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I totally agree with you about not putting some cheap stuff on the stook; that's why I didn't choose the Potenza RE730 or the Kumho's. Don't forget that the SZ50 are ultra-performance tires, rated Z.

 

I forgot to tell you that I bought the Firestone because the S-O3 were not available yet (I'll get them in about a month) Do a search on Tirerack and you'll see that the SZ50's performance are more than respectable.

 

I concur that these SZ50s aren't cheap (quality wise) tires, but that high treadwear rating makes the think the rubber they are using is just too hard. Of course, treadwear ratings are somewhat subjective (and cannot be directly compared across different brands) so maybe they aren't as hard as that rating might appear.

Both the RE730 and Kumbo712 (along with the SZ50) are called "ultra-high performance" but our OEM S-02s are labeled "max performance" [note those are the Tirerack's ratings/rankings]. I myself wouldn't put anything rated less than a "ultra-high performance" tire on my S2000 -- and since my S2000 isn't a daily driver I wouldn't even consider compromising performance with any all-season tire.

I plan to replace my rear OEM tires with another set of rear OEMs when the need arises, but after that I'll probably consider the Yoko AVS Intermediates or the Dunlop SP8000s when it comes time to replace all four tires.

 

I frequent the Tirerack webpage a lot. What are you basing this on?