Narrowed down to these 3 tire brands, your thoughts
 

It came down to price and performance... Which tire would you go with? 205/45R17

1. Cooper Zeon RS3-G1 A/S. $103.26
treadwear 500
Traction AA
Temp A

2. BF Goodrich G-Force comp 2 A/S $116.99
Treadwear 400
Traction AA
Temp A

3. Yokohama Advan Dport A/S. $116.05
Treadwear 440
Traction AA
Temp A

Regarding these particular tire models:
Best BFG
Then YOKO
Then COOPER

I went with the cooper. There was a killer deal on them a while ago. $330 to my door. So far I am happy with them, good traction in wet and dry and quiet. I have no experience with the others.

Bump up to the 215/45R17 - there are many more choices and they're less expensive. I've got the 215s on my car, there are no fitment issues on a factory 17x7 Mini wheel.

I dont want a taller tire, but thanks. I put an order in for the BF Goodrich tires

It's not really that much taller.

205/45R17 = 24.3x8.1R17
215/45R17 = 24.6x8.5R17

Finally got those dreaded RF's off the car last night and the BF Goodrich on. Wow... What a difference! I should have done this a while ago... Such a better driving experience, it's like I'm driving a different car.

Continental Control Contact
 

I've been driving on these for a few miles. They seem to do well and we live in Colorado. Not perfect in the snow but they maintain traction and good control. Any experiences?

I dont have any experience with continental's on mini coopers . I do how ever with BMWs and I like them. They were more money and I opted for the Goodrich and wanted to try them out.

Been running 215/45R17 Yoko S-Drives on our R53 for years and love them. Super handling and sticking in wet and dry but never in snow (Phoenix). Yoko no longer makes that model so looking for comparable - any thoughts?

I got General G-Max RS and they are great.

I just mounted some General G-Max RS as well.
While they are sticky, the sidewall seems soft - N0B0DY, are you experiencing the same or different with such?

- Erik

I am running the General all season and the sidewall is soft, much like the Continentals tend to be. The Japanese tire brands seem to use stiffer sidewalls. If you want something very firm the Dunlop Star Specs were always a favorite of mine.

I ran them on the tail of the dragon and they didn't seem that soft. I did inflate them to factory pressure of 42 front and 39 rear. They definitely didn't roll over during the turns.

This still produces an increase in final drive ratio which in turn slows acceleration. Regardless of how much or how little, this is what happens.

If you are worried about that little of a difference, you are driving the wrong car.

Personally, for my wife's R60, we went with the BFG Comp2 A/S. They are my first choice.

For my F56, I have Conti ExtremeContact Sports which I absolutely LOVE. Broke them in on the Dragon this year. Great contact, extremely sticky and good in both wet and dry conditions.

I've also been eyeing the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s recently as they have a $100 off sale coming up this weekend. I might throw them on a spare set of rims that I have just to see how they do. There were a few drivers at MOTD this year that had high praise for them in terms of stickiness and performance.