Our mini is used for touring/sight seeing with a little spirited run or more once in a while. We're not happy with the kumho's & are lookin' for experienced advice from other mini owners. Quiet, longer lasting is what we're lookin' for.
Thanks for your replies.

 

i replaced my dunlop runflats with all-season cooper tires(205/45-17). the new coopers are the same size as my runflats, but the ride is much nicer.

 

Witch Kumho do you have , and what size are your wheels?

Alex

 

In 205/55/16, 2 great choices for longer wear and ride quality are

Bridgestone Turanza Serenity 70k expected

Michelin Primacy MXV4 60k expected.

Both are H rated - so combining that with the 55 series sidwalls, I'd expect a nice comfortable ride, but cornering will not be as precise due to the synergy of less ridgid sidewalls, and addional sidewall height.

Alex

 

Alex, I need your input on tires. Car is an 08 Justa Cooper with the factory sport suspension. I will be using a set of Rota Circuit 8's in 16x7 size. The tires will be truly all season, but I live in North Central Texas- little or no snow or ice, but lots of temperature and rain extremes. I'm the family hot-shoe, but the primary driver is my daughter who will hopefully be going to a local Street Survival school right after we get the tires. She's working on becoming a hot-shoe... Reasonable (20K mile minimum) wear, good rain performance are a must.
Recommendations?

 

For rims 16x7 with stock sport suspension-

Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS is an Ultra High Perf All Season tire
205/55-16 $112 each 400 treadwear
Good street tire for year round use and will give enough treadwear and good handling.

The Michelin MXV4 and Turanza Serenity are great tires for street use( with comfort as priority )- Daily driving and wear a long time. They are for year round use but not as good on handling as mentioned.

 

Thanks. I hadn't considered these, but they look like a winner. I'm going to see what Alex recommends, but I wouldn't be suprised if he backs up your recommendation. Price is good too.
Do me a favor, if you don't mind- if you happen to run across or hear about a Mini part I'm looking for would you give me a shout? I'm looking for a front sway bar from a non- S, R56 Cooper with the standard suspension. I'll trade my sport suspension front bar if anyone is interested. Being a Solo guy, I think you know where I'm coming from on this.

 

see
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...78&hg=31&fg=10

For the R56 Base cooper
Front sway bar is 21.5mm thick, part number 31356772751

For the R56 Cooper with Sport suspension
Front Sway bar is 23.5mm thick, part number 31356772753

There aren't many Base cooper owners that would want to swap for a thicker front bar- since that would increase understeer under most performance driving situations. The only time you can increase front swaybar is if you also increase rear sway bar stiffness.

For rear sway bar
http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...58&hg=33&fg=45
Base R56 cooper is 16mm thick and for sport suspension 18mm.

 

Thanks for the good info. I'm trying to get the most out of my rear bar without touching it. My only option & stay Stock Class legal is to go smaller on the front bar. I've been looking for a used bar locally but no luck. Looks like I'm going to have to hit the local Mini Parts Dept.

 

Good choice in 960's 40k expected life, 205/55's are tall but I have heard they work if your not lowered.

Alex

 

Thanks, Alex. "L'il Red" is not lowered; the speedo reads a bit high, so this size should balance things out.

 

For a long wearing budget summer tire that does good in the rain (and decent in temps as low as 35 degrees but I've not tried them in snow) I'm pretty happy with my Riken Raptors. They're not as sticky as the Pirelli P-Zero Neros they replaced, but then they're half the price too. I have 15K miles on them and would say I still have at least half my tread left, maybe more, and these have done about a dozen spirited runs up and down the dragon, a few passes at the drag strip, some burnouts for fun and generally spirited driving. I'd say I'm slightly more aggressive than average with my tires. Another friend had them on their SRT4 ACR and had similar results, getting well over 30K miles out of them.
I typically wouldn't trust and off-brand tire but after hearing good things I did some research and found that the Riken is a brand owned by BF Goodrich/Michilen and basically cuts overall costs by not marketing the tires very heavily.