Given
70%
while driving a
MINI Cooper S Works
(215/45 R17) on
mostly country roads
for 2,000
spirited miles
These replaced some very aged budget tyres fitted by a prior owner, so the improvement was always going to be huge.
They have a generous rim protector and a fairly attractive sidewall. Grip levels in the wet and dry are excellent as you would expect for this level of tyre, this is a second car which I really only drive hard and you would need to be driving at very unsafe speeds to pass the limits of these tyres on this car.
One area I feel they are particularly good for my car is in reducing wheelspin when pulling away or accelerating hard out of a corner - they are considerably better than previous rubbish tyres and also the Continental sport contact tyres on my mother’s Cooper S from the same year in which even she complains about wheelspin (they are runflats admittedly). For example pulling out of the local petrol station forecourt which is uneven and greasy - hers will flick up the traction control from even a very gentle take off, whereas mine simply doesn’t - even if you pull away quite aggressively.
I don’t think that initial turn-in is very sharp on these tyres, as though the sidewall is a little soft.
I feel they are very susceptible to punctures. I have sustained two punctures in 2000 miles, both pieces of metal picked up in my own drive - we have 3 other cars in regular use passing over the same tarmac (including another Mini from the same year wearing Continental tyres) and none have suffered the same issue. One was a staple in the sidewall (from a regular office stapler) which completely wrote off the tyre with under 500 miles on it. The second was a small piece of rusty metal that had fallen off my Land Rover (they do that). I also notice there is some damage to one of the nearside sidewalls and I haven’t hit any kerbs!
I felt the same with my previous Golf GTI which was fitted with (then brand new) Assy 2’s which obliterated a sidewall on a cattle grid. I’m interested to read other reviews to see if others have had the same issue.