I have a retagged 1998 Cooper S Sportpack here in Los Angeles. I need 175/50/13's

The only places I can find the right tires is Minimania for $130.00/tire for the Yokahama A539s

and:

Discountpartcenter.com (tirerack.com) has Sumitomo HTR 200's for $39.00 each.

But the Sumitomos sound like they have a pretty soft wall and wouldn't be tight enough for my mini.

Has anyone tried the Sumitomos? are they a complete piece of toilet or are they OK? Is there another source for tires?

The only reason this is an issue is that with the way I drive, Ill probably go through a set of tires every few months.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Paul

 

I've run 13" Sumitomos HTRs on my Mini 1380cc on Superlights and was well pleased with them. In fact, had the 3rd fastest autox time at Mini Meet East in 2002 with them! Beaten by a new Cooper from GRM and a race prepped Mini ( by only .1 sec)

Read up on Sumitomo (or Ohtsu). They are affiliated with Goodyear and share technology....

 

OK, I just ordered 4 of the Sumitomo HTR 200s We'll see how they do.

In the meantime, I found a local place that has 4 Dunlop GT Qualifiers left at $70.00 each. How are these, anyone use em?

Paul

 

I didn't find much good when looking at the reviews for the Dunlop GT Qualifiers T at tirerack but they did not stock sizes for 13" wheels, only down to 14"

Tirerack reviews of the Sumitomo HTR 200s were reasonably good.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....eModel=HTR+200

And the HTR 200s were also reasonably priced.