Yokohama S.drive Sizes & review

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The S.drive (“Sport drive”) radial is Yokohama’s Ultra High Performance Summer tire developed for the drivers of sports cars, sporty coupes and performance sedans. The S.drive radial is designed to use Yokohama’s technological advancements to deliver extraordinary grip and handling on both wet and dry roads. Like all summer tires, the S.drive radial is not intended to be driven in near-freezing temperatures, through snow or on ice.

The S.drive radial features Yokohama’s micro-flexible tread compound developed using nanotechnology to produce a silica-based compound that maximizes contact between the tire and the road enhancing grip in wet and dry conditions. This advanced compound is molded into a directional tread design that features independent shoulder blocks, notched intermediate ribs and a continuous center rib to maintain constant road contact and improve cornering stability. Wide circumferential grooves with angled groove walls optimize cornering traction and evacuate water to resist hydroplaning while groove-in-groove technology (tiny scores on the groove walls) distributes the stress loads to promote more even wear. The tire’s internal structure includes twin steel belts reinforced by jointless nylon cap plies and belt edge strips to enhance ride uniformity and high-speed durability.

32 COMMENTS

  1. Overall a great summer performance tire for the money. Sure, you can spend double on a set of summer Michelin sport tires, and it may make sense if you’re driving a high horsepower sportscar, but for daily spirited driving these are hard to beat.Just purchased my 3rd set of these tires for my 2015 manual Hinda Fit. I replaced the OEM tires with these the week I bought the car. I had prior experience with these on my BMW 135 and thought them to be the best “fit” for the Fit. My Michelin super sports would have been overkill for such a low power Honda hatchback, but I wanted something that still gave great traction and a sporting feel. I use dedicated winter tires for the snowy seasons, and didn’t want to play around with mushy all-seasons.These tires offer great dry grip as well as wet traction. Summer only tires will outclass most all seasons in the rain as a general rule, because the treads are designed for rain only, whereas all seasons have to be able to handle snow and slush as well. But these handle rain like a champ, even for budget priced summer performance tires.As mentioned dry grip is great. Havent been able to break them loose as my my Fit just doesn’t have the torque, but I can take curves like a champ and am limited only by the car itself, not the grip of the tires.Treadlife is honestly average for a tire of this type. You should NOT be expecting 50k miles from summer performance tires. I average 20-25k with mine. This is more than the 15k I got out of my dunlop star specs and about the same as I’ve gotten on bridgestones and michelin sport tires on other cars If you want treadlife, get regular passenger tires!Road noise and comfort is about average for this class of tire. Nothing too excessive and it doesn’t help that my car doesnt have much insulation to begin with. However they DO get much noisier the closer they are to end of life so keep that in mind.Overall, I will continue to purchase these for spirited daily summer driving.

  2. Although these tires are still pretty new, I’m extremely pleased with the overall performance they give for such a light weight vehicle. Used to run Bridgestone Potenza RE71 until they stopped making my size. The Yoko’s definitely outperform those on all counts.

  3. For the MR2 Spyder, I have tried to keep a staggered tire sizing to maintain safety and assurance during high-speed driving. It makes sense to keep more rear tire anyway since there is more weight back there. The downside, however to having a staggered tire set is that it severely affects tire choices! The car is lightly modified with lowering springs, additional front camber and chassis bracing. I had higher grip tires on the car prior to the S-Drives, but felt that it was too much grip for the modest springs to handle. These S-Drives are the perfect mid-point between a racy tire and a mundane tire and is the only 300 treadwear rating tire available in the size that I need. Sure, it can’t do either duty perfectly, but the compromise is the perfect one for my needs. The sidewall of this tire is pretty stiff, which keeps handling nice and crisp, but that does mean that you will experience more harshness over a softer tire that’s geared for total comfort. I feel that it strikes a nice balance though and would be suitable for a sporty car or someone looking for a slightly more responsive driving experience. I have heard that these tires do not last long, but I have not driven on them long enough to make any opinions yet. Although the S-Drive is an old design now, they have a lot of nice qualities and nothing bad stands out to me about this tire’s performance. It is a perfect middle-road tire that should be able to handle some canyon thrashing, then take you back home in relative comfort. It is exactly the kind of tire I was looking for and unless more choices pop up in the 300 treadwear rating for my size, I will continue to use these and would easily recommend them to anyone looking for a sporty tire that can handle daily duties too!

  4. I just get this set of yokohama S.drive, i live in mexico and my car is not listed in the menu, i put this set in a Renault Sandero RS, 2017, as replacement of the original Continental contac 3, the continental was no very effective in wet roads neither on curves, as the tires become worn i don’t feel sure to continue whit it, I get this new set of Sdrive from yokohama but i really feel very disappointed with, at the first time the tire has a whistle really louder starting around 35 miles, the grip is not as the promise from sales representative, yes i know a must use it by 50 miles before they start to get the max performance, but now i rode 100 miles and the grip isn’t better and the noise still there. i wil send an update when the rains coming, for the while the tire is not enough for really sport drive you can feel how the car is skidding when go in a curve, in terms of comfort the tire is a little bit hard but still being comfortable.

  5. This is the second Miata ive stuck these tires on. This is a 2000, my other a 1993. My town of Conway, Ar has probably 35 british-style roundabouts so I spent a lot of time in corners. Just got back this weekend from a wet and curvy backroad, and I will never run a different tire ever again. Also they don’t wear out as quick as ya think, at least on a Miata.

  6. Had them on my 2019 MX5 Grand touring for just over 10000 miles. In that time traction has decreased as I can now break them loose very easily. Not sure if it’s normal but I now have to be careful turning 90deg corners (street intersections or leaving driveways) as it can break loose very easily. Not use what’s happened but I will be exploring other brands/models once these tires wear out.

  7. I use my Miata for track days at Pocono and that is a rain or shine event. I must say that a few times over the years it has rained.The S-Drives are a very balanced tire in the wet and dry. I drive to the track on them, race, drive home and they don’t miss a beat.Besides those 6 days a year I’m on the street and they perform just as well, and I don’t run them below 40 degrees F.

  8. These tires are strange. When cold (under 60 degrees), they are rocks with little traction. I’ve had moments where I drive out of the garage on a cool morning (this is California, not the tundra) and end up sideways turning out of my driveway or onto the next street. Once warm, in normal spirted driving, they are fine. On the track? They are a complete mess. They are hard for the first lap, good on the second, great on the third, then greasy for every lap after that. In fact, they fall off so fast that at Laguna Seca, the 2nd and 3rd laps were pretty much it in terms of improving my skills. After that, the tire was really limiting the car. Pressure change (up or down) didn’t seem to matter and only affected grip on the first few laps. The falloff still happened.The other important thing to note is that after about 2 days of 24 laps per day, the tires started to exhibit heavy tread splice. Recommend these only as a spirited tire for a daily or maybe autocross.

  9. These replaced a set of Bridgestone SO4’s which I thought were pretty good tires until I got the Yoko’s. Wow this is a great tire! Quite, comfortable, loads of grip and smooth too. Amazing tire! Liked’em so much I purchased a set of specialty wheels for my classic Triumph GT6 just so I could buy another set of Yoko’s for that car.

  10. My car came with Bridgestone Potenza 205/45/R17. I never had these, and felt they were pretty good. I got about 20k miles out of them before they were shot. That includes an hour and 20 minutes of SCCA racing, drifting during most of it.I bought the S Drive because of the size. I will now ONLY run these on my car. The dry grip is much better. As in, I can take 20 mph rated turns at 60 mph with only a hint of squeel. Wet traction is night and day. My other tires were very ordinary in the rain. These grip like glue. I went to 225 and expected less grip in the rain. NOT so.I have read some reviews that complained of road noise. I drive with the top down virtually every day. I have no such complaint. The tires are so good, every Miata Club run I participate in, at least one person asks me about my tires.

  11. I’ve been running a set of 215/40/R17 S drives wrapped around 17×8.5 (Not stretched, but the smallest appropriate tire possible on these wheels) wheels on my 400+whp Corrado VR6 Turbo. My biggest remark on these tires was they drove excellent in the rain. They resisted Hydroplaning well and held the car well through corners even when very wet. I felt extremely safe driving every time it rained. I even drove through a little bit of snow on these on a mountain pass and still felt confident in my cars road handling. Under acceleration he tires held up okay, but not so much when it became cold outside. My vrt has an extreme issue with traction, which has become worse when cold as it will still rip the tires off in 3rd gear and spin a bit in 4th. So the really are a summer tire which when it was warm out I thought they hooked adequately, at least on this application which is very stressful for tires. They didn’t wear as quickly as I was expecting, so durability is definitely going towards these. I haven’t noticed any odd wear patterns in the tire, but after 2000 miles on the set and rotating occasionally to keep wear even I noticed the slightest vibration at certain speeds and when I threw them on the balancer I found they did not hold their balance all that well. Over all I would give these a 3.7/5 stars.

  12. I drove mostly in the city for the first 10,000 miles then highway for the last 5,000+ miles. When I first bought these tires they were quiet as can be. Best tires for sound to date. I ride this car hard (110,000 miles) and these tires hug the road, steer great and have excellent traction starting and breaking; wet or dry. I did not rotate them as much as I was supposed to so when the front wore down and they got put to the back my cabin noise became almost unbearable. I am definitely buying two more to replace the rear tires (primarily due to a puncture).

  13. This is the 2nd set of these I have on my mini now. They’re all I expected and more. I live in Sierra Foothills and there are plenty of winding / challenging country roads of which I generally drive vigorously year round other than when there is snow on the ground. The size is 235/40 x17 which fits under the wheel wells nicely and on the inside front are about 1cm away from the front shock towers. The OD is the same as stock size 205/45 x 17 which is why i decided to try them, but an inch and quarter wider. They are also quite compliant with the “extra” width on the 17×7″ rim making highway driving a bit less harsh at speed. I would recommend these but encourage the buyer to “do the math” and check your measurements first. In all likelihood, when these wear out in couple of years I will replace them with the same, as long as Yokohama is still making them and in this size that is…

  14. Got a set of 4 S-Drives @ 95k miles. I’m at 113k miles now. Rear tyres doing well. Fronts are almost down to the wear bars.Pros: good grip, predictable performance, average to higher than average wet performance (but less confidence in the wet compared to the michelin x-ices I’ve also bought from here, though it’s clearly unfair comparing such different tyres)Cons:- could use a bit more responsiveness? I’m willing to blame this one on me though, the normal OEM size is 195/60R15 so it might not be the fault of the tyres- Was expecting a bit more than 18k miles on it for the fronts.Would I buy it again? Yeah, probably. They’re not that expensive and they perform quite well.

  15. I just bought this tire. Definitely, it is not the best sports tire, neither in dry nor wet. The handling is better than economy tires, you will also feel more sense of road. But what I am impressed is that I did not lose too much on comfortable. This tire is more comfortable than most sports tires, especially the noise level, much better than my previous Pirelli. Overall, this tire is highly recommended for those who want more sense of sports when daily driving.

  16. I’ve owned nothing but Peugeot 405 Mi16s since they were new in 1989, so I know what to expect. I’ve tried numerous brands of Ultra High Performance tires, and I think these Yokos are the best yet. That’s why I have them on both cars. Yes, I own two. Comfortable ride, but very quick handling. Wet roads feel like dry; pretty good as far as hydroplaning goes. In the ultra high performance category I’ve had sets of tires start to look used at 10,000 miles and the comfortable ride start to get hard and noisy. I thought 20,000 was the most I could expect from an Ultra High tire. These Yokos must have 30 or 40,000 but one of the cars recently passed NY state inspection, no problem. At this point, tire noise is minimal, ride still comfortable and handling still fun. I think I’ll be sticking with them when they finally need to be replaced.

  17. The Yokohama S Drive Summer Tires made an immediate difference on my vehicle. I was amazed at how much better the vehicle handled on dry pavement. I drive a lot in the rain and these tires stick to the road like nothing I have ever experienced, as I have always had all season tires in the past. My driving style is very spirited as I have to have a manual transmission, but I never “spin” the tires or abuse the tires other than normal spirited driving. I live in the south and will ONLY buy summer tires for my car in the future. The only concern I had was the durability of the tires as the rubber used in summer tires is softer, which is what makes them superior in traction and handling, but is also a weakness in durability. After 15,000+ plus miles the Yokohama S Drive tires don’t look much different tread wise, than when they were new. Even if they wear out sooner then an all season tire would, it is 1000% worth it to have the benefits of improved traction and handling in the rain. Whether your car cost $10,000 or $100,000……the only part of every car to touch the pavement is the tires, so why not buy ones that give you the best traction and handling for safety which is SUMMER TIRES! I will say if you live in a climate with snow, summer tires are not recommended unless you swap them out with all season or snow tires.

  18. Haven’t put enough miles to really rate the wear on it. Haven’t driven in the rain yet to rate wet traction. Very nice aggressive looking tires, great price, so far very good for dry roads, minimal noise, good tread. Tire rack was quick and very competitive in their pricing.

  19. This tire is another example for me to not trust consumer reviews. Don’t get me wrong they are fine for everyday use (dry) but they are not for my purpose. I live in a cool wet climate of Canada (i only drive these in summer) and unfortunately these tires are totally out of place. On damp or wet pavement they give me absolutely no grip in first gear at full throttle, mind you my mazda only has 155hp. So it’s not exactly a sport car and these tires are 20mm wider than factory tires, yet I see very little difference in wet grip (225mm vs 205mm). Whenever I mash the throttle off the line all I get is just wheelspin on wet roads. However on dry roads it has very good grip, if I were to put it in mathematical terms it would be about 1,000,000x better dry than wet grip. It’s as though yokohoma engineers totally forgot to test these tires in the wet. I get no steering response at speeds of even 30mph when making evasive steering changes. It is in short a disaster of a tire for wet conditions no matter the temperature. I would go as far as calling it unsafe, especially for lighter vehicles. However in the dry it handles very well though the sidewalls are slightly soft. I noticed that the tire gets very upset on bumps and rough road surfaces and can actually lose grip, especially at full throttle, a defect that even the crappy factory eco tires were not prone to. It does absorb bumps well on the highway and it is generally quiet on smooth pavement but it generates tire slap on pavement cracks that becomes very annoying on long road trips. I only have 7000miles on them so can¿t attest to its treadwear quality. Overall I would highly advise against these tires. The only time it¿s ok for you to have these tires is if you got them for free.

  20. these are not the best summer tires, especially for the money. They have excellent grip in dry but the slightest amount of dampness on pavement can easily cause them to lose grip during acceleration and cornering. Braking however is excellent in warm temperatures (which are what these tires are intended for). If you live in areas with high amounts of rainfall and cool temperatures then steer clear of these tires. The steering feedback is excellent and very sharp. Road noise is poor with tire slap noise that protrudes into the cabin and ride that is very harsh like runflats with blistering pressure. Would not buy again or recommend to anyone unless the price is very attractive.

  21. I use the set for drifting on 2nd and 3rd gear courses and they can last an entire day without delamination. On the rears they carry good speed coming out of the corners and they produce decent smoke. The fronts are paired with a softer valved coilover and have good response and input with a minimal stretch on the sidewall. The sidewalls aren¿t too bulky like a Federal 595 and look good stretched to clear fender walls if needed. Price point isn¿t the best but the performance is good. Great on the street too, but not the best for wet traction – understeers in rain. Maybe would be better resolved if I ran lower PSI. I currently run at about 40-45psi all around.

  22. The only complaint with these tires is HUGE road noise! Wet grip, awesome, dry grip, awesome, tread wear average, (you buy thesefor performance) I use these in the summer, then switch to narrower Blizzacks in the winter, so I get 3-4 seasons of use out of them. Theylook great too!

  23. I love these tires. They were already on my vehicle when I got it but I just purchase another set. They handle amazing in the summer rain or shine. Only thing is in winter you have to let them warm up a bit but that’s expected for a summer sport rated tire.

  24. Good overall summer performance tire that gives good grip and confidence in the wet. However when tread starts to wear to less than 50% tire noise goes way up and wet traction goes way down. For the price you can’t complain too much but its time to replace these Yoko’s and I’ll probably go with something else less noisy.

  25. I have 17″ tires for my car. No road noise what so ever. Good grip & handling for my driving style. I really enjoy these tires. I have been buying these tires for about four years now & the only gripe I have is rain. These tires will not displace water all that well in the rain. It’s not a bad thing because common since tells me to slow down even more. When these tires have about 20,000 miles on them, driving in the rain becomes a little scary because the tires will not hold well. Speed has to be reduced drastically in order to maintain safe driving(around 45-50MPH). Okay on the surface streets, not so good for interstate driving. Over all good tires for the price

  26. Good tires initially. Good dry traction and overall not bad when it gets wet. Got caught in light snow a couple of times and there was almost no grip. But that’s not why I purchased these tire. Wear seems ok. Better than some Dunlops and Kumhos that I have had in the past. The issue is noise. I thought something was wrong with the car initially. I thought no way can these tires be this noisy. I understand that I drive a convertible but these tires are way louder than they should be. I would recommend a loud stereo or ear plugs as these tires are bad at highway speeds. If you can stand the noise the tires are quite alright but… VERY LOUD!!

  27. I’ve had several sets of Yokohama S.drives on different cars, but I’ve only put about 1000 miles on this set so far. They are reasonably priced, and at least in my experience, they perform really well. Handling is very good, no meaningful squirm, ride is very good, and they seem to last a long time. The only quirk this tire has is initial tread hardness. When you first drive on them after installation, or if they’re on a car that you haven’t driven in a long time (like if you swap out for winter tires, or take your car off the road for the winter), the tread takes a mile or two to start flexing properly. Until then, it feels like it’s taken an out-of-round set. Weird, but you only notice it briefly, and usually only once (or once a year, depending on how you use your car). I’ve only used these tires on my summer-only “nice weather”cars that get stored for the winter, so I don’t have any sense of how they perform in colder weather or in heavy rain.

  28. As you can tell from the fact that I am running 17 inch rims on a Datsun 240Z, things are a long way from “stock”. I drive mountain roads with clubs and for fun and have been very impressed with the cornering when we had rain ont “The Tail of the Dragon” during one of the events I participate in. When I put my staggered fitment in, the S-Drives were the only street legal combination that came up … The rear tires are done; although, the fronts (205/40) are only 50% worn. But that is to be expected when one uses a bit of power (I have a few extra ponies packed into the engine as well) in the corners. I had an opportunity to participate in an HPDE event at Road Atlanta a couple weeks ago (which took the remaining life off the rear tires … ) with an instructor who races a 240Z and he was very complimentary regarding the power and handling I was getting on the track along with the braking from the larger 4 wheel disk brake setup I engineered using components from 4 separate Nissan model vehicles. These tires definitely delivered! Pf course with the Koni shocks set for track and the low profile tires, the ride is a bit “brisk”, but it is the results that count.

  29. Honestly, it’s a good budget tire, the biggest downside was wet traction and life span. I feel like every burnout (warm tires up/remove debris) you could notice it eat away the tires lol… I do a LOT of hard cornering and you could tell the tires were being eaten away HARSHLY. Lasted barely 2 summers. Now I spent more and got Michelin Pilot Super Sports, boy those are one ——– of a tire. My recommendation, save up a bit more and buy PSS.

  30. I would use these tires exclusively for spirited road driving. I went to the track recently with these tires, and they simply did not hold up in the dry conditions. After two laps, the tires started greasing up and losing a bit of traction at the limit, and they definitely look worse for wear after only a single track day. They perform great as daily road tires, but their performance leaves quite a bit to be desired out on the track. Next time, I’ll probably get a dedicated set of track tires (maybe the Bridgestone Potenza RE71s or BF Goodrich Sport Comp II tires).

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