Regular Street Driving on Dunlop Star Specs?

Hi everyone,

So I'm kind of facing a dilema here. I just picked up an 84 VW Rabbit GTI and the tires are kinda shot so I'm debating what I get for it.

I do intend to autocross the car next year (probably in ST or FSP) and I have 2 sets of the factory 14 x 6 "snow flake" wheels.

1 set will be refinished, and the other will most likely be getting some track tires.

I'll also be putting some "fancy wheels" on it for daily driving eventually.

So my dilema is this:

If I'm going to buy new tires for it unless they are used and CHEAP (like $200 or less), I might as well get some tires I'll be using on the track.

At least this way I'm not just throwing away $ on something I won't be using in a few weeks or months when I find "show wheels" for it.

So how temperamental are Star Specs for street driving?

Am I going to wear through them rapidly? Figure I MIGHT put 2,000 miles on them this year on the high side.

Are they any good in the wet for freeway driving?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

they are the tire to use in Chumpcar and they have nothing but good things to say about their wet traction..

great street driving tire. i have them on my miata.

Every day. On the S2000, they have been the best and longest lasting of the street stickies so far. Though when the tread gets low, wet concrete tends to make the car follow the grooves on the highway...

I have the Z1's on my garage queen 99 Civic Si (2000 miles in the past 2 years--putting it on the road in couple of days). I can say that I was downright startled at how quiet they are on the freeway. Decent in the rain (at decent tread depth) too. I think the only downside would be a short life overall.

I'm currently working on my second set of Star Specs on my Miata. My first set was 185/60-14 on stock 14x6 rims purchased used and run until corded. My second and current set is 205/50-15 on stock 15x6 rims.

My first set lasted me about 90 solo runs plus 6-8,000 miles of road trips to autocrosses, St. Louis, etc. If I didn't buy them used or attend every single event in two SCCA regions, I could have easily gotten more distance. That said, they were sticky until I corded them. My current set is wearing quite nicely. It too is burning a bit quicker than I'd like, but I drive my car 10,000 miles every 9 months, including 60+ autocross runs, so I can't complain. In short, you won't have any wear issues as long as your car isn't aligned like Stance McHardParker over there!

Both the narrow and wide tires were fine for road trips in the rain. My new ones were great this spring during some of those ridiculous multi-state storm fronts. If you have torrential water and water is collecting on the road, you'd probably prefer something with more tread, but the Star Spec will handle better than most road tires out there in the wet simply because of the grip.

Regarding the street driving, Star Specs, like any sticky 200 or less TW tire, will like following the grooves of the road. If your highways are excessively crowned blacktop, the car will occasionally fight you when going straight. Assuming you actually drive your car, this isn't an issue and it won't wear you out. This effect was even more pronounced when driving on Spec Miata slicks (well... at the time) so I'd call it a function of stickiness and not a defect of the Dunlop.

TLDR: I loved mine. The ZII is supposed to be even better.

Ran mine as street tires for two months after buying miata, did great.
Fast forward to now, ran them for autocross last weekend, haven't gotten around to pulling them off again... still doing great.
My morning commute is always cold and typically wet, the closest I have to a complaint is that they're harder to break loose in the back than my other set of (cheapo) tires

We've probably got 5000 street miles on a set of Z1s on our Mazdaspeed Miata. Since we have a fairly large fleet and I don't drive that much, I figured why buy tires that will wear a long time if they're just going to age out well before the tread is shot? So we run sticky stuff on pretty much everything.

I ran through two sets on my old BMW 318ti.. usually lasting about 10 to 15thousand miles at a time. good wearing sticky tyre. If it gets below 50.. they get slippery. I even drove them through snow up to 6 inches deep

I've got Z1 Star Specs on mine for 3 season driving. It works great in the rain and shine. It starts to lose traction around 40 degrees. I've driven it once or twice in 30ish degree weather, and it wasn't too bad.

yes, we had them on one of the MINI's for a few thousand miles plus a half dozen autocross events. They're great in wet/damp conditions as long as it's not too cold. Towards the end of the time we had the car, the tires were about at 50% and they didn't like standing water or heavy rain at hwy speeds quite as much. That was my g/f's cheif complaint, but she was used to the old F1 GSD3's on her other MINI which are incredible in the rain.

Regardless, I wouldn't hesistate to run them again as a 3-season tire.

2 seasons so far on my Miata with Z1's. Mix of autocross (probably 30-40 runs per year) and daily driving of approximately 4000 miles per year. I'll definitely get 2 full seasons out of them, maybe 2 1/2. From what I've heard, Z2's may even last longer and have slightly better grip. As for rain, they are decent so long as you aren't asking them to plow through standing water. There is simply too much surface area and they are going to hydroplane. As mentioned above, they tend to "track" along with grooved pavement, sometimes to an alarming extent if you aren't expecting it. Those two issues aside, they are fantastic tires. Buy them. Just be aware (and be sure anyone else driving your car is aware) of those issues.

EDIT: Oh, and be sure they don't extend outside of your wheel wells and that your fender liners are in place, they fling amazing amounts of road debris and small rocks.

Last year I had some 195 star specs on 14x6 wheels. Did about 150 runs autocrossing and roughly 10,000-15,000 street miles. I sold them to a friend at the begining of this year, they still had maybe 20-35% tread left.

SnowMongoose wrote: ... the closest I have to a complaint is that they're harder to break loose in the back than my other set of (cheapo) tires

That's true, they can be a bit less fun on the street since you can get into seriously illegal cornering speeds before they want to break loose!

Where are you getting new star specs?

I've done a season and a half of autocross and plenty of street driving on the ones on my 'rolla, at this rate I think they'll last 3-4 years.

wvumtnbkr wrote: Where are you getting new star specs?

Tire Rack's still selling off the old stock.

I got 30k out of my last set of *Specs.... I loved every mile. Rode em hard too.

Awesome, looks like I'm going to consider picking up a set soon then. Thanks for all of the feedback guys. Much appreciated!

they are great tyres.. you will not be disappointed

A little late to the discussion, but I have 5k + 3 auto-x on my Z1s and they still look almost new. And they are good enough in the rain, that I don't hesitate to let my non-enthusiast wife drive on them in any weather.

They are the street tires for the rallycross e30, and have done great. Granted, I don't put a ton of miles on them.

Also, we ran an entire Chump race at Watkins Glen and an entire Lemons race at Summit Point on one set, and they still have life.