Dunlop Sport Tires

Initial Review, 500 Miles on Tires
April 22, 2013

Installed these on my 08 GT2 recently and am very pleased with them. Grip is amazing and very predictable. A better option than the Michelin Pilot sport Cups in my opinion. Be advised that the tread depth is 8/32 not 10/32. Track guys will love them.

Initial Review, 5,000 Miles on Tires
April 25, 2013

I'm from the desert, so I don't have much experience with snow/snow tires but I moved to upstate NY and needed some snow tires. I am pretty happy with these tires. Can't compare to other snow tires, but these worked well for me. Good city/highway driving. Much better snow/ice traction than my all-seasons.

Initial Review, 8,000 Miles on Tires
April 22, 2013

I live at a ski resort at 8500 feet with an annual snowfall of 500". These tires on a subaru were awesome. I passed other all wheel drives and SUVs that didn't have snow tires and they were sliding off the road. The traction is unbelievable. These tires were cheaper than blizzaks and I knew I would be driving some highway miles as well. Stopping and turning on snow was no problem. Driving up to Alta and Snowbird was a dream! I am not sure about the wear. I drove 2000 dry highway miles and then six months of 50/50 snow and dry driving and the tires look brand new.

Initial Review, 15,000 Miles on Tires
April 18, 2013

Tread life isn't bad until you start autocrossing on them, then they start to wear, but that is true of any tire :) Also totally ----s driving on these in the snow. They aren't meant for that, but when you get a freak snow storm in May, what ya gonna do? Typically I run these tires May - Oct and a set of winters Nov - April...

Initial Review, 4,000 Miles on Tires
April 18, 2013

Great tire, great hanlding, would definatley buy these again, I Go thru many tires owning 6 vehicles, will put these on my other winter driving cars. I monitor udates on new tires regularly, i feel these are one of the best tires available for winter driving. Work great for dry weather also. SO far they are showing no signs of wear.

Initial Review, 2,000 Miles on Tires
February 04, 2013

There was no snow for the first month of the tire use, so when we got a few inches, I took the Miata to a parking lot to see how the tires would perform. Donuts, quick stops, quick acceleration were all tested. It's a rear wheel drive roadster so there was fishtailing, but the Miata does that with the forecast of snow. I was really impressed with the Continentals. I was able to control the slides and was able to recover every time, no matter how hard I pushed the car. I have had all season/mud & snow tires from Pirelli (P Zero Nero's), Dunlop, Goodrich (Super Sport M/S)...the Continentals beat them all. We'll see how they do in deep snow, but so far, so good!

Initial Review, 25,000 Miles on Tires
April 11, 2013

These are the best snow tires I've owned, over an 8 car career so far. They handle snow and ice just fine, and drive like good all seasons when on dry roads (which is most of the time, even in the middle of a VT winter). My ratings are all for a SNOW tire, not a sticky summer tire. But even considering they are a snow tire, I think they handle almost as well as a good quality all season, and I drive my Mazda pretty hard. I'm replacing the Mazda with a Ford Focus ST, and plan on getting a set of these for the ST. I'm sold.

Initial Review, 5,000 Miles on Tires
March 06, 2013

This tires are extremely smooth when it comes to ride, and the very low level of noise compared to the dunlop's that it had before it's huge, i ride most of the time in city, but since it's an BMW M it has a lot of torque even in low rpm's so the wear on the tires are common but in this case are better than others that i had, i've had this car since 2004 and i haven't done many tire changes but his time i decided for the michelin's due i was tired of the noise in the previous tires when they start to fade, in this case since the tire draw it's what i call neutral with no extravagant design it's more comfortable when it's fading.

Initial Review, 8,000 Miles on Tires
March 15, 2013

Car: Honda S2000
Soft ride, nice tires, there are worse and better tires. Driver side and Passenger side tires can be switched unlike unidirectional tires. Kumho XS gives better dry traction. However, these tires are a standard extreme performance tire. Not bad for the price, you get what you pay for.

Street driving is comfortable, should be matched with a proper suspension setup to yield optimal results. These tires, like the XS, ADVAN AD08 & RE-11 will need a stiffer suspension to better manage the grip. If your not really into supreme handling then sports tires are a far better choice. Longevity is lost for performance gain; increadible performance gain, however, save the performance potential for the track.

Track:
displays good ultimate grip, should be careful will probably outdrive 90% of most drivers, meaning to fully maximize performance from these tires, they are a perfect blend of street and track use..

Might try a different set of tires, Dunlop should really design something that has a more durable centre section for regular driving and softer outer sections for higher grip.

Initial Review, 15,500 Miles on Tires
March 14, 2013

drive this car in summer time. Run D.E.events & these tires are amazing! My lap times are close to cars w/race slicks. I have 12 events, 4 autocrosses, & 15,500 miles on them & they are now ready to be changed, what a bang for the buck!! A++++++

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
March 12, 2013

This is an absolutely incredible tire. They were used mostly for autocross, and sometimes to get to work if I forgot to swap them out. When I installed them I went from getting 3rd place in str class to winning 1st almost every event. I was very happy with them and am looking forward to trying out the ZII tires this season.

Initial Review, 5,500 Miles on Tires
March 21, 2013

Best ice / snow tire I have ever owned, bar none. I have owned Goodyear and Michelin snow tires in the past. These run rings around both of them. Lock the AWD, put down your foot and drive through anything, including the Blizzard of 2013 transporting a nurse to and from work at midnight.

Initial Review, 30,000 Miles on Tires
April 01, 2013

I just went through a winter that delivered record snowfalls and the tires performed as I had hoped they would - excellent. I drive in deep snow all the time and despite driving a high performance rear-wheel drive car, I had no problems driving on ice and deep snow on a regular basis. I put them to the test while driving through the Adirondacks in a blizzard after a day of skiing Whiteface...the tires got me through 6-8 inches of snow on the icy roads without a problem...even the step hills and sharp turns...outstanding winter tire fit for my car. I know winter and I love winter driving..great recommendation Tire Rack

Initial Review, 750 Miles on Tires
April 04, 2013

This is basically a fun HPDE / Autocross tire for me. I plan to switch to a different set of wheels/tires for daily driving. Last year I used Conti DW and Michelin Supersports for daily, autocross and HPDE use, howevever that was with a different car, so I can't make a direct comparison.

Ride quality is actually pretty reasonable given the "extreme" nature of this tire. Actually, ride has improved over the oem Dunlop SP Sport 2050 tires, however, some of that may be due to the smaller and lighter wheels. I'm sure a more recent max performance summer tire will ride better, and a gran touring tire better still, but these are quite reasonable for what they are, and not at the level of harshness of a run flat tire.

Noise is deeper and a little louder than oem, but still not bad. It is more noticeable at lower speeds (40-50mph) now. Smooth tarmac is still quiet, but rough tarmac, or concrete is where you will hear them.

OK, now for the performance aspect. So far I have just 2 days on track with these tires, 1 dry and 1 wet. I was very happy with them in both conditions. In the dry, these held up well for a 25 minute session. They did get slightly greasy feeling after a few hot laps, but much less so than the Supersports I last ran at this track and adjusting tire pressures helped dial that out. There is another comment on here saying that the traction is harder to judge for the beginner due to the lack of audible feedback. I did find it hard to judge traction in my first session, however once I had learned to understand the feedback after that first session, I found them to be very communicative and was able to push up to the limit of traction. I'm not a complete beginner, but neither am I that experienced yet. In the wet, they worked well on track and I also drove through some storms on the way home with no aqua planing.

Overall, I am very happy with these tires and would recommend them for anyone who wants an aggressive street tire.

Initial Review, 5,900 Miles on Tires
April 02, 2013

I bought these tires right after I purchased my 2004 4 Runner to get rid of the Dunlops that were standard on that vehicle. What a difference right from the start. These Michelins are the perfect tire for this vehicle. I keep this SUV in the garage and it has never seen snow or ice. I still own an 86 4 Runner for those conditions, but the "new" 4 Runner(2004) IS beautiful to drive any for all other conditions and the tires make this vehicle ride like a dream. Great on the open highway especially. No noise, nice traction, great ride. I just hope Michelin continues to make this tire for many years to come.

Initial Review, 19,000 Miles on Tires
April 05, 2013

Not understanding all the hate for this tire. Most likely it's because they come standard on 2010 thru 2013 GTI's and drivers who never experience sub-zero temperatures and snow have no need for an A/S tire on a high-performance car. As a result, they compare this tire to either max or extreme performance summer tires.
However, comparing this tire to the Kumho ECSTA 4X A/S tires on my son's Mazda 3, I would rate them at least as equals, and probably a bit better when below zero.
Additionally, using a regular rotation period of 5k miles, these tires demonstrate fantastic wear resistance. Currently at 19k miles and less than 50% wear. Very quiet on the freeway as well. The only negative is the braking and cornering traction in the wet should be a little higher.

Initial Review, 35,021 Miles on Tires
March 21, 2013

These are my first winter tires....and I wore them throughout the whole year, from 2009-2013. I was initially impressed with the snow.

I DON'T KNOW WHY RALLY GUYS HAVEN'T PICKED THIS TIRE UP YET.

Great sand traction, I used them for all season. Treadware was OK, and I did have one small blowout due to a nail, but I guess, for the average treadlife, it was a good buy. In my subaru, with these tires just installed, the little car could STEAM right up hills in deep snow. I think it did better than my jeep in the snow. I rotated the snot out of them to get extra life, and found that this helped.

Road noise is OK. I'm guessing, for a winter tire, the road noise was outstanding. Towards the end, it was a little shaky and there was some traction flaking off. I live on mountain roads and zip through turns, and I felt very comfortable in these tires. Off road, and yes, I did take the beast far off road at least once a month, there were no complaints.


A great melding of tire and awd vehicle.


To sum up:
If you:
Go off road, rally, or are in lots of snow, often, get these.
Great tire to have all winter long if you rotate out.

On long trips, ride comfort is medium, noise level is there but quite bearable.

If you are looking for tread life, and don't have much snow, don't get these.

Ultimately the second time around I'm trying out Defenders as I found myself wanting comfort and tread life to be priority 1. I'll post more if I find drastic differences.

Initial Review, 5,000 Miles on Tires
March 28, 2013

Great autocross tire. Superb performance!

Initial Review, 5,000 Miles on Tires
March 28, 2013

Great tire for aggressive driving and autocross!