What is the benefit of high grip tires for the street?

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Great responses all around, thanks!

Now for a followup - as I do have two sets of wheels, would I gain feel and immediacy of response from summer tires over all season tires? Here I'm asking about Ultra High Performance Summer or Max Performance Summer, not about Extreme Performance. I know tires like Indy 500 are lauded as great street tires with excellent feel, but how would they compare to something like the Pilot Sport A/S 4 or the Conti DWS Plus?

[Tokay444]

Grip.
/thread.

[Desertnate]

I would think you would notice a difference. I hear the Indy 500's are a great tire.

On my GTI I went from DWS 06's to PSS's (before the PS4S was created) and the difference was quite noticeable to me.

[NoHaveMSG]

The limit of high performance tires is pretty high that they wouldn't be fun on the street. I like my car to wiggle a bit if I want it too. It's too buttoned down on sticky tires to enjoy at a reasonable speed.

[Tokay444]

I street on R-comps. It's a great time.

[Lynxis]

Originally Posted by Ohio Enthusiast

Great responses all around, thanks!

Now for a followup - as I do have two sets of wheels, would I gain feel and immediacy of response from summer tires over all season tires? Here I'm asking about Ultra High Performance Summer or Max Performance Summer, not about Extreme Performance. I know tires like Indy 500 are lauded as great street tires with excellent feel, but how would they compare to something like the Pilot Sport A/S 4 or the Conti DWS Plus?

I'd tell you not to bother with anything in the Max performance category. It is supposed to be a bridge between mostly pure street tire like UHP and a track tire like EHP but it does neither particularly well. If you want a streetable track tire, I'd recommend something in the EHP category like the Hankook RS4.

As for your question about dedicated summer tire like Indy 500 vs an all season like Pilot Sport AS4, I doubt you'll find a meaningful difference in the performance with regular street driving and the real differences would be subjective stuff like responsiveness, ride quality and road noise which will vary between literally any make and model of tire. The one place you'll likely find a difference is on the track as most UHP tires can handle the heat but AS tires might start to fall apart under those conditions.

[Ohio Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by Lynxis

The one place you'll likely find a difference is on the track as most UHP tires can handle the heat but AS tires might start to fall apart under those conditions.

Great point about light track capabilities of summer vs all seasons!

[Desertnate]

Originally Posted by Lynxis

I'd tell you not to bother with anything in the Max performance category. It is supposed to be a bridge between mostly pure street tire like UHP and a track tire like EHP but it does neither particularly well. If you want a streetable track tire, I'd recommend something in the EHP category like the Hankook RS4.

My only thought with this advice is driving in the rain and ambient temperatures. I had a set of RS-4 on my autocross wheels for my last car, and while a great tire in it's given environment, I did notice they lacked some grip in normal use at around 60F (i.e. driving to an event) and they didn't handle the rain nearly as well as my MHP tires. Other EHP tires get really squirrely in the rain because they don't evacuate water very well at all.

A max performance tire would probably provide a wider performance envelop for daily usage than an EHP tire in both the rain and street conditions when it's cooler. They won't stick or hold up to high heat like an EHP tire, but they were never designed to either.

[Cephas]

^ That was my experience with running summers on a daily driver, as well. Cool or damp pavement (which is basically is here, at least in the mornings, through much of the year) and they were a lil sketchy.