I just ordered my Gram Lights 57F's (18x8.5) for my '05 STi and was looking for a performance summer tire that was both a strong performer and reasonably inexpensive due to the cost of the wheels. I was looking at the Tire Rack's site and these 2 tires seem to be rated very highly. Oddly enough, the General UHP was rated number 1 despite being one of the cheapest tires. Does anyone have any experience running either of these tires?

On the upper end of the price scale for me I am looking at the Kumho MX's...

 

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....nSpeedRating=V

Dude, seriously... don't buy a badass $33,000 sport sedan and $2000 wheels, then put garbage tires on it. Kumho MX or Hankook Z212 RS2s are the bare minimum you should be running on that car, except in winter.

 

That sure answered his question...

 

I was looking at the Kumho MX's as well... I will probably spend the extra dough and buy these. You've had experience or know people that have run the DZ101's? One of the tire reps at the Tire Rack recommended them.

 

Alright, I'll try it this way- people who go back to tirerack and tell them how great their Direzza and General tires are, don't know **** about tires. Tires are the single most important part of a car's dynamics, and it's unfortunate to see people handcuff the performance of their car over the cost of a tank or two of gas.

 

That guy doesn't drive an STi... or anything else remotely sporty. He's giving you the Consumer Reports recommendation. No, I haven't used the Dunlops you asked about... but I can *guarantee* that every summer tire I have tried (Bridgestone S03s [x3], Falken Azenis RT615s, Goodyear F1 GSD3, and Kumho MX), is better at every warm weather task of a tire, and the winter tires I've used are better at that stuff. Spring for the MXs or some 'Kooks; the extra couple of weeks you may have to save for them will be well worth it, and those aren't even the best of the high performance tires (although some will argue that the RS2s may well be the premier street tire at the moment).

 

I figured that was what was going on... those ratings are misleading... until you read the fine print you don't realize that it's the customers rating the tires that they purchased. The tires that they bought are likely better than the crap that they have had before, but still crap. It's all relative. My point is that I am trying to find the best performance tire for the money without spending ridiculous money.... I'm thinking the Kumho's.

 

I am running direzza's Have used them for one weekend for AutoX was not sure about them @ first but that was because the had to broken in. After 2 runs they started to grip, And the end of the first day i cut 3 sec of my runs and the second day about 3 sec of from my first run as well. They are alot better than whad i did have, which were the dunlop sport 4000. which were 195 60 15 the direzzas are 205 50 15. But thats just my experince, i bought them as well for the same reasons u were thinking about. IF i had the money i probably would have got some falkens or Kumhos, hell if i had the money id get Michellins. But yeah thumbs up from me. But if ur gonna race save up to get the good stuff if u can, if not get what u can afford. Hope i helped : )