New tyres...

[is1]

The way I see it, £35 extra a corner for PS3s is negligible if they will be on the car for possibly 2-3 years. I pay a fair bit more than that for fuel per week.

You can make a set of fronts last 2-3 years??

It only gets light road use and my annual mileage isn't high. Just a 25-mile round trip to work maybe 4 days a week. No passengers (not one) since I bought it in June last year. I am fairly sure the previous owner made the original tyres last 5 years (although only covering 15,000 miles in that time).
It's a guess based on the fact that since June last year, I have used a couple of mm at the front and I will be using the car no differently in future.
I appreciate that if one does higher mileage or works it harder it might be an annual change(!)

 

[Sir_Dave]

I use T1R's, at £30 a corner (for 15's) they are great value.

To those that suffer from sidewall wear/rolling over on track, try putting more air in them, mine were running 34-35psi hot on Sunday at Donington and were much better than the 32psi i had in them previously.

 

[RichE]

Has anyone tried Uniroyal Rainsport 2's?

£63 from camskill, seem to have good reviews on the old interweb?

I have them as rears on mine. I reported a while back that they beat the PE2 in an EVO magazine group test (2nd v 5th, make of that what you will) and they seem no different to the PE2s on the rear. I have not tried them on the front but I believe a few over on Cliosport seem to think they are very good.

WORD OF CAUTION - I have not tried them on the front and I am likely to go with PS3s on the front for one reason only and it's not a direct criticism of the Rainsport 2s - I do not know what (if any) effect the Rainsports may have on steering feel as I understand the sidewall is very soft compared to the Michelin (would a softer sidewall improve or reduce steering feel?) and do not want to risk tyres on a car for 12-18 months if I might not like them.

The way I see it, £35 extra a corner for PS3s is negligible if they will be on the car for possibly 2-3 years. I pay a fair bit more than that for fuel per week.

I ran Rainsport 2s on a 106 Rallye and a 106 GTi, I found them really good (better than Toyo's but quite some stretch), the only better tyre I tried on either car were Eagle F1 GSD-3s, and I seem to recall quite a price difference. I would say try them, if you're not happy swap them off and get them up on eBay.