Advice on High Performance All Season Tires

[Bill Elliott]

Hi gang!

Trying to give some advice to a friend for a reasonably-priced, very
high performance all-season tire.  (I know, I know... I run SP8000's in
the summer and Hakka Q's in the winter... and"all season" is really "no
season")... but this car will be seldom driven in the winter, so he
doesn't want to spend the $$ for true snows, but also doesn't want to be
afraid to drive if he gets caught out in the snow.

So dry traction and wet traction are of top importance, while snow
performance is a distant 3rd.  He even autocrosses the car once or twice
a year.  Area is Chicago surburban. Size is 245/50/16.

After doing a quick review of the market, I've zeroed in on the Yoko
AVSdb ($114) and the BFG g-Force T/A KDWS ($111).  I had first thought
that the Dunlop SP5000 would be the way to go, but according to the
tests and reviews on tirerack.com, it's been surpassed (on dry pavement;
it's still much better in the snow) by these new tires...AND it's more
expensive.

Any other tires I should consider? Any advice between the two I picked?
(The AVS seems to have the a slight dry pavement edge, same on wet
pavement, much poorer in snow)

BTW, I hope to have some pics of my for-sale '85 UrQ up soon!

Thanks!

Bill Elliott
Lake Barrington, IL