Is a Utog rating of 400 or 500 to hard of a tire for a Mini.

Of course I don't mean Run Flat tires; those are made of rocks so I am not
including RFT.

 

First, let me say that you can more reliably find a tire that suits you and your MINI at a site like TireRack.com. See the tire category description, individual tests and customer surveys. Also look at alternate sizes such as 195/60-15, 205/50-16, 215/45-17, etc. There also be a kazillion tire threads here with six kazillion personal preferences.

More directly to your question, my Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 with a 500 rating are perfect for my MINI and spirited driving style, but I don't think that necessarily says a single thing about any other 500 rated tire. The Utqg is a treadwear rating easily manipulated by the manufacturer. It has nothing to do with "hard" as in runflats which have ultrastiff internal structures to keep the sidewalls from collapsing when the tire is flat.

My Hankook 200 Utqg: sticky, fast wearing, moderately harsh ride, overkill for the street.
My OEM Continental 400 Utqg: suck in every way (for me) except in transition response

A higher Utqg can, in relative terms, indicate a harder tread rubber compound but that doesn't correlate directly to grip either.

 

Here's the Cliff notes version:

A 400-500 utqg does not indicate a hard ride like Runflats do with their super stiff internal structures that keep them from collapsing when flat. It is a relative term for treadwear only and is useful for little else in predicting differences in performance attributes of any two specific tires.

 

Tire Rack has tires with utog ratings from 200 to 500, very true.
I understand the 200 rating is usually a softer compound that wears out quickly
The 500 rating is usually a harder compound that has longer life on the road.

My question is, does the 500 rated tire ride to harsh like the run flats do.

 

if you look at michelin tires they have treadwear warranties and you can compare UTIG rating vs treadwesr warranty

a couple examples
pilot super sport - summer tire - utog 300 - treadwear warranry 30,000 miles

pilot sport a/s 3 - aggressive all season tire - utog 500 - treadwear warranty 45,000 miles

defender - standard all season tire - utog 800 - treadwear warranty 90,000 miles

 

The treadwear rating is related to traction and grip, but it has nothing to do with ride quality. Look elsewhere for assessing ride quality.

You can find surveys and reviews on TireRack that compare ride quality of different tires. For example, there is a ride quality column in this chart for Ultra High Performance All-Season tires:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/survey...earDiameter=17
and their own road tests:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=201

 

I just installed Cooper RS3-S's that are 280 Tread Wear and I can't explain how much better the car rides and handles over the stock run flat tires. I also went from 16" wheels to a 17x7" with more offset, and from 195's to 215's. The handling and ride comfort are night and day difference, the tire life means nothing to me as I only drive the car 150-200 miles a month maybe. Also I plan to hit some track days this summer/fall once I get my suspension setup.

 

You will tend to find that high treadwear ratings come on tires that have better, not poorer, ride quality. Although there is no direct relationship between ride and treadwear people who want longer mileage also tend to want better ride quality so the lower performance tires are designed that way. However, this is not an absolute rule that is followed in the design of all tires.

Ride is primarily determined by sidewall compliance, not tread compound.

 

The tire's speed rating is the best indication of sidewall stiffness.

 

UTOG treadwear grades for tires are largely arbitrary numbers assigned by tire manufacturers mostly for marketing purposes. Despite their name (Uniform Tire Quality Grade), they should not be trusted as a uniform indicator of tire life much less an indicator of tire performance.

Tirerack has a good article about UTOG ratings...
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=48

Similarly the UTOG traction rating assigned to a tire is not a reliable indicator of all around performance either. It's only a measure of wet braking performance.