I havent had much experience with performance tires on the mini, but my other car which is over 1500lbs heavier, I have had great luck and experience with the Kumhos. They have offered great performance when needed and when driving around in a 4300lb car, they have minimal road noise and run very smooth...and are still going strong with 20K miles so far.

 

Didn't own them back-to-back so hard to say. I think the Z1s are a bit less harsh on ride quality, but definitely louder as they wear down.

 

anyone know anything about the dunlop sp sportmaxx?

i think i've settled on these... they seem to be a slightly toned back version of the Z1, meant for "luxury performance cars"

 

I have the Sportmaxx as my summer/non-track tires. I like them a lot. They have a better ride than my all-season Continentals even though they are lower profile. I don't find them noisy, and they never complain no matter how hard I push in curves. I've had them on the track (before I bought rims for the track) and they perform pretty well, but they heat up and get kinda squirly on a hot day. I plan to get another set when these wear down.

 

I've got the Dunlops mounted now, first impressions are the ride is pretty good, but there's a nasty low frequency rumble which could get tiring. I should break them in a bit before passing judgment, but currently they do seem to ride smoothly, but are a couple of dB louder than the GS-D3s.

 

I've been on the Z Stars, and they are very sticky, but on our stud-chewed PNW roads, very noisy, particularly as they wear. I've found that they are good in wet weather at moderate speeds, but prone to hydroplane on the freeway in a heavy rain.

I'm replacing them with RE-11's for more quiet and better ride, as reported by TR.

 

In the end I ended up getting some Michelin PE2s for Shawn. They're very nearly as sticky as the Z1s, but are more comfortable, and much quieter. I'm going to be using PE2s as my road tires from now on. The Z1s are resrved for the track. The Z1s are currently on Tristan, in preparation for this weekend's track adventure.

On Tristan the Z1s sound very noisy, but are a little quieter than they were on Shawn (according to the db meter). Not quite sure what to make of that.

 

How do PE2s compare to Potenza 760s in terms of perfomance, ride quality, and noise?