[Big D Design]

I was one of the 1st few in Florida to get my Red FRS. I got it an hour away in Daytona. So I drove the car home on I95. Tramlining (following road ruts) was bad. I had seen this before with Corvettes. I am used to driving cars stable at speed. The FRS is not as stable at speed as the other car from Japan in my car collection. My Roush Mustang feels stable at speed but sits up a lot higher than my Japan cars so it's a different feel to driving at speed. After the hour drive I was very disappointed in the tire choice by Toyota, but I understand that if the car came with sticky extreme performance summer tires that most of the young kids buying the car would be wrapping them around telephone poles. I firmly believe that the Primacy Tires have saved many lives due to the fact that you can't really toss the car into a corner at megaspeed and feel safe enough to risk it.


I have been using Dunlop Direzza tires for years on my tricked out '92 Maxima SE for years. I bought the car new and over the years put a lot of money to modify the car. I have a trick suspension on it and it is lowered by 2". I have had many tires on the car and I was living in NJ for most of the life of the car. I have had many tires on it with racing rims from Japan. But the Dunlop Direzzas for the best grip in temps above 45 degress that I have used.


So I ordered the same day after driving home my FRS a set of tires and wheels from Tire Rack. Kosei ultra lightweight rims and Dunlop Direzza 215 tires. I got them 2 days later and put them on. WOW WOW WOW. The whole stability of the car was light years ahead. I could now take my hands of the wheel and the car would drive itself. Hit a corner and double the grip was there. I steering feel that matched the best sports cars out there was reached. Can't say enough. I ended up a week later putting 225 width tires that I had extra for my Maxima on the back to make it look better proportioned. It didn't hurt the handling of the car and looked a whole heck of a lot better. If you never drive an FRS with extreme performance tires, you will never know how well the car drives. To me, the stock tires are a safety net for new drivers.


So there you have it. I recommend that you don't go too wide with the tires and loose steering feel, and you will also add weight. If you don't modify the hp of the car too much,,,, you can get some lightweight wheels and save 30 lbs of unsprung weight, add Dunlop Direzza or BF Rivals. This difference is astounding. Don't let anyone tell you different.