Best tires for mazda miata mx 5

New-tral

Join Date: Dec 2017

Location: New York

Posts: 2

Recommendation for best tires

I just bought a 2012 Grand Touring with 17 in wheels. I need to replace the tires and am looking for a recommendation. I don't plan to drive at all in the snow and am looking for best performance. I live in the Hudson Valley in New York and have lots of wonderful back curvy mountain roads to drive on. Don't do much freeway driving. (With my six speed trans and no overdrive - it's a little noisy when you get up to 65 mph.

Third gear

Join Date: Dec 2016

Location: NY

Posts: 439

Because of where you live and the potential for snow, I would advise getting a second set of wheels. Even if you don't plan on driving in snow, the compounds used in high performance tires aren't meant for the cold.

If you don't get snow tires, a good all season like the Continental DWS 06's should do just fine. Currently what I use from about November to March.

Once it gets warm I switch to a set of Enkei RPF1's with Bridgestone RE71R's. I go at least a size wider than stock for autox, so 215/45/17 instead of 205/45/17.

Second gear

Join Date: Oct 2017

Location: SoCal

Posts: 230

The factory spec tire is good— Bridgestone Potenza S001. Mazda apparently spent some quality time testing tires for the ND (Oh, sorry, this was originally in the ND Forum).

https://www.bridgestoneamericas.com/...estone-potenza

I have always liked Michelin Pilot Super Sports on my other cars and would like to hear if anyone has tried them on their Miata.

Fourth gear

Join Date: Mar 2005

Location: Lancaster, MA

Posts: 1,154

Recommendation for best tires

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Earl

I just bought a 2012 Grand Touring with 17 in wheels. I need to replace the tires and am looking for a recommendation. I don't plan to drive at all in the snow and am looking for best performance. I live in the Hudson Valley in New York and have lots of wonderful back curvy mountain roads to drive on. Don't do much freeway driving. (With my six speed trans and no overdrive - it's a little noisy when you get up to 65 mph.

Any suggestions on brand or model would be appreciated!

I had Continental DWS06 on my NC, smooth, quiet ride & handle very well in wet weather and snow. Good threadwear, I got 55-60k wear, whereas the factory Michelin tires I got 23k miles. I just got DWS for the ND on tire rack for $104 each, not too expensive.

Doing high speed, no problem, rode fine at 90 mph

Sixth Gear

Join Date: Jul 2003

Location: \'00 CSP; Boston, MA Renegade Miata Club

Posts: 7,387

Buy either Bridgestone RE-71R or BF Goodrich Rivials S if your need assessment above is honest. The rest are far behind, included PSS, S001 and all of them combined and separately.

I wouldn't even comment anyone talking about a "performance tire" capable of 55K miles of life. I mean... no.

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CSP '00 NB #66 in Boston
Street '09 NC in Miami
Street '12 NC PRHT in Europe

Fifth gear

Join Date: Sep 2012

Location: Dayton

Posts: 2,132

Yea the best most state are the re71, rival, pss

You can even do more of a track tire like the Yokohama advan, p zero trofeo

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'13 club -

Fifth gear

Join Date: May 2008

Location: Florida, USA

Posts: 2,171

Thomas,

Welcome to the forum!

My recommendation would be for the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+. I have personal experience with the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 and Michelin Pilot Sport A/S+ on the MX5. However there are better references than me:

-Use the search feature here on the forum for many references to Michelin and/or any other brands that are recommended.

-Go to Tirerack.com and dig deep enough to find the tire comparison charts to see the differences between tires/brands/models within a performance category.

Some would discount their ratings, but consumer reports just had a very good rating for the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+, even across a variety of categories of tires.

Consider the speed rating and load rating for an individual make and model of tire as the higher ratings will usually give better turn in performance with a compromise of slightly harder ride.

good luck,

rakessler

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Sixth Gear

Join Date: Sep 2006

Location: Fergus, Ontario Canada

Posts: 7,159

Maximum performance - Michelin Pilot Super Sport
Ultra High Performance - Firestone Firehawk Indy 500

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New-tral

Join Date: Dec 2017

Location: New York

Posts: 2

Follow up on tire recommendations

It appears from the thread that folks seem to be leaning toward the Continental Extreme Contact DWS06s or the Bridgestone Potenza RE96OAS, with some Michelin fans recommending the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3. I read somewhere that the Michilen's can be noisy. I'm leaning toward the Continentals and wondered if anyone else felt I shouldn't go in that direction.
Thanks!

First gear

Join Date: Nov 2017

Location: NB WI

Posts: 66

+1 on the Contis...

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Jun
08 NC SE icy blue 6MT

Fifth gear

Join Date: Oct 2007

Location: Starkville, MS

Posts: 3,808

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Earl

It appears from the thread that folks seem to be leaning toward the Continental Extreme Contact DWS06s or the Bridgestone Potenza RE96OAS, with some Michelin fans recommending the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3. I read somewhere that the Michilen's can be noisy. I'm leaning toward the Continentals and wondered if anyone else felt I shouldn't go in that direction.
Thanks!

Those Contis are good daily driver tires. Great choice!
Come back when you're shopping for high performance tires.

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Andy
2011 GT + LS3 V8 = Black Mamba

Second gear

Join Date: Sep 2014

Location: Texas

Posts: 232

I just don't believe you will notice that a tire is "noisy" driving in the Miata. I personally went on reviews and price plus available rebates. I bought a set of Continental Control Contact Sport A/S at Discount Tire and will receive $25/tire rebate.

Fourth gear

Join Date: Aug 2013

Location: Angier, NC

Posts: 1,783

My NC is run mostly on Dunlop Zii or BFG RE71 because the car doesn't see much street driving anymore.

I just pulled the trigger on a set of Continental Extreme Contact Sports for my daily driver car(2013 Focus hatch with a tiny bit of suspension tweaking).

As per TIRERACK testing, I expect these tires to provide good wet grip to go along with really decent dry manners. Temps in my area do get as low as 10 degrees once or twice a year, but typical winter lows are more in the 20's-30's and 40's-60's during the daytime. I deal with a little compromise of less grip in very cold conditions with summer tires because the car sees temps north of 45 degrees for at least 95% of my driving.
I plan to have these installed by mid week and I'm likely to take that car for 2 days of fun in the mountains next weekend. 2nd option is to take the NC on my Continental DW's.

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Sixth Gear

Join Date: Jul 2003

Location: \'00 CSP; Boston, MA Renegade Miata Club

Posts: 7,387

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Earl

It appears from the thread that folks seem to be leaning toward the Continental Extreme Contact DWS06s or the Bridgestone Potenza RE96OAS, with some Michelin fans recommending the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3. I read somewhere that the Michilen's can be noisy. I'm leaning toward the Continentals and wondered if anyone else felt I shouldn't go in that direction.
Thanks!

Sure. You can go in any random direction. You will get predictably random results. The tires above have nothing to do with your stated intended use.

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CSP '00 NB #66 in Boston
Street '09 NC in Miami
Street '12 NC PRHT in Europe

Fourth gear

Join Date: Mar 2005

Location: Lancaster, MA

Posts: 1,154

Quote:

Originally Posted by tradosaurus

I just don't believe you will notice that a tire is "noisy" driving in the Miata. I personally went on reviews and price plus available rebates. I bought a set of Continental Control Contact Sport A/S at Discount Tire and will receive $25/tire rebate.

Worn tires will be noisy, when the factory Michelin pilots were worn down & noticed the difference with Continental DWS06 that it was much more quieter. You may not tell the noise level with the top down, but when top up or if you have a hardtop you will hear the sounds.

Second gear

Join Date: Sep 2014

Location: Texas

Posts: 232

Quote:

Originally Posted by chin

Worn tires will be noisy, when the factory Michelin pilots were worn down & noticed the difference with Continental DWS06 that it was much more quieter. You may not tell the noise level with the top down, but when top up or if you have a hardtop you will hear the sounds.

I should have clarified that with a

I don't believe you will find a tire noisy. Meaning, pick the tire with good reviews and the best available price, for your style of driving.
Trust me, the difference between the Miata and a Lexus, as far as road noise, is not even close.

Second gear

Join Date: Sep 2014

Location: Texas

Posts: 232

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike.S

Sure. You can go in any random direction. You will get predictably random results. The tires above have nothing to do with your stated intended use.

Oh look. Mike S with another irrelevant and sarcastic comment. Do you have any physical comparisons to Scrooge? Bah Humbug!

Sixth Gear

Join Date: Jul 2003

Location: \'00 CSP; Boston, MA Renegade Miata Club

Posts: 7,387

Wow. If you don't even begin to understand what people are talking about, you think the comments are irrelevant? Why waste electrons and waste other people's money? I just don't get this need to create noise for the sake of noise.

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CSP '00 NB #66 in Boston
Street '09 NC in Miami
Street '12 NC PRHT in Europe

Fourth gear

Join Date: Mar 2005

Location: Lancaster, MA

Posts: 1,154

Quote:

Originally Posted by tradosaurus

I should have clarified that with a

I don't believe you will find a tire noisy. Meaning, pick the tire with good reviews and the best available price, for your style of driving.

Trust me, the difference between the Miata and a Lexus, as far as road noise, is not even close.

Ok, agree! [emoji6]

Sixth Gear

Join Date: May 2011

Location: Chelmsford, MA

Posts: 5,727

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Earl

I just bought a 2012 Grand Touring with 17 in wheels. I need to replace the tires and am looking for a recommendation. I don't plan to drive at all in the snow and am looking for best performance. I live in the Hudson Valley in New York and have lots of wonderful back curvy mountain roads to drive on. Don't do much freeway driving. (With my six speed trans and no overdrive - it's a little noisy when you get up to 65 mph.

You need to be a little more specific on your needs. Do you still drive in the winter when the roads are dry, or do you put the car away for the winter?

Any very high performance summer tire will lose more than half its traction when temps get down around or below freezing, and can really catch you off-guard if you're used to them having infinite grip.

For summer-only driving Mike.S has the right recommendations. If you plan to drive the car all year, but just not in the snow, then I'd look at a high performance all-season tire like the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3+, just so that you don't end up in a guardrail the first time you drive aggressively in colder weather. It won't have the same level of grip on warm days as something like an RE-71R, but it won't give up as much grip when it gets cold, either.

Or like some folks have mentioned, pick up a second set of wheels and run max performance tires in summer and all-seasons in winter.

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Third gear

Join Date: Oct 2015

Location: Oakland, CA

Posts: 693

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck H

You need to be a little more specific on your needs. Do you still drive in the winter when the roads are dry, or do you put the car away for the winter?

Any very high performance summer tire will lose more than half its traction when temps get down around or below freezing, and can really catch you off-guard if you're used to them having infinite grip.

For summer-only driving Mike.S has the right recommendations. If you plan to drive the car all year, but just not in the snow, then I'd look at a high performance all-season tire like the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3+, just so that you don't end up in a guardrail the first time you drive aggressively in colder weather. It won't have the same level of grip on warm days as something like an RE-71R, but it won't give up as much grip when it gets cold, either.

Or like some folks have mentioned, pick up a second set of wheels and run max performance tires in summer and all-seasons in winter.

Also: rain. Over in the Track section there is a discussion of how the RE71/Rival and other super 200s do in wet conditions, and the general consensus is "not great." An inexperienced driver in a 40 degree downpour in the Hudson Valley on RE71s sounds ... potentially bad.

Completely agree that how and when you drive the car is SO important in this discussion, because everything about tires is a compromise.

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Fifth gear

Join Date: Aug 2013

Location: PNW

Posts: 2,056

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Earl

With my six speed trans and no overdrive - it's a little noisy when you get up to 65 mph.

I this a different transmission that comes on every other Miata?

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Thanks,
Farther

Fourth gear

Join Date: Aug 2013

Location: Angier, NC

Posts: 1,783

Quote:

Originally Posted by Farther

I this a different transmission that comes on every other Miata?

I thought maybe he was indicating his trans was broken and lacking top gear.
If this is his first car of this type, he may just assume that since the car runs 3500+rpm on highway... it doesn't have overdrive???

This car revs much higher than any other car I have ever owned.

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Third gear

Join Date: Jun 2011

Location: Delphi, Indiana

Posts: 329

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOMOTION

I thought maybe he was indicating his trans was broken and lacking top gear.
If this is his first car of this type, he may just assume that since the car runs 3500+rpm on highway... it doesn't have overdrive???

This car revs much higher than any other car I have ever owned.

3500 RPM is how fast in a 6 speed manual NC??? 6th in my late '02 NB was actually like an overdrive. 5th was a 1 to 1 ratio. 3500 in my 6 speed auto NC would get me unwanted speeding tickets.

Third gear

Join Date: Oct 2015

Location: Oakland, CA

Posts: 693

Yeah 6th is near 1:1 on the 6MT. It's way lower in the auto. I've also never had a car rev this high at highway speeds.

https://mossmiata.com/miata-mx5-2008

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