Uniroyal RainSport 2

I got rainsport 2 fitted to my wife's mx5 after she complained that the car felt as though it was sliding on bends in the wet. I took car for a run in the wet and the car was a death trap the Mazda dealer had fitted nexen tires to car they were okay in the dry but deadly in the wet. I went straight to the garage and got rainsport 2 fitted this completely changed the car awesome tires

These tires are a great all rounder used them in snow/ice and track days they have great grip in dry but found they over heat when pushed in the dry. The grip in the wet is amazing nearly as much as in the dry. I found the side walls to be a bit soft and at times felt as though the tires would be pulled off of the rims. Due to the soft compound these tires did wear quickly.

Replaced the manufacturer's recommended tires with these after good reviews and sporty appearance. Not cheap! Road noise, especially at motorway speeds, excessive.
Wear rate unacceptable for a semi-premium tire. Will not buy again.
Currently have Nexen 6000 front tires which are quieter, look good and are wearing much more slowly.
Michelin on the back - too soon to report.

They were fitted to the car when we bought it, rears were near new and the fronts were about half worn. Grip in the wet is fine, dry grip is OK but not as good as I'd expect from a high performance summer tire, the sidewalls are soft so the ride is comfortable but the handling a bit imprecise compared with other high performance summer tires. The tires can be a bit noisy on some road surfaces but not too bad.
After about 10k miles of mostly motorway / autobahn driving the fronts are worn out, and whilst the rears still have about 4-5mm of tread, the LH rear is making a horrible noise and vibration at 4-50 mph, and again from 70-90 mph. Wheels bearings, wheel, brakes, suspension etc all in good condition so it has to be from the tire.
Looking at other tires to replace these.

Well, they are a little bit noisy and maybe uncomfortable. I bought them in the begining of the summer drought and I thought: "aghhh, what a mistake"... And then the rain fell... And I fell in love with this tire.
The way Uniroyal Rainsport 2 performed in wet conditions was absolutely breathtaking. I have never experienced anything like that. Gave me so much confidence that I waited for the rain to fall just to take my Twingo133 for a ride, it grips like hell and you just enjoy cruising and speeding around as the water sprays from V-shape lines behind you.

Downsides? There are some, but I forgive them all.
Anyway, let me mention it: on dry and hot conditions, the tire turns slowly, as the "side-wall" is a bit soft. It is strange in the begining as the car dives in a corner with a milisecond delay, but it's not a problem once you get used on it.

There's nothing worse than having to do an emergency stop or manuovre in the wet. But with these tires, the only problem will be other cars not being able to stop behind you.

Handle very, very well in damp to very wet weather, the car handles almost like the road is dry. I do like to push to the limit from time to time, and sometimes I can't reach the limit of these.

I have used these on a vw polo and vw fox, and will always buy these again as I value wet weather confidence over outright dry weather performance.

Fitted all 4 tires from new and still loads of tread left so far after around 21000 miles and over nearly 3 years.

These tire certainly perform well - I've used them on 3 different cars. A 2 litre petrol Mondeo, a 2.0 litre TDCI Mondeo and a 2.0 TDCI SRI Astra hatch. They grip well in the dry, seem resistant to aquaplaning in the wet whilst they have good tread depth. Wear rate is fairly high - but with empathetic driving, I reckon 9k - 10k miles is about the most you can expect - less if you drive in a more spirited way. Road noise is a little higher than some and whilst new, the tread depth is very high - so feedback and progression is a little odd until they settle down. Side walls are not as strong as other tires so avoid potholes or rocks - one of my 8 pairs developed an egg shaped buldge as a result of driving over a stone, but was sorted quickly under warranty. Good tires overall - when you can find them but not cheap.

Had an almost new set of these on the front when I purchased my car, after a 18 months and 20 k miles they finally need replacing. Had no issues in the wet or dry so will give the Rainsport 3s a go for sure!

I bought this tires 4 years ago. They are 215/55ZR16 93W. Grip of this tires is excellent. This tires are looking very narrowly. I won't buy them again because there is RainSport 3 tire a newer model.
Everyone who drive VW Sharan 2001-09 on 16 wheel buy XL tires. I have made a mistake buying standard tires instead XL. I will replace them with RainSport 3 XL

great tires on my st170!

I tried these tires after looking at all the mid range tires. Uniroyal is a subsidiary of continental, so knew they must be ok. Added to that they are advertised as a rain tire and let's face it we have a lot of damp or wet days in the uk. I fitted then to an E60 BMW Diesel....wow. What great tires. I have never been so impressed by any tire at this price. I have had them all in the past. Goodyear, conti,Bridgestone,falken,kumho and toyo etc...
The car is hugely powerful with loads of torque and the tires have worn surprisingly well. They have worn evenly across the car and I have got about 15k from them. This includes some seriously sprited driving at Le Mans. I have been so impressed, I'm now renewing all four with uniroyal rs3. I can not recommend this tire highly enough.

I've got around 19K miles out of my last set of these on a fairly heavy Volvo V70 diesel which I use for towing and some fairly lively driving when not towing. Am up to 16K on the second set which are now nearing the end of their life.

Interestingly my mum has the same car but only managed about 12k miles even with her plodding around - 4 wheel alignment has hopefully now increased.

So, in terms of wear, on a well set up car the wear is good (must swap around i.e. front / back) but if set up is wrong the wear can be excessive.

Great tire though.

Now to see what the RS3s are like

Fantastic in the wet! I can throw the car into tight corners at speeds I would never ever consider on other tires. Have done round 10, 000 miles on them, I swap them for winter tires around november - march, but they have lasted well, look nearly new, and I love them

When new, they feel fine, just like any other new tire. As soon as they are getting within 4 or 5 mm of the wear indicators, they start to get noisy and this only gets worse. At low speed, they jitter and rumble; over about 50 a whine like a failing wheel bearing starts and gets worse the faster you go. They also tramline somewhat, and feel somewhat sketchy in turns (once again, only felt once worn).

On the plus side, they give fantastic grip in the wet, but this does not make up for the abysmal wear characteristics and the noise. The rolling resistance is higher than for most tires; this'll cost you a couple of percent of your fuel economy.

Overall, avoid these tires. The wet grip isn't worth the other downsides; they don't even last particularly well.

Had them on the rears for the last 12 month as it's came with the car.
I've done 35k on them on rears (80% on the motorways) an it's just half-worn. The grip was not the worst, kept me well on the motorway in the shallow water. However for the last 5-8k noise exactly the same as dying hub bearing on 40-55 mph and vibration sound on over 60mph. As soon as I dropped them onto the fronts noise became incredibly loud and slight vibration on the steering wheel, although after they've been balanced well. Road feedback just below an average and no comfort at all.

Definitely will never buy again.