Have you got a link to each option? Sometimes there’s a bit of a price difference between speed ratings.
Sorry wardy I’m a bit of a technophobe. One site is etyres. The other is black circles.com. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you
One is speed rated at W (168mph) the other is ZR (149mph). The ZR is cheaper as is not capable of taking a 20mph increase in ‘punishment’ that the W rated one will.
I’ve bought from blackcircles (to my door, and I arrange fitting with someone I trust) on a number of occasions and, touch wood, they’ve been fine.
I think there might be typos here.
I would expect to see
Ecsta hs52, 205/50/r16 87w
Ecsta hs52, 205/50/r16 87z
See the Wiki for the typical way “car tires” are coded
Bear in mind it is mainly American edited, but the details should correspond internationally.
Bubble, I have sent you a message.
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I can’t currently see the HS52 listed on Blackcircles in 205/50/16.
This is ETyres:
As said, essentially this will come down to the speed rating. Both have the same load rating of 87 which is fine.
The mention of ‘ZR’ is just confusing now, and should have disappeared long ago! ZR basically means the tyre is adapted for speeds above 149 mph. So it includes the speed ratings V(149mph), W(168mph) and Y(186mph). Before 1990, tyre manufacturers used “ZR” to mean high performance tyres before the ratings got refined. Nowadays, the marking ZR is not relevant anymore but it is still used in the catalogues of manufacturers and tyre retailers.
V speed rating is upto 149mph. W is upto 168mph. So clearly either is perfectly acceptable for usage on an MX-5 
More info on speed rating, if you want to read up:
Hi, It was suggested to me whilst Goodyear, Kumho were great, Toyo Proxes were recommended for the NC by my mechanic. When I replaced the existing Michelins with Toyo’s, what a vast improvement in noise and handling. Having upgraded to ND last year, I’m going to fit Toyo’s to replace the stock Bridgestone fitted by Mazda which are awful and from what I have seen, price wise much more competitive than some of the more often quoted brands.
I fitted Kumhos on my NC1 in late 2020 and found them great but last autumn the rears were down to about 4mm and I was finding the back end was getting a bit slippy in the drizzle and greasy roads.
I lost confidence in them and replaced all with Uniroyal Rainsport 5 which I have found to be excellent on those sorts of roads and in the dry. The dry performance may not be as good as some but I don’t drive at the limit so would rather have the confidence in the wet over that.
I know it’s apples and oranges (new tyre against worn older tyre) but this works for me. As always, YMMV 