It happened on my first set of passes in the Scion FR-S on the wet autocross course. Putting the g-Force™ Sport COMP-2™ A/S through the test convinced me. I worried about the trade-offs of switching to an all-season-tire. I wanted high-performance tires on the car for the beautiful days when I drove it. Do I drive the S2000 home – down the NJ Turnpike – in a snowstorm on summer tires? Needless to say, it was the most insane white-knuckle drive I’ve ever taken, but someone was looking out for me that night and I made it home unscathed.Įven with both of those crazy rides lodged in the back of my mind, I still opted for the OEM summer tires on the last tire swap. I was in a rush to get to the airport, didn’t check the weather forecast, and had no alternative way to get to the airport.Ī winter storm rolled through while I was in Detroit and I flew home the night after the second media day to a big decision. The second time was the rare exception to “I never drive it in the winter.” I had to fly out of Newark to get to the Detroit Auto Show a few years back. Never was I so glad to roll into a hotel parking lot. The tires were a bit thin, we hit a whole lot of rain outside of the city and the car got real squirrelly. I was driving my first S2000 to Cleveland in August 2002, to catch a Springsteen show at Gund Arena with my son. The first time was way back, and it’s what made me want to keep the car in the garage on rainy days. So why put an all-season tire on a roadster? While my car is rarely out in wet weather and is not driven in the winter, two occasions scared the daylights out of me. Although Bridgestone and Michelin make tires in the right sizes, they’re grand touring tires and are not appropriate for a high-revving four-wheeled motorcycle. While I gave a tiny amount of thought to going with low-rolling-resistance all-season tire, fuel economy surely isn’t the driving factor with the S2000. I gave some thought to going the inexpensive high-performance route, with Sumitomo HTR Z IIs ($299.30 for a set), but I’ve decided to switch to an all-season tire, rather than a max summer tire. TireRack lists a full set of RE050s at $889.74 before a $70 mail-in rebate. The Potenza RE050s are rather pricey and I’ve decided that it would be crazy to opt for the OEMs this time. The S2000 uses staggered sizes, with 215/45R17 in the front and 245/40R17 in the rear. Like a metronome, I always opted for the OEM Bridgestone Potenza RE050 max performance summer tires. Needless to say, these little beasts go through tires quickly. I’ve had the good fortune to own three S2000s over the years and I’ve always kept them stone stock (despite my son’s urging to bolt on a supercharger and a lowering kit). Slaying cones is hoot when you’re driving someone else’s car and are encouraged to drive it to the limit. At the Meadowlands event, it was the Continental ExtremeContact DWS ($538 for a set of four). The cars were fitted with g-Force™ Sport COMP-2™ A/S ($449.16 for a set of four at TireRack, $379.16 after mail-in rebate) and a competing tire. Each event featured twin autocross courses – one wet, one dry – with Ford Mustangs and Scion FR-S as the test mules. The cross-country Are You Driver Enough tour was created to allow tire store employees to become familiar with BFGoodrich’s g-Force™ Sport COMP-2™ A/S ultra-high performance all-season tire. So when BFGoodrich invited me to drop in on their “Are You Driver Enough?” tour at Giants Stadium, in the New Jersey Meadowlands, “where the mosquitos are as big as airplanes,” I jumped on the opportunity. Even better, test one set of tires against another. I’ve always wanted to test a new set of tires before buying them. Do you stick with the proven OEM tires (for better or for worse) or do you trust the reviews of random folks on the Internet? I’ve been sitting on the fence for months on end, while my 2007 Honda S2000 has been tucked away in the garage, waiting for a new set of tires.
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