delivered on the car, pretty good performance but the wear wasn't great here either...

Gonna get a pair off Federal RS-R 595 in the days, will be interesting to compare to the Hankook!

i got toyo proxes t1r on mine and they wear super fast i`d say after only 4 month they are down to 50%.

my last tires was Yokohama parada a-symetric and they where realy great , but also needed alot more temperature to realy work due to the heat index , if i remember right the yokos need at least 77° to work well .

Im looking at the RS2 and RSR for use as track tyre. the missus has put a stop to me having semi slicks on the ar all the time, which in fairness is a good idea as she has to drive it as well as me.

I will reviewing both the RS2 and the RS-R in a not to far future, but I gotta say that I really like the RS2... will be hard for the Federal to break!

I don't see a reason not to have a SEMI-slick tyre on a car actually, you'll have butloads more grip then Dunlops or anything ridiculos like that... both cold and hot .

I know that the RS2 works well in the rain, have I mentioned that Sweden have never as much downfall in August this year in it's entire recorded history?

In the summer I fitted a full set of Dunlop SP Sport Fast Response and they are proving to be very good. Good grip in the wet and superb in the dry. They did well in the German tyre test so I got them, and I am very pleased.

Just off to order some Goodyear Ultragrip 8's for the winter, don't want to get caught in the rush this year.

I'm going to give some GT Champiro HPX's a try.

I know they're budget/mid price, but so many reviews put then right up there with decent midrange brands, not to mention winning best value tyre in a lot of mags for years now.

So I'll take a gamble and see if they really do represent some sort of super budget/mid tyre option!

Will let you all know how they go....first im off to india for 3 weeks though!

I recently fitted some Pirelli P Zero Neros to my Fabia to replace the Conti SportContact 2s it came with. I was pretty happy with the Contis prior to the change but my suppliers were unable to track any down in the size I needed (205/45x16s) and so I ended up with the Pirellis. I was somewhat put off at first because Pirelli's marketing for the PZNs stresses their 'attractive tread design' (not bothered about how they look, it's how they work that concerns me!), but I have been enormously impressed with them. Much more grippy in the dry and the car is much more stable in a straight line (on motorways for example) but also more 'pointable' in the corners.

In the wet they are fine but maybe do not have quite the same level of ultimate grip as the Contis, which were really excellent in the wet. Still perfectly OK but without the finesse of the Contis.

All in all I have been very impressed with them and they have pretty much transformed the car to drive. I don't know what the wear rate will be like and I am fearful that you don't get something for nothing (!) but so far they look fine after a couple of thousand miles. The Contis did 17,000 miles so that will be my benchmark.

I recently fitted some Pirelli P Zero Neros to my Fabia to replace the Conti SportContact 2s it came with. I was pretty happy with the Contis prior to the change but my suppliers were unable to track any down in the size I needed (205/45x16s) and so I ended up with the Pirellis. I was somewhat put off at first because Pirelli's marketing for the PZNs stresses their 'attractive tread design' (not bothered about how they look, it's how they work that concerns me!), but I have been enormously impressed with them. Much more grippy in the dry and the car is much more stable in a straight line (on motorways for example) but also more 'pointable' in the corners.

In the wet they are fine but maybe do not have quite the same level of ultimate grip as the Contis, which were really excellent in the wet. Still perfectly OK but without the finesse of the Contis.

All in all I have been very impressed with them and they have pretty much transformed the car to drive. I don't know what the wear rate will be like and I am fearful that you don't get something for nothing (!) but so far they look fine after a couple of thousand miles. The Contis did 17,000 miles so that will be my benchmark.

Nero Zero's are pretty middle of the road, but tend to have a massive mark-up...I've seen them for as much as £120 a corner. My local garage will do then for £65 fitted a piece, which isn't bad, but they have a solid if average rating and hence didn't make my short list.

I've still got 2 original contis as my rears, they'd done 26,000 miles and still have just under 3mm tread! No doubting they are a good tyre.

Have not seen a mention of Bridgestone on this forum.

I have Bridgestones on...... they're carp

Well, maybe that's a bit strong. In normal driving they are fine, but when you press on a bit they just give up. Even worse in the wet. Not keen on them at all. They'd better last a long time because they don't exactly have loads of grip.

They are as bad as the Michelin Primacys that were supplied on my Mk1 vRS. I could get wheelspin in the wet in 3rd gear. Replaced them with Toyo T1-R's and suddenly I couldn't spin the wheels in the wet anymore

I've had the Toyos on 2 cars and they've been great. I would have no hesitation about putting them on again, I think they are a very good fast road tyre in both wet and dry. They aren't a good track tyre though, everyone seems consistent in that view, but then the best track tyre is a semi-slick

Edited 3 September, 201114 yr by Mike Wrightson