I had them in 215/45/17 and if I remember correctly PGT had them at some point. My main issue with those tires was the squishy turn-in feel I got from them. I now have the star specs and they are miles better than the DZ101. My overall opinion: they are a solid, comfortable tire for the street and they can take some abuse, but the squishy feel was enough for me to change to a different tire once sufficiently worn.
If you are going to use them at all for track/auto-x, then pay the extra $$ for the Star Specs. They're fantastic.
Well considering the Direzza's are a 300 wear rating and the Stars are 200......hmmmmm. I am still undecided on replacement tires for my GY F1 GS-D3's. They were a 300 wear rating and still performed very well. Do you think if I got 35K from my F1's I could get close to that with the Star's?
Not a chance. I got 17k out of my first set of Star Specs, including 6 track days. I'm surprised you got 35k out of any tires on the MINI! The Star Specs are a relatively affordable Extreme Performance Summer tire. They have 98% of the grip of a RE-11 or AD-08, but they're one of the noisiest tires out there, hence the price difference. If you're concerned about mileage, don't get the Star Specs or any Extreme Performance Summer tire, you'll be disappointed. If you enjoy crazy grip on street tires, don't mind tread noise (or have an exhaust that drowns it out), and don't mind replacing your tires every 20,000 miles, the Star Spec is the tire for you.
Granted I was a lot less aggressive on the first 10k of the F1's, but they have really held up well over the last few years. With the camber and suspension I have they are wearing very evenly. I would just like to get 20K from my next set w/o having to completely throw out performance (this is about 3 years for me). I have ridden in cars with the BFG KDW's (just about the noisiest tires out there) and they really weren't that bad, so I don't think the noise is going to bother me that much.
Do you want a summer only tire, or an all season? I run the Kumho Ecsta ASX UHP All seasons and I have about 25K on them, including several track days. Quietest tire I've ever owned and very smooth and predictable. What's more, I haven't had to rebalance them in 25K, they still roll as smoothly as when new. You can only rotate them same side tho, if you turn them around they'll get noisey - athough not as bad as the Parada Spec II's I had before. I'm down to ordering another set or the new Dunlop WDS All Season, the Kumho's are only $98 each on TR too!
Local Oregon boy and PIR denizen Denis Palatov ran Star Specs on his MINI and had really good things to say about them too, especially as he ran about 9 or 10 track days on them before he ran them down!
You know Dennis! Wow.....I met him once very briefly (he wouldn't remember me of course.....LOL) and love his race cars. Yea he really pounded the MINI around PIR. Gonna have to take a trip up to OR Raceway Park and watch some of the upcoming track days.
I have loved every minute of my star specs. No track days or auto-x, just hwy and a very aggresive street runs gave me 17k, and I am JUST now at the wear bar on the pass front. The noise isn't to terribly bad, better then a set of 225-45-17 re070s... Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk