How does high performance all season tires compare to high performance summer tires? Reason I ask is my R has summer tires and I'm sure I'll have to replace them at some point, just wondering if a good set of high performance all seasons would give me similar handling, maybe a bit more tread life, and can be run a bit later in the fall and a bit earlier in the spring.
Where dedicated ultra high performance summer tires have an edge is in dry pavement grip. Handling feel has more to do with the tire's construction, so a good ultra high performance all-season shouldn't
feel any different, it's just it'll start breaking loose a little sooner on warm dry pavement.
The extra grip is useful if you're autocrossing or tracking your car in the summer season or otherwise driving hard enough in the corners to be regularly reaching the limits of your tires' adhesion. In that case you'll probably want to keep a set of dedicated ultra high performance summer tires.
On the other hand, if you seldom or never push your car in the corners hard enough to be breaking the tires free (reaching the limits of adhesion), you might well be happier with an ultra-high performance all-season. Especially since it'll maintain its impressive levels of grip across a wider range of conditions. So you won't be able to corner quite as hard on dry pavement in the middle of the summer, but you'll be able to corner harder in so-so conditions in the spring and fall.
