I'm going to replace my runflats asap. I am down to these two tires. I had star specs about 5 years ago. Loved them. They come in oem size 205/45/17 so I won't have any speedo error issues which is nice.

The RS3s get good reviews and are much cheaper but only come in 215/45/17 which I believe will cause error in the speedo reading higher.

Anyhow I plan to daily drive / track / autox. Any opinions? I would like to pick the one that would last the longest, if they are the same then traction is king.

Thoughts?

 

Are you going to be summer driving only? I didn't run the Z2SS but I ran the Z2's, then went to RS3s - really enjoyed them. speedo reads 3% low anyway

 

Not just summer, some rain too. Probably lowest temp in the 40s. If it will be colder/icy I will just use my beater to drive around.

 

Star Spec II came out late in the season. I doubt if anyone has experience with them yet. The price of V2's came down dramatically after they became popular. The same could happen with the SSII next spring or summer.

My SSIs are worn down too far for wet weather at 10.5k miles. I did 80 runs with them prior to leaving them on to wear them out. The extreme performance tires are overkill for the street and won't retain optimum grip for autocrossing long if heat-cycled daily.

 

I am not too concerned with that. I will commute with the car likely 2-3 times a week for fun mostly.

Did you have suggestions for another tire for DD then? I want something that will still stick in the hills. More than the RFTs.

 

I'm fitting Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3. See reviews and tests at TireRack.com. Popular choices in summer tires for the MINI are Michelin Pilot Sports with 30k warranty and the Continental Extreme Contact DW which doubles as an excellent rain autocrosser.

There have been many, many threads on this subject worth searching.

 

Yeah I have read a few, but the tire models change over time so I wanted to make sure I had current data.

 

I am also a firm believer in driving on the BEST tires you can afford/money can buy: summer/winter/track. The delta in performance and safety is easily worth it for me. On all my cars.

I had spent the last year and a half running on 225/50/16 RS3s for both daily driver and autoX duties. Good autoX tire, but a bit noisy for daily driving. Lasted way longer than I expected: ~14K miles and ~100 autoX runs. Lost some grip with age, and got a bit scary in the wet after around 4/32nds.

For a better daily driver tire, I can't say enough good things about Michelin PSS. I had them on my 335ix, now on M3. They only came in 17 sizes and larger, but you have those. Fantastic, quiet, long lasting, great in the dry and rain daily driver tire. Not as good as RS3 or RE11 for autoX, as they tend to overheat and chunk after a few runs. But otherwise a much better DD tire.

I am now on RE11a's for summer tires on the MINI. Very similar to PSS in all regards, but a little grippier than PSS at the expense of a little shorter life span. Original RE11s were great for autoX (RS3's were better), but new RE11a's got slower.

I haven't tried Direzza ZII Star Specs yet, nor BFG g-Force Rivals.

YMMV,
a

'08 MCS
'15 M3

 

I ended up going with RE11s because of the pile of good reviews on tire rack. They seem to be a respectable daily driver.

 

Nothing wrong with the RE11s as a "do everything tire". You will be leaving time out on the auto-x track but it doesn't sound like that's a huge priority. It certainly won't be much time.

 

I will be dusting off 5 years of being away from autox, and I was never what I would consider competitive at the national level. Long story short it doesn't matter.

Now if I am getting close to beating fast guys then I will consider optimizing.