I finally needed to replace my tires. They were Dayton Daytona ZR tires. They lasted 60,000 miles even though they started life when the car had excessive negative front camber causing some mild cupping and inside edge wear.
At about 25,000 miles I had the tires "flipped" to help even out the wear. The tire shop told me I was crazy to do so and I told them they were crazy if they thought I didn't know what I was doing.
Probably around 35,000 miles (I don't remember off the top of my head), I installed camber kits along with some younger 99 SVT front and rear struts.
I have rotated them consistantly at 5,000 to 6,000 miles.
Late last week I came out of the dentists office to see I had a low left front tire. Low enough to see it needed attention, but not low enough to keep from driving on it. The tire shop was nearby so I drove right over. They found a nail that was too close to the sidewall to repair.
There was still enough tread left that I probably could have gone another 5,000 miles or more before hitting the wear bars, but with one tire gone, it was just time to replace the set.
Since the Daytons had done so well, that is what I wanted to replace them with.
Dayton is a Bridgestone brand, along with Firestone and Fuzion. Both the old set and the new set have "made in Japan" molded into the sidewall. When the Bridgestone rep would call on me at the dealerships, I asked about Dayton tires. His response is that Bridgestone tightly controlled the Dayton brand, that it was more similar in engineering and production to Bridgestone than it is to Firestone.
The new set has been reengineered. It more resembles the Bridgestone RE750 and looks to have an identical tread pattern to the Fuzion ZRi. Although the sales rep said that it is identical to the RE750 except for a slightly revised tread pattern, a study of the specs shows that isn't quite the case. The RE750 has a little longer treadwaer rating (340 compared to 320) and a traction rating af AA instead of A. I suspect that it may use the same carcus, but have a slightly different tread compound and maybe some other subtle differences. He claimed that the Fuzion was identical except for the name.
Anyway, with about 200 miles on them so far, they feel great. They are also very quiet compared to the old ones with some light chop wear and near the end of the tread life.
Based on the results I had with the last set as well as my knowledge of Bridgestone and Dayton, I would most certainly recommed them. I have 225/50R16 Z rated (W) tires on my 98 E0 SVT.
One last comment. They may not be the best tire for track use, but they certainly are an underrated (misunderstood) great street tire. I'm not an easy driver when I carve canyon roads, and I never found the limits on the old set.
