I have the Mich Pilot A/S, just plain excellent and the price has come down. Now $135 for 205/55/16 at TireRack.

From what I've read of the Michelin Pilot A/S, they are superb. But you'll pay the bucks. To me it's worth it to get good tires. They are one of the most important parts of the car and you'll be living with them for a while.

Another good choice may be the Bridgestone Potenza RE950s. I have also read that they are good, but they are a perf category below the Pilots.

This last time around I went with Goodyear F1 G D3s. These are max performance summer tires. Probably not what you're looking for :-) But do they handle nice!

-Ted

I recently put a set of V-rated 205/50R16 Falken 512 under my S70 and I am absolutely thrilled with them.

They stick to the road, whether dry or wet, aren't particularly noisy and are dirt-cheap. I drove 210 kph (150 mph) on the German autobahn a few days ago (going downhill - my S70 has the smallest engine) and they were perfectly stable.

HTH,

R
'99 S70 2.0 NA - 240Kkm
'89 745 - 378Kkm

I usually go for the cheapest longest lasting tires rather than the performance tires, so I don't know if my opinions are worth much to you but...

Ride comfort and noise are not important since the engine and noise from other trucks seem to be what I hear and not my tires. Between all the tires I have driven in I have never felt a difference in ride comfort. Tire Pressure determines comfort, in fact I can usually feel the difference between too low, too high, and just right pressure. 20 psi feels like a boat, 50 psi feels like an empty truck bouncing on the road, 35 feels just right.

Speed ratings in my view are just marketing hype. Really, V and Z rated tires are designed for speeds of 150 MPH. Those tires need to be at a certain temperature to soften up and become sticky and adhere to the street. To create the temperature you would have to drive more than 100 MPH consistently. That would not be practical on streets monitored by police.

T and H rated tires would probably perform better at speeds of 75 to 100. S Rated tires would probably be better at speeds under 65 MPH and driven at legal limits. S Tires seem to be better in the rain since they wear slower and you can replace the tires when they get down to 4/32th inch without throwing away too much tire - (4/32th inch is about 30,000 miles on a H rated tire, but can be about 60,000 - 100,000 miles on a S Rated tire.) 2/32th is legal limits and safe for around town, but not very safe on freeways. Even in the summer, tires under 4/32th inch doesn't dissapate heat as well and creates more heat spots and may blow up.

On S Rated Tires (Sears Roadhandler Voyager - $100 per tire including balancing and valve stems) I have been able to:
1. Inflate tires to 40 psi, the tire sidewall had a max. of 35
2. Never rotate tires on a front wheel drive car
3. Drive down steep hills in third gear (Steep enouph to accellerate from 40 MPH to 60 MPH without using any gas revving to 4,000 RPMs within about 10 seconds)
4. Several panic stops once down a steep hill at 65 MPH at anti-lock state.
5. Full throttle accellerations on freeways (not turbo charged).

I got over 50,000 miles before reaching 4/32th inch. The front left tire exploded. Those 25 MPH off ramps put extreme stress on the front left tire at even 30 MPH. I think 50,000 miles on the front tires on a front wheel drive car and never being rotated at 5 psi over the tires max pressure is an excellent tire. I now have Yokohama Avid Touring $77 per tire including balancing and valve stems 80,000 mile warranty.