Looking at running a set of Continental extreme contact sport 02s....is there a better new tire out there? Trying to keep it close to how Mazda intended them to drive/ride/handle when new. Not many options for stock size nowadays.

 

Do you intend to drive it how mazda intended when New? If the answer is no then your tire choice will not impact the driving experience the way you are thinking it will. Buy a good summer tire and enjoy the highway. Tire rack is a great resource

 

The worst tire you could buy today would kick the snot out of a mid-90s OE tire, even as good as the Bridgestone Expedia S07s that the R1 models had.

And the ExtremeContact Sport 02s are probably the best Summer tire on the market now.

So, yes, you would do well to use them. But because they are probably the best tire you can get moreso than them channeling some sort of original intent of Mazda's engineers or something.

 

My car has Continental Extreme Contact Sport tires on stock wheels. For comparison, the previous set of tires on the car were Hankook Ventus RS2 also on stock wheels. The Continentals have a softer sidewall, less road noise, and at autocross events it feels like they probably have less grip than the RS-2s did. So if you're doing around-town sportscar stuff but not chasing trophies or doing serious track days, I think the Continentals are a good choice. The only reasons I would avoid them is if you need a set of tires that works well when the temperature is below freezing, or if you can't stand the sound of the sticky tires grabbing debris from the road and flinging it up into the wheel wells.

If you want something even stickier, I think Bridgestone RE-71RS or Yokohama A052 might be worth looking at. Grassroots Motorsports has published a lot of tire information, I think this page has been updated for 5+ years now as new tires get released: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/ar...-buyers-guide/

 

what’s a good tire like the continental that won’t fling road rebris around? I’ll take a look at the article

 

Not sure why my response last night went into a moderator queue...

The worst Max Performance thesedays is going to be better than even the renowned (for its' time) Bridgestone Expedia S01 on the R1/R2 RX7s. Tires have just gotten a whole lot better in the past three decades.

Any aggressive summer tire is going to be super soft and have a penchant for flinging road debris. If that is a concern, you might consider stepping down to an ultra high performance all-season, something like the ExtremeContact DWS06. I have run them on my dailies (M-cars, BRZ, etc) for many years and the latest ones are superb. Their dry performance is better than even many Max Summer tires and only slightly below that of the Sport 02s, but without the downsides of a Max Summer tire.

 

I think every tire with good grip is going to get sticky and pick up little bits of road debris. I think it's more noticeable on cars like the RX7 that don't have a lot of sound insulation. You get used to the sound eventually, and you might not notice it at all above 30mph when the wind noise gets louder. Be sure to keep the paint waxed or ceramic coated or paint protection film, it shouldn't cause damage.

Whatever tire you get, drive carefully. These cars don't have traction control or stability control, and IMHO the stock handling balance is closer to oversteer more than most other sporty cars. If you're going to take corners quickly, do that somewhere safe like an autocross or HPDE track day with plenty of runoff room.

 

Oh yes will do. My car makes about 340 whp so have to be careful in the bends lol

 

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I think the Continental Extreme Contact Sport 02 is the best choice at the stock size right now.

I'm running Michelin Pilot Super Sports, which are excellent, but I'm on 18-inch wheels.

Previously, the wheels had Pirelli P Zero Rosso tires, which were also good, but they were very old by the time I bought the car.

 

I've always run Micheline tires like the Pilot series or bridgestone RE71's but this time I went budget and got some Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 and have been very pleased. I definitely wouldn't recommend these if you are planning on driving in the snow at all but they've done very well in dry and rain. I didn't like only getting 10K miles out of my tires and I don't do as much autox and what not as I used to but I will be testing these firestones at autox soon hopefully. I think they will do fine. They are quiet, grippy and don't feel like they have much sidewall roll.

 

Firehawk Indy 500
I have these on my FD, and they are VERY good. Decent ride, great handling, and so far haven't worn much. I recommend them.

 

I was looking at the Firehawk Indy 500 V2 for my daily driver, too. I've got winter tires on steel wheels, so they'd be summer only.

 

As we rarely get cold enough it's an issue down here, I've quite liked my Falken RT660's at stock size. You'll struggle to run out of tire on stock twins, though I've heard their wet performance is middling. I don't typically push the car in the rain to find out.

 

You can also run 245/45X16 on the factory wheel.

 

I think pirelli makes a p zero classic tire that fits the stock size. Also I know Michelin has a pilot sport classic as well but 450+ a pop is crazy money for small tires

 

I filtered on tire rack for all of the available sizes that fit a stock FD rim. The current market is dismal at best for 16" rims. I thought I had issues sourcing tires for my 17" and always had jealousy of guys with 18" how much more is available. But 16s are really stuck with a couple options now days.

 

In general, I'd avoid those classic tires as they're neither cheap nor performant. The RX-7 isn't that old or slow or heavy.

I faced the same problem with my daily driver. It's getting harder to find tires in smaller sizes, so give the search more time and look farther to get the tires you want.

The FD is too good a car to skimp on tires, even if they're smaller than modern equivalents.

 

I had those on my Subaru STi, and they were a great solid tire that was great value.

Would definitely consider using them again.

 

Gonna grab the continentals they seem the best choice. Too bad Goodyear doesn’t offer the new eagle F1 A6 tire which competes with the PS4S and continentals those seem like they’d be a great fit

Hankook RSV4 are available but hankooks on an FD seems like a shame

 

Engineering Explained also likes the Continental Extremecontact Sport 02 for his 2018 Shelby GT350:

 

I was very happy with the Hankook tires on my RX7. I ran them at a couple HPDE / track days, dozens of autocross events, some 100+ mile highway trips, and short trips around town. I would have gone with the RE-71 or A052 if I had not moved from endless-summer southern California. In central Oregon where we live now, the roads see ice and snow in the winter and the track temps during autocross events might be closer to 60 degrees F than to 90 degrees F. The RX7 is not usually on winter duty, but a local tire shop advised that the Continentals might warm up more quickly than the more grippy tires, and have a better chance of working in the below-freezing cold.

 

I’ve always kept the tires Bridgestone related. Just to keep everything JDM.
That being said, their tires have always provided max grip. Since the FD is a bit of an extreme vehicle, I’ve always opted for the most grip. I’m now on the RE71RS’s. If memory serves me, I think you can still get them in the OE 16”. But I’ll admit, I havent run that size in a very long time. Moving up to the OE 17’s would help with tire choice.
I was tempted to get the 18’s, but they simply look way too big for our cars. You’ll take some performance hit as well going to that size. Ideally run the 17’s, you’ll be very happy with the upgrade.

 

If you go to a 245/45/16 (which used to be the hot ticket with stock wheels, you can get Yokohama A052s, or Bridgestone RE71RS, or if you want a little less on the limit, the Conti's everyone's mentioned are supposed to be great.

 

I went with Firehawks on my 16 inch stock wheels and Continental Extreme Contact Sport tires on my 18 inch BBS wheels.