Last night was the first torrential downpour of the season here in Miami and my first real wet-traction test for my mini's new shoes. I've put 3k miles on these Yokohama S-Drives and I have to say now I'm even more impressed. Dry handling, comfort and noise has been excellent and last night's drive home in the rain left a satisfied and confident smile on my face. My car stayed planted to the ground even through standing water at highway speeds. I'm talkin' zero hydroplaning. It actually felt as though the tires used the water to pull the car down harder onto the pavement. Weird huh?

I've had a lot of small cars and for the first time I didn't feel like a skipping stone hopping across a pond. Kudos Yokohama!

 

Thanks for the info! I think when the runflats run out I'm getting S-Drives. I REALLY want GoodYear F1 Asymmetrics but don't want the 35 sidewall and its associated poor ride, susceptibility of wheel damage and enhanced wheel-gap. Hoping to get S-Drives in 215/40/18 (on your's and other's recommendations)!

 

not quite yokohamas, but I have dunlop sp sportmaxx and these feel very similar to what you're stating with the yoko's..

no hydroplaning, great traction. my favorite was the deep water traction. i hit a 6" deep puddle without realizing it. It hit the front air dam, but I didn't lose connection with the ground. Great stuff.

 

I run the S-Drives on my 190E 16V. They are in fact very very nice wet tires. Pretty nice in the dry also. I'd say one of the better 'buys' out there.

 

The S-Drives are awesome! I currently have the slightly stickier and noisier Parada Spec V's but both are some of the best all around performance street tires you can get under $100 each.

I've had some expensive, highly rated, but ultimately dissapointing tires on my cars in the past but Yokohama has never let me down.

 

I have S drives on both our R55 and the kids R56. Love them on both. They ain't Hoosiers as far as track events or autocrosses go, but they do work very well, especially for the price! I'm hooked!

 

the S-drives were trashed in a recent magazine publication for their wet performance. According to that magazine the S-Drives were around the bottom of their list of 10 evaluated tires. The Goodyear F1 Assymetricals and Continental ContiSportContact 3 were at the top, but much more expensive.

I beg to differ in my personal experience