Question about OEM Wheels: 91-92 1st Gen NSX

[Yinzer]

Thanks, that's exactly the type of war story I wanted to hear to help me answer a question the hard way even if others already knew their answer. There's always the chance that a next gen model will be considerably better than the prior (think pre-1989 300zx vs 1990+), but my money says that won't be the case here and will instead get spent on extreme perf tires and proper install and alignment since I better understand the tradeoffs now. Bam!

 

[M Baker]

Two years ago I installed a set of Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec tires on my completely stock 1991 NSX with Hawk HP+ front brake pads. These tires have been perfect for me. I do not use the NSX as a daily driver, it is mainly a fair weather car for fun drives - only 52k miles on it. On that note I have taken it on long road trips where I encountered heavy monsoon type rain and have no issues with these tires in the rain. I have done a couple of track days and these tires are fantastic on this car for that use as well. They have lots of grip and have worn well even with track use.

An important criteria for my use is a tire that I can rotate across to extend tread life as I rotate side-to-side to double the life of the tires. These Dunlops are one of the few high performance summer tires that are not asymmetrical tires, i.e., you can rotate them side to side. This is key for me on the NSX because the inboard tread of the tire will wear out faster than the outboard tread of the tire.

The Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec are summer tires, not for cold winter use even on dry pavement unless you drive carefully as the rubber will be too hard for good traction.

Direzza ZII has replaced the Z1:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=168

And based on the following Tire Rack review I would replace with the Direzza ZII because the NSX is a sports car and I am OK with a stiffer ride as I want crisp handling. And I can still rotate them side to side. If traction is slightly off in the rain that isn't a big deal as I would just drive more carefully in those conditions. I just saw you can get a complete set at Tire Rack for $494 because they are being replaced by a newer model, if I needed tires I would be ordering today! (I do not work for Tire Rack)
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=172