What tyre brand would you recommend for the best steering wheel feel/feedback?
Pilot 5 is an excellent tire with great feedback for “normal” road driving, the Kumho Ku39 is very close especially on the track but there is very little in it, it depends what your looking for, the car itself is very sensitive to the correct camber, castor and especially tow settings front and rear which affects steering feedback, entry speed as well as exit - the Kumho PS71 is simply out of its depth compared to these two tires as it’s like driving on marbles at the extreme performance envelope in almost all areas of handling except in the wet where it much more predictable.
Most MX5 drivers are not track day or B-road enthusiasts and won’t notice significant difference in handling unless there is something obviously wrong.
Also unlike majority of road cars including so called performance cars the MX5 NC suspension is incredibly sensitive on its ideal chassis set up window due to the complexity of the chassis design and the compromises dialed in to make it useable for the majority of customers.
Think you’ll find the KU39’s are not out of stock, they aren’t a tyre that’s provided any longer, long gone.
PS71’s are the current fitment Kumho to fit the 17’s, the 215’s are a good choice size wise to fit on the MX-5 rims.
I can’t imagine you will get decent grip on a pair of KU39 (6+ years old) and a new pair of PS71’s can’t work miracles on that set. Advice is replace all 4 corners, much better👍
BTW I’ve have 3 sets of Kumho’s, all good.
PS71s are the replacement for the KU39.
Had KU39s on my NC and they were brillaint. That’s why I fitted a set of PS71s on my ND.
Can’t fault them in any conditions. Feel so much better to me than the original Bridgestones.
I’d guess you need a set of four to feel the full benefit.
Got pS5 on a FWD car (yeah, yeah, can’t compare). But where I can compare is that that imo they are not as good as PS4, which the same car had had twice before.
Heard a few people say the PS5 is not as good as the PS4
I am still on PS4s - fantastic tyre
Not as grippy. Can fell torque steer slight tugging (again, FWD car) in situation where the PS4 gave none. The PS4 literally felt ‘even better’ in the wet than dry (granted that can’t be fact, just feel), but imo, no way the PS5 gives me that level of confidence.
They are supposed to last longer though.
TBH - I cant complain at the PS4S for life.
Even with 300hp to deal with they last around 15000 miles.
Not sure what ‘the Bridgestones’ were on your car,but I liked the Potenza s001 so much I recently replaced all four originals (ND) with those again. I know liking the S001s isn’t the trendiest thing to declare.
A pity they don’t do them in many sizes in the UK.
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My ND came to me with the Potenza s001 on it. Original owner had replaced the rears with a pair of the same, fronts were original.
I will say I had no problem with them but I’ve had problems in the past with other cars with different brands front to back. In particular a Porsche 944 which tramlined horribly on some road surfaces.
I was so happy with the KU39s on my previous NC that I wanted to stick with Kumho, went for the PS71s all round and love them.
The part worn pair of Bridgestones came back with me from the fitter and got me a few bob back on eBay.
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Yes, fair enough. We’ve all got different tastes, wants and preferences.
Mind you, if the original owner replaced the S001s with another set, that’s a good indication that it was a looked after/at least thought about car. If not, they probably would have just turned up to any tyre fitter and stuck a set of ditch finders on it. What tyres have been bought at placement time, at least to me, gives an indication of the worth the car was to the prior owner.
Previous owner was an owners club area coordinator and serial MX-5 owner. Enthusiast owned cars are worth searching out.
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I race these cars and otters as a test driver for an OEM (a specially set up MX5 is a handling benchmark vehicle even for ultra high performance vehicles used by several OEMs due to the sophisticated chassis etc) - the KU39 are a significantly better handling tire for the technical reasons I have already mentioned also it was possible to get these tires up two years ago and are still available in some Mediterranean countries.
The front KU39 have significantly higher grip than the PS71 which had a different technical design brief with more focus on wet conditions than the KU39.
I have the better grip KU39 and less grippier and softer PS71on the rear as this gives me slightly more lift off oversteer on the chassis settings I have also it’s slightly more comfortable ride than the firmer walled KU39 - however for track use I use a dedicated race tire front and rear.
Unless you have had personal experience in using the KU39 otherwise you can only guess compare to the PS71 which are only traction A max as opposed to AA for the Kumho KU39 which is a simple consumer based indicator in the US for buyers but a useful guide if you want a good handling tire also all good high performance tires have AA rating for Traction if they are also sold in the US.
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I have experienced KU39 Kumho, on all 4 corners, excellent ‘tyre’
Now fit PS71 the current available Kumho for the 17" wheel in the UK. I’m guessing you maybe buying ‘tyres’ not always in the UK.
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Kumho PS71 fitted in May on all 4 corners.
Best ones so far👍
I’ve had a full set of Kumho PS71s on my 5 for about three years now, and found them to be superb tyres. OK, so I don’t drive like Stirling Moss (that’s showing my age a bit, I know !), so I don’t have any experience of their handling around wet corners at 90 MPH, but for my driving habits I find them excellent, and great value.
Was it really necessary to emphasise the spelling of ‘tyres’, in response to the person you were quoting 
As long as you don’t drive like Verstappen. 
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Now you’ve opened a whole new can of worms. Language is fluid. It can now be acceptable to use emojis as punctuation 
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