Tires Hankook or NANKANG

Currently on 195/50 Hankook Ventus V2’s and they’ve been great. They look and perform great for a DD.

If you are looking for a pure track tire, have you looked at something like the Hankook RS4? Those seem to be very popular track tires and last well based on what I have seen.

Hankook Ventus Noble 2. Good W-rated tires, high skid plate rating, wears well if run a few pounds hot.

My best experiences have been with Hankook I-pike studless snows. I'd be willing to bet that they could hang with or out perform some of the pricier options listed here. They are great when roads are wet too.

Hankook Ice Pike's are the best all around snow tire that have used. Wear, road noise and dry handling were much better than Bridgestone's, and any of the others that I have tried over the years. No perceivable loss in snow traction on a TSX wagon under normal snow conditions.

Wears like iron, just like the R-S3, but doesn't need as much heat to work. I can leave the sprayer at home and just ignore them.

It'll be a huge leap over those junk Hankooks.

Get Hankooks or Firestones if you want to save a couple of bucks, while still having a great tire.

I had Kumho and Hankooks. The Kumho, while being the superior dry tire (grip, feel), was terrifying in the rain. The really good think about Hankooks is that they grip well, are predictable, and ride really, really well (had 'em on 245/35/19s and rode way better than my winter set (235/50/17s). But as OP and many others have said, the sidewalls are waaaay too soft. Yeah, you can pump up the pressure by a couple PSI, but by doing that you're reducing the longevity of the tire (wears out center way more quickly).

I ran a set of Nankang tires for 4 months. They came on the wheels I bought and they had good tread, so I figured that it would just be a waste for me to spend money on new tires while running these. They are not great - winter traction is non-existent, it was legitimately scaring driving on these tires when it was below 20 degrees outside and my car is AWD so that's saying something too (I didn't die though so I guess it's okay ), dry traction is okay, but tires feel very numb. They ride kind of hard too and are noisy. I do drive them up to 100+ usually. Haven't had an issue so far. I am taking them off and putting a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3s. I am expecting big improvements. So my recommendation: don't buy them. save the money, use your current set, and when you have enough, get a decent set of tires.