Dunlop’s SP Sport 01 and SP Sport 01 A tires are Ultra High Performance Summer tires for sports cars, coupes and sedans. Dunlop’s SP Sport 01 tires were designed to be multi-talented tires and were initially developed for Original Equipment use by leading automotive manufacturers to complement the latest in vehicle design and construction. SP Sport 01 and SP Sport 01 A tires are not intended to be driven in near-freezing temperatures, through snow or on ice.
On the outside, the Dunlop SP Sport 01 features a 100% Silica tread compound that increases dry and wet grip while reducing rolling resistance and increasing treadwear. The tread compound is molded into an asymmetric Tri-Area-Tread design that is divided into three tread segments to unite the aspects of smooth running, sportiness and safety. On the inside, the SP Sport 01 features twin steel belts reinforced by Dunlop’s Jointless Band (JLB) spiral wrapped nylon to provide high speed durability while minimizing weight. The tires feature a rayon cord reinforced casing to enhance ride quality and an aramid reinforced bead to ensure tight and secure fit of the tire on the rim.
Dunlop SP Sport 01 tires feature an attractive graphic sidewall design of smooth black letters reversed out of a serrated band and include a rim protector rib on all sizes to help protect wheels.
Founder at Tiresout. Used to be working as an engineer at Bridgestone Tires Akron Technical Center. The responsibilities included but were not limited to technical computing, indoor & outdoor testing of new tires.
These are the worst tires! Only 16,000 miles and they need replacing, spend your money on anything but these.
The car came with them. They wear out really fast! After some 7000 miles, front tires were almost to the limit. Rotating them gave me another 7000 on the set. Exceptional grip in all conditions. However, they are not progressive when loosing grip. Once lost, wheel spin is all you have. ESP is a must.Replaced them with Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2. Not as greepy as the dunlops, but more progressive when loosing it. Wear is also better on the Michelins. I have 20000 miles on them by now. I hope the set will be good for another 20000.
I use these tires in the summer months (on the optional 19″ RDX OEM wheels), and switch over to the 18″ OEM wheels with Pirelli snow tires in the winter. That way I can drive safely from the San Francisco Bay area to the Sierra ski resorts without ending up in a ditch!These tires have about 10k miles on them and are more than half worn. And at about $335 per tire, even from TireRack, they are just too expensive to replace.The ride on the RDX is a bit on the hard side, even with the 18″ wheels and OEM tires (Michelins), but with the 19″ and the Dunlops on rough pavement, you get some jumping around. As expected, when they are cold first thing in the morning (and 5:00am temperatures in Northern California have been in the mid to high 40’s, recently) the sidewalls are very stiff. Their saving grace is that combined with the good suspension geometry of the RDX, they can be thrown around (dry) corners at speeds that have embarassed several V8 sedans. That can put a smile on your face!But when it comes time to replace them, I’ll almost certainly go for a high performance All Season (like the Goodyear Eagle F1), which are $100 each cheaper.Pro’s are good handling with little over or understeer.Con’s are very stiff ride, especially when cold, and prohibitive cost.
These tires are great for the first 7,000 miles. The softness of the tires are second to none, but they wear out so fast. I know the tourque on the 7 series is hard but I did not think I would be buying new tires in less than a year and 12,000 miles.
These tires were the biggest waste of money, they were noisy, handled sub-par, horrible in the rain, and wore very quickly. I do not recommend this tire to anyone. They only lasted 20,000 and started cracking and splitting in between the tread. I also had to have them rebalanced 4 times, they do not wear true. I bought new rims and General Exclaim UHP’s for almost a 1/3rd of the price and could not be happier. Thats just my $.02 on these tires.
Factory tires for my speed 3. They grip in corners exceptionally well. The straight line grip is easily over come in 1st and 2nd gear. The road noise is very noticeable. You also get a very good feel for the road but you also feel every bump. Wet performance is superb as well, never had a hint of hydro-plain and traction is stable and predictable. They wear pretty fast unfortunately, 12k miles and new tires will have to be ordered soon. Overall, great performance but harsh, loud ride.
It is my belief that these tires perform exceptionally well on the Subaru WRX solely because of the all wheel drive. They are an extremely hard tire, with the Subaru it is difficult to get them to break traction even during extremely hard cornering, until of course you apply anything more than light braking in a turn. I have driven these tires very hard, I also run a healthy amount of camber on my rear wheels and have not noticed too much tread wear on the inner portion of the tread surface. While I do believe these are incredibly well performing tires on the Subaru that is also the only vehicle that I can vouch for these tires on. I would believe that they are a little too hard for a rear wheel drive car attempting to drive really aggressively but my overall experience with them is 100% commendable.