Looking for tires with hard sidewall

[wildcatgoal]

Yep

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[NightmareMoon]

Typical A/S with stiff sidewall: Nitto, Hankook, BF Goodrich + any A/S runflat
Typical Summer with stiff sidewall: Bridgestone, Hankook, Pirelli, Cooper (ish)

Continentals typically do not have hard sidewalls but will outgrip many tires that do. Conti DWS A/S tires are my favorite "actual normal driving" tire ever made by far.

MPSS... mixed bag what people say about the sidewall on those. In the cars I've been in that have MPSS tires, I did not get the feeling that it had "stiff" sidewalls but more along the lines of "firm and dampened"... make sense? Like it wasn't rolling over itself per say (though I've heard people complain about that) but it wasn't a rock hard tire.

Above is just from my own research... could be totally incorrect.

I have Cooper tires. I find them to be totally fine and not a single issue with sidewall.

Sounds about right. Me and my friend both got MPSS tires within a couple of weeks of each other (he's got an WRX STi) Neither one of us would describe the sidewalls as 'stiff', but then, my last tire was not exactly a fair completely fair comparison (Bridgestone RE71R), and his tires were so worn down he might be feeling the tread block squirm you get with most brand new tires.

 

[hulk_smash]

I'm an advanced driver at our local tracks here in the West Coast. So I'll chime in on my limited first hand knowledge of tires.

Your biggest problem is that you went from a summer performance tire to a performance all season tire.

DWS = Dry, Wet, Snow (performance all-season)
DW = Dry, Wet (summer max performance)
Pirelli P Zero = (summer max performance)

The Conti DW is a fantastic summer tire. DWS is a fantastic all year tire but they tend to favor smooth ride over performance. The DW does not have stiff sidewall but has good grip for your intended purposes.

DWS is a fantastic all year tire but not for performance driving.

Pilot Super Sport IMO is a crappy over priced tire that everyone raves about. If you take it to a track day, the PSS do not last more than a session at advanced level driving speeds. It is a wide tire and the tread looks nice (for bling). But I think for the money, you're better off getting a real performance summer tire. Something in the extreme summer category at tirerack.com.

Try Dunlop ZII Star Spec, BFG Rival, Bridgestone RE-11 or Yokohama AD08R. I'd recommend Bridgestone RE71-R but it wears out tooooo fast but it is a stiff tire and probably the stickiest summer tire you can buy at this time.

You cannot replicate the heat that is generated at a track day at your local mountain, canyon run or autocross.

So you'll never see a tires real shortfalls until you really push it. With that said, I can tell you the 4 (5 including RE71R) stiff tires that I recommended will easily out perform PSS in every single performance metric except for hydroplane resistance, noise and wear.

Hope this helps.

 

[chedder]

I run the Pilot Sport Cup 2 on the track and consistently record 1.28 to 1.3 g turns. 275/295 19's. Satisfied with those numbers for street tires and 8 track days wear 1/2 tread depth.

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