I have the Goodyear F1's and they have been real nice. Much quieter than the Dunlop RF's and have plenty of grip in the dry or wet. I run 215/45/17's so they are a bit softer and have less of a jolt on uneven road surfaces especially over the freeway expansion joints.

 

The KDW2 is a great tire, but it SCREAMS when warmed up.

 

Screams as in loud when driving, or when you do a burnout??

 

I just put a set of 215/45-17 F1s on my car and the first time on the freeway i had to keep checking my speed. The noise level was so much lower i couldnt tell how fast i was going.

 

Well...they're on but inspite of my plastic trimming, it rubs the metal fender flange in the rear outer during hard road compressions I'm going to bend these today and do some test runs with simulated load and passenger. If bending the flange doesn't work, then I'm going to have to settle for 215/45-17 And this was after removing my 5mm spacers! These tires are much wider than was described...when I laid the 214/40-17 Kumo Ecstas down next to the 225/45-17 NT01, there was a good inch difference in width

 

I was wondering how you were going to fit all of that inside those little wheel wells. Let us know if you manage to get the job done (I have no doubt you will).

 

Thanks to everyone for their advice on tires. I just went through and summarized the input from everyone and also checked Tire Rack's customer's survey: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/index.jsp

The tires that were recommended were:

Nokian Z (not sure where to find these)
Toyo RA-1 & Toyo Proxis 4 (not sold by Tire Rack)
Dunlop FM 901 (Tire Rack rates these as noisy = 5.3 out of 10)
Michelin Exalto PE2 (Tire Rack noise rating = 8.4 out of 10)
BFGoodrich KDW-2 (6.8)
Goodyear F1 GS-D3 (8.5 noise rating, but several people on TR's survey have had bubbles from impacts)
Goodyear F1
Avon M500 (8.4)
Dunlop SP Sport 9000 (7.4)

The quietest tires according to Tire Rack's survey were the Goodyear F1 GS-D3, Michelin Exalto PE2, and the Avon M500. Looks like it's decision time...

Thanks,
John

 

John,

I have direct experience with both the Avon M500's, and the Goodyear GS-D3's. The Avons are quieter--I replaced mine, as I need to drop down one size (they were rubbing in the rear). So I thought I would try the Goodyears, as everyone seems to like them--they are good (wet/dry grip), but the Avon's are definitely quieter (and to me, on par with the Goodyear's grip).

p.s. No hidden agenda here--I have already sold the Avons!

 

roddw, thanks for the input! It's good to hear from someone who's compared those two tires on the same car. BTW, nice setup on your MINI. It sounds very similar to mine.

 

I replaced my Pirelli Wintersport 240s with a set of Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2s and for some reason the Michelins are a lot quieter than the snows. Go figure. With only a 100 miles on them and no wet weather to speak of, I like them. Definitely an improvement over the stock Euroforis

 

I guess I should post the results of my search for a quiet performance tire. I wound up buying the Avon Tech M500 and so far, I've been extremely pleased. I did a dB test before and after, and the Avons are 4 dBs quieter at highway speed (measured from the center of the interior) than the Toyos were (88 dB vs. 92 dB). I would have guessed it to be much more than that, because the difference is so dramatic between the two tires. This may be because the Toyos were creating a terrible resonance within the car. For the first time in years I'm able to hear the exhaust note over the tire noise.

Thanks to everyone for their input!

John

 

I am running Goodyear GS-D3 in 215/45-17. Very quiet, phenomenal wet grip.

 

strange to see people recommending the dunlop FM901 as a QUIET tire, I thought it was much the opposite. I ran them on my mazda3, and now am running BFG G-force sports, and I am much happier, they are FAR quieter than the dunlops, and from what I hear, quieter than the KDW2's by a longshot as well (from a mazda3forums member who tried both). They even have a 340 treadwear rating to boot, and they grip as well if not better than the dunlops (200 treadwear). I was running very similar sizes to you guys (215/45-17)

if you're wondering, I lurk at NAM and Mini2 cuz my wife has an '06 JCW. . .

 

I also went for the F1 GS-D3 in 215/45-17. So quiet you could sneak up on someone. Really nice ride and they grip even in the worst deluge.