Tires

The four chunks of rubber keeping your car on the road and going where you want them to go...

Like everything else on the car that can be interchanged with good and even better parts, tires can be bought in various tread patterns, sizes, brands, and application types. For the performance enthusiast and serious circuit racers, there are the Sports and Racing tires, also commonly called Street Radials and S Tires.

Like Wheels tires also a coded jumble of numbers and letters to decipher to figure out what it is you are buying.
For example: 215/45ZR17 87W
215: The tread width of the tire
45: The height of the sidewall (side of the tire)
ZR: The construction quality of the tire. In this case, the tire is a Z-Rated Radial able to go to speeds beyond 240km/h without falling apart.
17: The size wheels the tire is compatible with.
87: The Load Index...
W: a repeat of the construction quality/speed durability.

If this description didn't really do it for you, go HERE for a better description + charts.

When looking around for sports tires in Japan, the well established brands are the first to come to mind first. Bridgestone/Potenza, Yokohama/Advan, Dulop/Direzza, Falken/Azenis, and Goodyear. However, with the high price for tires (Drifting especially), there is a growing market for cheaper alternatives from other parts of Asia. Federal, Nankang, Hankook, Achillies ATR, and others have been able to establish themselves as reliable brands, perhaps not quite being able to match the Japanese tire makers' quality, but are able to make up for that with pricing. Among Drag Racers, importing of American tires are common. Nitto, Hoosier, and Micky Thompson are common brand favorites among the list.

Depending on what you are using your car for, street/drag/drift/rally/circuit, there is a tire out there being made specifically to fit your needs.

Check out a couple examples HERE