Daily driver tires for ND Miata? Firehawk 500s? Pilot Sport A/S? Pilot Sports?

My ND is still wearing its S001 OEM tires. I didn't care much for them when they were new on my LE, and I don't care much for them when they're worn with a bit of dry rot. So, baby needs new shoes for daily driving.

I absolutely don't need the stickiest tire to drive this car to the airport, and if I do use it for track use, it's likely going to get a second set of wheels with "proper" tires. I also just received the annual Costco voucher, Costco has a tire sale and that means I've got a somewhat restricted choice. All tires in OEM size.

So, what I picked out so far is:

• Michelin Pilot Sport 4 A/S. Yes, the car might go out in temperatures below freezing (although that's usually SUV territory), but it stays home when there's salt and/or snow on the road. Only A/S tire of the bunch.
• Michelin Pilot Sport 4 or 5. I like Michelins, but not sure if they make sense for the use case.
• Firestone Firehawk 500. It's the cheapest tire, I heard good things about it and it'll probably survive a TIN if I really need it to. Plus, did I mention it's cheap in comparison and they have a sale on?
• Bridgestone RE-71RS. Just send it. They're overkill for street use, and even with the current discount they're a good $400 more expensive for the set compared to the Firehawks, but hey, sticky.

WWGRMC? (What Would GRM Pick?)

I enjoyed my ND with the Continental Extreme Contact Sport, which is like a slightly cheaper PS4. I did plenty of track days and autocrossing on them and daily drove them down to 30ish degrees. Supposedly the new ECS2 is even better.

In reply to maschinenbau :

ECS/ECS2 would be my choice if I hadn't limited myself to Costco as the supplier. Unfortunately they don't seem to stock/supply Continental.

I'll second the Continental ECS. I have them on my ND-RF. I have a set of Continental DWS for it and I've used that tire before with no complaints. I have the Michelin Pilot Sport AS on my MINI, and they're a really nice tire,too. 

This thread is probably of interest to you.  Pretty much everyone recommended the Conti ECS's.  They're good rubber.

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/nd-miata-time-for-tires-preferred-size-for-street-use/262543/page1/

Do you want all seasons?

If not, is the pilot sport 4S an option, or just the 4/5? The 4S would be by far the "best" option, the 4/5 are OE spec tires and aren't as good but would still be an upgrade over the stock tires and probably better than the indy 500s as well. Beyond that you have to decide if you value the cheapness of the indy 500s enough to be worth it.

ECS02 is what I run for daily use on my ND.  Cheap and super effective.  Nothing else comes close.

I don't understand this whole fascination with the Indy 500.  It's not even in the same league as the Conti, much less a Super 200.

Another vote for the ECS 02 and not worry about Costco.  Best tool for the job you want.  They are perfect for your use case.  Have them on my NSX. 

I have the ECS02 as well. 
Honestly I think they are on the sticky side for a DD but they are very effective. It never gets cold here so no help there but they do great in the rain.

Costco is only worth it for the warranty and cheap install. If you want Michelins, wonderful. If you're buying Michelins because of Costco... eh. 

Andy Hollis said:

I don't understand this whole fascination with the Indy 500.  It's not even in the same league as the Conti, much less a Super 200.

Ten years ago they were cheap, not that much worse than the original ecs, and had very good heat tolerance, making them a good budget friendly tire that could put up with occasional track/autocross abuse. Then they got expensive, then the ecs got better (02 version). Now the Indy 500s are very marginally cheaper but very uninspiring compared to the ecs02 and the value proposition isn't there anymore. Whatever popularity they have left is probably just momentum and/or misinformation, like people who think the r888r is relevant to anything but street racing.

dps214 said:

Andy Hollis said:

I don't understand this whole fascination with the Indy 500.  It's not even in the same league as the Conti, much less a Super 200.

Ten years ago they were cheap, not that much worse than the original ecs, and had very good heat tolerance, making them a good budget friendly tire that could put up with occasional track/autocross abuse. Then they got expensive, then the ecs got better (02 version). Now the Indy 500s are very marginally cheaper but very uninspiring compared to the ecs02 and the value proposition isn't there anymore. Whatever popularity they have left is probably just momentum and/or misinformation, like people who think the r888r is relevant to anything but street racing.

Yeah, that makes sense -- especially the analogy to the R888R. 

For many years, I've been putting Conti EC-DW, ECS and now ECS02 on everything I own that has a proper fitment. And on my kids' cars. 

I'll be the lone fan for the Firehawks.  They are a really solid performance tire that is nice all year round.  They have enough stick to be fun but also good manners in the rain etc.  Have run them on a few vehicles now and recommend them to buddies.

Another vote for Contis. I had ECS 1s on my Yaris and I have ECS 02 on my MR2 Spyder, and they're just really a magical tire. Quiet, good road manner, excellent dry and wet performance even down into the low-40s, and they wear like iron. 

A vote for the 500s if you decide to go that route.  I have had them on 3 cars, maybe 4.

Good enough for my skill level of autocross, great wet weather traction to/from work (more important to me), and as you mentioned very nice price for the performance.

I ended up with the Conti DWS06 on mine, but my use case involves periodic long, late-spring road trips that, in both instances thus far, have encountered snow in the mountains. I'm just driving it on the street, so I don't mind giving up some grip.

I've been running the ECS as DD tires on the E38 for a few years.  Only complaint I have is that out of both sets I've had on the front, they're prone to flat spots and never seem quite perfectly round (they've all had a slightly visible low spot when spun), so sometimes they produce a minor steering shake in the 67 - 72 mph range, but it usually improves as the tires warm up.  Other than that, they're basically perfect.  Not sketchy down to the mid 30s, even if it's wet, lots of grip, good road manners, etc.  They're pretty quiet on good pavement, but rough pavement does make them loud (louder than any snow tires I've had on the same car). 

I'm kinda disappointed that I'll have to pick a different tire next time around (the ECS 02 dropped the size I'm running up front, so I either have to change the wheel/tire setup or change tires). 

Wait...Costco sells Firehawks? No E36 M3?

In reply to Appleseed :

They do.

Andy Hollis said:

I don't understand this whole fascination with the Indy 500.  It's not even in the same league as the Conti, much less a Super 200.

A lot of people like to E36 M3 talk the 500, but it is a good tire that does everything well, except maybe wear, and in my size are $75/tire cheaper. 

They wear like iron.

I will say that both extreme ends of the spectrum of feelings about them are pretty underserved imo. The short version is that somehow somewhere along the way some people got the idea that they were basically 200tw tires and would go on about how they're the best thing ever anytime anyone asked about autocross tires. Which is wildly not true and of course eventually led the people who knew anything about anything to develop a hated for those people and the tires as a result. Like I said earlier, they're fine. They're not terrible but they're not really special other than better than normal heat tolerance. If you can use one of the sizes that are dirt cheap, it's probably not a bad choice. But if you have one of the sizes where ecs02s are $10 more per tire, there's absolutely no reason to pick the Indy 500.

In reply to dps214 :

It does if those tires wear out 25% faster.

Here's something I wrote about moving from Indy 500s to ECS 02 on my FiST.

[Original comment] Today I swapped out my winter tires for my new set of Continental ECS 02 in 205/45/16. My old tires were Firestone Indy 500s and so my comparison is based on my memory from last fall.

I think I really like them. I've had 200TW tires for other cars in the past, but I've never had a premium normal summer tire before. There's an increase of grip and tires seem very forgiving at the limit and the limit is higher. I can put the power down more easily... Feels almost like I closed some of the gap between how the car was with the old tires and what a LSD might do. ;) Braking seems better too. Objectively, my last two cars could stop faster than the FiST, I don't know if I can tell the difference now.

I'm surprised how much the ride improved. I went down a bumpy road that I'm familiar with and it was significantly better. I've always thought of the FiST as crude, but it feels much more refined.

I think the Indy 500s might have been a bit quicker when you initially turn in.

Price was pretty reasonable. $822 CDN with 13% sales tax after rebate. That $602 US. Had them mounted for $95 cash and sold my old worn out tires for $60.

Update:

I changed over to winter tires on my FiST. The Conti ECS 02 went from 10/32 to 6.5/32. Rears went to 9/32. I put like 4k miles on them since spring. I think I might be looking at using the tread life warranty in say 4 years. I don't know how realistic that is.

I am not easy on the throttle, but I don't do burnouts, etc and there is no autoX, or track use.

The Firestone Indy 500s I had previously lasted maybe 18k miles. I think I'm looking at something similarish, or maybe worse with the ECS 02.

Tire rack has a comparison test with the two tires: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=329

They also have a nice comparison of all season UHP vs. UHP vs "max" vs "extreme" tires categories: https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=333

I've been through a few sets of the 500s on my Ralliart wagon, a decision made by the price. 
 

The compound seemed to have decent grip, and they were quite good in the rain. The sidewalls were soft, so tire roll was extreme when pushed hard on a front wheel drive car. In no way are they a tire I would consider above the ECS2, which is the daily driver tire on my civic. 

Check out that tire roll. I needed to add about 15 pounds of air from whatever that was. I did sneak out a second place that year in H Street at the state autocross championship, due to a high in the 40s and constant drizzle.