Don’t think you could go wrong with Rainsports or T1r’s both are very good for the money:)
Hi Parkin 21…This website gave me hundreds of tyres to compare in an objective way with % ratings for individual characteristics as well as an overall % rating. As a relative newcomer to the Club and MX-5s, I appreciate now that tyres, like wheels, are very personal but, if you choose a set that you and your car do not like, you have to see them through until they wear and you need a new set. This may take some time if you do not use you car daily. I believe that cost is not the most important factor, as with car insurance. It is what happens after purchase and the support they give in a difficult situation. I chose the Uniroyal Rainsport 2 with the Michelin Pilots coming a close second, over the Toyos because they were just that little better in the tyrereviews ratings and because there are a number of postings in the Club Forum highlighting the danger of the soft walled Toyos which resulted in blow-outs for some individuals… It may just be the way that some cars are driven! However, I may never need the extra benefit that the Uniroyals will hopefully deliver but, should the day come when a particular situation arises, then my extra “insurance” will help avoid or minimise a negative outcome…To repeat, for the benefit of the Toyo enthusiasts, the overall cost at about £50 a corner including fitting and balancing, and also sorting out the rims which seemed to be leaking slightly with the old tyres, using my local firm ( for the personal touch!) was not much more for the Uniroyals than a set of Toyos from Camskill which would have needed fitting and balancing on top of the apparent attractive price! Oh yes, our present car, the second, originally came with 14" Fox Racing alloys shod with Toyo Proxes. They seemed great but I changed the wheel size to 15" after comparing the looks of our present car with the first one we had sold to a local guy, who now pops in for help and advice, and when the two cars were side by side on our driveway. The 15s just looked better but, the guy who bought our 14" Fox Racing on ebay sent me a photo of them fitted to his early Mk1 and they looked surprisingly good!.. Happy hunting and safe driving!
I have had Yokohama S306 tyres fitted for the past 2.5 years and these were pretty nice to drive on. I had 2 Uniroyal Rainsport 2’s put on in March 2011. The tyres do have amazing grip but they do feel very wobbly (like driving a boat) compared to the Yokohamas. I read somewhere the Rainsports have a single ply sidewall. When you push the sidewall in on the tyres with your thumb you can feel they are very soft comapred to the Yokohamas, even at 27psi. If you like to drive gently the Rainsports are probably fine. But I am going to go for Toyo Tr1’s next time.
The Uniroyal Rainsport 2’s are more suited to a family car in my opinion (mondeo etc), not a sports car.
The Rainsport’s were £60 each fitted with: www.event-tyres.co.uk (super mobile service that changed the two tyres in 20minutes in the work’s car park!)
Running my Rainsport 2s at 30PSI and find the grip and ride just superb and I don’t hang around 
Still havent acheived a side drift, it just keeps glued to the road, more chance or rolling in my oppinion.
I do agree that at lower pressure they are a bit wobbly.
A mate of mine went from rainsports to toyo’s for exactly the same reason the soft sidewalls, although the toyo’s also suffer alot of damage to the outer edges of the tread when pushed hard at lower(recommended) pressure:)
Hello Blue,
I might follow your advice then and up the pressure to 30psi on the Rainsports to see if that helps.
Hopefully the country roads and roundabouts will be fun again!
Rob
Thnaks for all the advice - decided to try and find some rainsport 2s only to find that they are not available in 185 60 14s :-(. Been offered uniroyal rain experts but they look to be a different tread pattern. Have reservations about the soft toyo walls so back to the drawing board.
Great idea, all that is going to do is give you a harder ride than you need and wear the centres of your tyres out faster (26-27psi seems to be optimal pressure on MX5 Mk1s and 2s) 
why would you want too???
Dr. Eunos
Falken 912’s are a good alternative imo:)
To be fair, the extra pressure whilst yes will give a slightly firmer ride, the increase in pressure will result in lower tyre operating temperature. Which in turn, will lower tyre wear rates, counteracting the wear. Any modern tyre worth mentioning is also manufactured with a zero degree belt (central centrifugal band ) designed to keep the tyre flat at high speeds, an extra 2-3psi would be no where near enough to cause central tyre growth. If you really were concerned, You could also counteract the growth by inflating your tyres with 100% nitrogen (free at all Costco’s), nitrogen does not contract or expand with changes in operating temperature. So as a tyre inflated to 26psi with normal compressed air would expand to roughly 28/30 psi at 60 degrees, the nitrogen inflated tyre would remain at pretty much bang on 26 psi at the same temperature. And a final thought, very few, including main dealers, ever check/calibrate their air guages so you may think they are correct (26psi) but truth is Michelins recent study showed 82% of guages were outside of the industry standard tolerance (1.5psi), so you could well be running 30psi anyway. Anyone require free Nitrogen tyre inflation in the Birmingham area (with a weekly checked gauge, lol) just drop me a PM.
Hope this helps.
Dr Tyre 
Aka Noel
At last a Dr that knows what he is talking about!
Excellent post cheers Noel 
No probs mate, one of very few areas 
I’m able to help.
OK there you have it
…you have people on here advising MX5 owners to run higher than the optimum tyre pressure on a day where the average ambient temperature is 6 degrees celcius. Never mind the fact that running tyre pressures higher than optimum means the tyres will take longer to come up to optimum temperature, the ABS will sort it all out…
Dr. Eunos
Taff mate, did I advise that you should? Or did I simply say that your point of tyre wear was pretty much invalid and exagerated. There was no mention of traction. So when the ambient temp is soo low would advise they drop to like 5psi to ensure their hot by the end of peeps driveways or like me, I would imagine no sensible drivers would thrape their car until all fluids and tyres were up to their operating temps anyway. Also just because 26psi is the recommended pressures from the factory, does not mean they are optimal. Changing tyres from a high carbon black content compound to a compound with near 100% silica effects the speed in which a tyre takes to reach optimal operating temps. Mazda will have worked with a couple of tyre manufacturers to find a pressure which will give a compliant ride and safe (understeer) and neutral balance. Tyre manufacturers have their own tyre pressure data book, in there the pressures are often different to those in a cars handbook. Those are the recommended pressures for their tyre on that car. As it goes Mazda and Michelin and Conti’s books all match. Tweaking tyre pressures is one of the most common tweaks made to adjust a cars balance. I am by no means campaigning that 30 is better for an MX5, simply put across that the effects of a few psi change will be tiny. If others prefer the feel at 30psi fine. The impact wear is tiny, if any. The ride comfort is up them. Levels of grip won’t be drastically changed. As it goes I’m happy with my car at 26psi for the street. I’ll prob run 28psi on a track day.
I’m guessing you run all your cars oem spec? As things like the suspention had millions spent on development to find the optimal set up.
I have these Uniroyals on my Mk1 running at 26psi and I am very happy with them. They seem responsive and grippy with good feedback although it’s easy to spin a rear wheel in damp or wet conditions especially if I don’t have much fuel in the tank!
However, there is a caveat and that is my Mk1 came with the Uniroyals already fitted and so I don’t have any other tyres on an MX5 to compare them with.
Would I fit Uniroyals again after these wear out? Probably, although the Toyo TR1s seem to have a very good reputation and I can get these fitted locally.
Just one other thing here for what it’s worth…
Tyre pressures have been discussed along with rigidity of sidewalls.
Firstly, tyre walls flex because they are supposed to, the manufacturer designs a certain amount of flex into a tyre to acheive the level of performance that the tyre is designed to give with a safety margin built in for speed and loading. For the majority of users, this is exactly what you will get if you stick to the recommended pressure. Note, the pressure recommended by the tyre manufacturer may vary from the recommended pressure in the owner’s handbook.
Which sort of brings me to my second point that over-inflating does not make your side walls stiffer, it merely makes the tread of your tyres convex, i.e. instead of being as flat as possible, (and getting the maximum amount of tread on the road), you get higher wear in the centre and you get a firmer ride courtesy of the increased air pressure. Yes, it may make your handling and steering feel more positive and precise, but you actually have less grip.
The reverse is also true if a tyre is under-inflated, the tread forms a concave shape, i.e. there is more pressure on the shoulders of the tread and less in the centre. This condition may also lead to overheating of the tyre and can lead to failure of the tyre. See how many lorry tyre carcasses you see on motorways! The over heat due to increased flex in the tyre due to insufficient air. Note, the walls are no softer or firmer, just the cushioning and cooling effect of the air is less.
I will add that there are always exceptions to this rule, continuous high speed running and carrying heavier than normal loads for instance and of course, if you do track days, then you can play around to your hearts content with your pressures, but for the majority of us, stick to the manufacturers recommendations, there is a good reason for it!!!
thanks for everyones comments. Uniroyal Rainsports were not available in 185 x 14s so have had Uniroyal Rain experts fitted. Only had them a week or so but they seem to make a huge difference to the car. Not had any sketchy moments in the wet
paul
Does anyone have any recommendations for 14" wheels (185/60/R14) as neither the Toyo T1-R nor Uniroyal Rainsports are available in this size? The equivalents seem to be Toyo CF-1 or Uniroyal Rainexpert but these dont seem to be sports/performance type tyres.
Gas equation: p=RT/V
Where:
p=pressure
T=Temperature
V=Volume
R=gas constant
Gas constant for air: 289 J/kg K
Gas constant for nitrogen; 297 J/kg K
So, nitrogen does change pressure with temperature when confined in a volume, as does every other gas. It just does it 3% less than air would. So if your air filled tyre increases to 30psi, your nitrogen filled tyre will increase to 29.9psi.
Unless you use figures for humid air and dry nitrogen in order to artificially skew the results in order to sell nitrogen.
No skewing of figures. Figures are from Brannick industries who supply out nitrogen equipment. To help sell it? We offer free nitrogen inflation to everyone. We arent aloud to SELL it. We use dry nitrogen. The compressed air is full of water vapour so yes humid? I take it motorsport use it for the sake of it.
So the people who sell you your equipment gave you your figures? Totally trustworthy source. I got my gas constants from a data book (ISBN 3920379209), and according to those numbers, and basic physics, nitrogen does increase in pressure with temperature. You can check this by heating your nitrogen bottle until it explodes. So your statement of “nitrogen does not contract or expand with changes in operating temperature” which I quoted in bold in my previous post is wrong.
Your “free” nitrogen - is it a market differentiator? It attracts customers to your business, right? That’s how marketing works. You are even using it to sell your services in this thread.
Compressed air is as full of water vapour as you want it to be - most compressors have some kind of drier fitted. Foot pumps don’t, so everyone who uses foot pumps to top up their tyres at a track will have noticed the horrible effects of water vapour for themselves. Dry air is cheaper than dry nitrogen, but it doesn’t have chemical industry funding for advertising.
Motorsport uses nitrogen as it is safe, consistent and increases in pressure due to temerature by 3% less than dry air. It isn’t magic, just better.