I've just read someone's experience of them getting slippery when hot. I can get S-02 at a very good price ($200 all four - new). But now concerned about their ability. Any experiences or input?

I had S02's on my S2000. An awesome tire, but wears quickly and wet traction drops off noticably after they are half worn. Dry traction is awesome, every bit as good as the S03 if not better.

One good response. I have RE730's now and have been really happy with them. I actually got a good 20K miles and 2 track events on them. But really concerned if S-02 will hold up as well on the track.

I have the S-02 Pole Positions on my C5.

Frayed pretty much summed it up:

It's a nice tire, but rather soft, thus wears quickly. Gets very good dry traction, but after 40%+ worn, wet traction isn't confident.

Check out the S-03's. An improvement on the S-02's and gets very good traction in both wet and dry. Doesn't wear as quickly as the S-02's.

If it was my comment from another thread, I'd point out a few things --

The tires were probabaly 60% worn
The autocross' surface was poor for grip
It was quite hot out
The M Roadster's tail is a happy sombiatch, much moreso than any M3

The best tires I can compare the S02 to are AVS Sports which I had on my car at the time, and which replaced the S02's on that car. Their dry (hot) grip was better throughout their lifetime, and they didn't overheat even when used at the Derek Daily track in Las Vegas in 105 degree heat. After about 80% used, AVS Sports get very very bad in the wet, though.

All that being said, I did overheat the AVS Sports slightly at a recent autocross...heck it could just be my autocrossing style. :eek: :rolleyes: :nuts:

Thanks for the reply Andy. I figured there may have been some extenuating circumtances, but wanted to see if others had any related experiences.

A fellow I know recently bought a used S2k which had nearly new RE730's mounted. We were running together at an autocross practice day (he previously had been autox'ing an ITR and this was his first outing in the S2k). After he had done 5 or 6 runs another S2k owner offered him the use of some S-02's with 50% tread to see what they were like. On cold tires (the S-02's do better with a little heat in them) he improved his best time by 2 sec on a 40 sec concrete course. Nuff said...they are awsome.

They do wear quickly though. If wear is your primary concern you should get some dedicated track wheels and mount the Yokohama A032; they wear very well.

I'll back up the wear complaint: Got about 13K out of mine. Disappointing. I drive hard, but not that hard.

But I felt wet traction was damn good, even after excessive wear, all things being equal, and in the big scope of tire-dom.