After a bit of research through Tire Rack and some local tire places, I've decided upon ditching the Dunlop Runflats and getting Yokohama AVS ES-100's, size 205-50-R16 for my 03 Cooper S. Tire Rack classifys this tire as "Summer Ultra Performance" and it's really a good price at $81 per copy--I think.

I don't autocross, but I get to do road course hotlaps frequently, as I am a licensed SCCA Corner Marshal and I travel to many tracks in the South to work corners. Plus we have a track here in SE Louisiana that we can rent out for a reasonable price. So, I want good cornering performance-- BUT--I also want reasonable mileage (20-30,000) and a price under 100 bucks.

Yes, yes, I want everything, but that's the way it is. I almost bought Pirelli Asimetrico Rosso's until I found out that people were getting 8-10,000 miles out of a set of tires--at over 120 bucks per copy. I simply can't afford that.

Anybody got any comments or advice? Haven't bought them yet. And Tire Rack tells me that 215's would create some tire rubbing. Is that right?

Regards--Roger in New Orleans

 

For what it's worth, I only have those on my A6 right now. It made a huge difference in drivability and enjoyability depratments. And that is on a heavy 4 door sedan. I can't wait to get them on my Mini. I absolutely love those tires.

 

(with a slight stretch) i run 7.5x17 w/215 40 toyo tires gen.4 W/no
problem.



so i guess it depends on ur' offset and how low ur' stance is, wether it will rub or not.

 

I have been using the Yoko AVS ES-100's now for a few "summer seasons". The tires are exactly what Tire Rack characterized them as and they are wonderful.

The emphasis here needs to be on "summer season", they are not my tire of choice when the weather gets wet. Also don't expect to get 30 to 40k miles on them, you will be very disappointed. Mine have 10k now of summer season driving and will need to be replaced at the end of this summer. However, as you pointed out they are inexpensive so replacing them is not so painful.

You will love them I can assure you of that

 

I use them and have for 3 sets now, I love them. I run the 215/45-17's and with stock rims had no rubbing at all. With my new rims I get a moment or two of rubbing when the car is loaded down and I hit a bump moving at a fast rate of speed.

I am thinking about shaving my inside wheel-wells back some and trying 225's next time.

 

i use the 225's and get rubbing with more than just me in the car. i haven't shaved any of the wheel wells out i just don't let anyone else in the car :-)

 

Same here - great tires! I don't think the momentary grind is from the wheel well thgouh - mine has plenty of clearance - I think it's from the bottom spring stop on the strut. I've only heard it rub (very quickly) when I hit a good size pothole at speed. Other than that they have been silent.

 

I just ditched my Pirelli runflats for the Yoko ES 100's last weekend. So far, they seem like good tires. I wanted to keep the stiff sidewall of the runflats for turn-in and the ES 100's fit this bill perfectly. They are just a tad softer over the big bumps and definitely have more grip than the runflats. I even got them on the highway in a downpour and with water sitting on the road, was able to stay 65-70 mph with just a little bit of drifting around due to hydroplaning...there was probably close to a 1/4" of water on the highway. I can't comment on tire wear yet but I got over 25k miles on the front Pirelli's without rotating. I'm hoping for a little more with the Yoko's but even if I get the same, $100 compared to $175 is fine with me.

 

I run 195/55/15 ES 100's for street tires. I don't normally autorcross on street tires, but I have done a few autocrosses on these. They are significantly lacking compared to something like a Falken Azenis, but I didn't expect that level of performance when I bought them, so I'm still happy with them.

I did one track day on them, and they were okay. I've done track days on Kumho V700's in the past, and the Yokohamas don't have anywhere near that level of grip, but it's to be expected, I guess

Overall, for a very competitively priced street tire, I'd buy them again. However, I've only got ~5k miles on them, and the shoulders are pretty well shot - of course with a track day and about 20 autocross runs, what do you expect

So I think you'll be happy with the tire considering the price, but I can't vouch for the wear. I think they'd last longer if I didn't, you know, enjoy them

 

I love my Yokohama ES-100's, and have been through 3 sets of them and get less than 10k miles out of them before they are toast. I do drive them hard though and each set gets a couple weekends at the dragon in addition to my daily flogging!

Just don't be disappointed if you don't get much more out of them than myself or most of the people I know running them.. .

For what it is worth, I have now gone to a no-tire-rotation system with these. Because I tend to wear down the outside corners of the tread, I am leaving the rear tires in place and replacing the front tires as needed, which is about every 4-5k. This allows my rear tires to maintain a good outside corner throughout their lifespan which is 3x the lifespan of my front tires. . . .

 

I have 215/45ZR17 on stock s-lites.... no rubbing.

I bought the AVS ES-100's for my 2nd set of tires. After 5K miles of street I went on the track (CMP) with them. They were badly chunked after 2 days. They since became my track tires. I got 2 more days @ CMP on them and one mild day at VIR. The tires are now gone.

I was initially happy with them, but one started making more road noise than the others after a couple thousand miles.

I can't say for sure, but I would not expect to get more than 15K out of them.

For the money, check out Fuzion ZRi (~$85). I currently have those on my car. They grip well in dry and wet. I have about 10K road miles, autocrossed on them once, MOTD weekend and still show half life.

Anyway... just my opinion

 

Wow--thanks for all of the quick responses. I guess I'm feeling pretty good about my choice. I have the Tire Selector at Tire Rack's website to thank for that. I would recommend it. The only brand you can't research on it is Toyo tires--Tire Rack doesn't carry.

And, after a lot of comparison shopping and pricing, I find that when you add the shipping, sales tax, and installation costs, the tires are still 20-30 buck per set cheaper than getting them locally.

 

You will definitely be happy with your choice!

 

I'm very happy with this tire, and will be ordering a set of 4 again later this month. For a Summer tire, I think it performs quite well in the rain.

I'm running with a rather unique size: 205/45-16.

This is about 1" smaller than the stock 16 rolling diameter, or about 4.5% if memory serves correctly. This has helped make the car more torquey. Also of note is that this 205 has a tread width of 7.9" which is wider than quite a few 215 out there . For 88 bucks, I'll keep coming back for more!

 

I got mine based on Yucca & sndwave's advice. They are great. Had them put on just in time for the Dragon. But I will go back to my all seasons for the winter.

Lois

 

I'm on my second set of 205/50/16 ES 100's. My first set lasted me just over 22,000 miles. I don't drive very hard on daily drives but do on occasion enjoy spirited driving. My previous set saw two Dragon runs, numerous spirited runs on some local mountains with not so great pavement and a day at Phil Wicks in Nashville. That last one ate them up pretty good. I also made sure to rotate them since I wanted them to last a little longer as my main reason for the car is daily driving. Seeing your in New Orleans, I don't think you have to worry about winter weather. As for the rain. I normally don't care for driving in the rain but these tires give me a little more courage to enjoy the handling of the car in the rain.

 

I've had yoko 100s on my MINI twice. I only get about 11k out of them. They are a great tire, and perform wonderful well even on wet roads or in the heavy rain (we call it monsoons in PHX). However, they don't like cold roads (like 35F and below) and feel like rocks sliding across the top of the pavement. For the price and performance you can't beat them.

 

The Yoko's are a very good rain tire, but you're right to go with a winter tire. They are not what you would think a snow tire should be.

 

I have 215/40/17 ES-100. Great tire for dry or wet conditions. I have used them for several AutoX events and have been very pleased. As stated before, when it's cold and dry...they tend to lose a fair amount of grip. I would do them again in a heartbeat.

 

Great daily driver summer tire for me. I also have switched to the keep your best tires in the rear, school of thought. No rotation untill replacement then put the new tires in the rear, rear tires move to the front.
My set started life mid summer 2003, only run untill threat of snow
(Winter, worthless in any snow/ice). They have seen a day at the track doing driving school plus lot's of AutoX type use. I will be ordering two new ES-100's this week.
I have been using 205x50x16 but now TonyB has me thinking about the 205x45x16's (dag gone it ).
I think Yokohama ES-100's are the best bang for the buck at this time but don't expect high mileage from a tire with this kind of performance, I think they have something like a 280 wear rating. Oh yeah, good wet road performance too.