Best Tires for the Mazda MX5 2.0 Manual

Very good steering feel and handling. These feel more like a good all season or summer tire than a winter tire, none of the mushy feeling you get with Blizzaks. Did quite well in the snow, had some slides on ice but you can only expect so much from a non-studded tire.

Fitted to a Mazda MX5 Mk3. Car runs 180 bhp and is set up for moderate track use and daily driving.
Comfort and noise are significantly better than more tires with more aggressive treads.
Survived a monsoon level on a motorway so impressive wet weather grip. Not yet used in sub 5C conditions.
Exceptional track handling.
Recommended.

Use them on a MX5 ND, amazing grip, especially in the wet, good feed near the limit, progress loss of grip so easy to push. Wear is ok but maybe not for someone doing high mileage.

Excellent dry grip, as good as the Premium brands. Wet grip is very good as expected. Steering feel is positive and sharp without vagueness. Feedback through the wheel is informative

A mixed bag these ones. I'll start with the positives:

Survived two mixed weather track days. Although conditions meant pushing hard was never an option, most road tires show some shoulder wear in track conditions, but these held up well. In Cold / Greasy conditions, they clearly performed better than the same car on semi-slicks and the handling was predictable, consistent and controllable. Oversteer was progressive and correctable.

Next, in very very very heavy rain conditions on the motorway (and I mean, can't even see the car in front kinda wet), they performed very well. Very little if any aquaplaning, resistance to it was good. Felt calm and steady over standing water and in damp conditions it felt like the tire was keyed into the road.

Lastly, country road driving in damp / changeable conditoins, also excellent, very reliable grip, even when pressing on.

So what about the downsides... well, theres a few:

1) very odd steering characteristics off center and on / off throttle. The car changes direction slightly on and off throttle, a behavior I've only seen when tires were different brands, or one was hugely over / under inflated. It suggests that all four tires may not be perfectly the same dimensionally. It lends an oddly floaty feeling just off center when driving on roads.

2) very very very firm. For a road tire, the carcass stiffness is significant. These are actually about as stiff as a set of Nankang AR1 track tires, and significantly harder than the likes of a classic P zero. For a road tire this makes it quite uncomfortable. It certainly feels "sporty" but over all but perfect roads, its quite uncomfortable.

3) I have no data yet on how these will perform under hard driving in dry conditions, so will need to report back once I've had a chance to do so.

On the road they are a bit harsh as the compound that i chose is the one with reinforced sidewall (R7A Medium 140 TW) and the NK (new carcass) variant and they do whine a bit when slowing down especially. They grip well, hard to get them to slip, heat up very quickly and are easy to manage. For the price i would highly recommend them.