[MGB Boy]

Sorry in advance if this is well-travelled ground for some, or if this specific issue has been addressed before and I just plain missed it. None of this is too important really, I'm just curious. As we all know from playing with the MINIUSA "build your own Cooper S" tool, when you choose the 17" wheels (either alone or as part of the Sport Package), the system asks you if you want performance tires or all-season tires. Not too long ago, I recall a consensus forming on this board that if you ordered 17" wheels and opted for "performance tires", you got the Pirelli Eufori@. If you got the 17" wheels and opted for "all-season tires", you got the Dunlops.

Well, when I ordered my S, I asked for performance tires. My window sticker even says "performance tires". The tires on the car are Dunlop SP Sport 9000 DSSTs. Rather odd, I thought. I took a look at the tread pattern and said to myself "there's no way that's an all-season tire". There's no "all-season" or "M+S" designation on the sidewall either, so I did a little homework online. The Dunlop website doesn't make any reference to the 9000 DSST being an all-season tire (it does for other tires in their line), and both Dunlop themselves and Tirerack classify it as a "max performance" tire. The full Dunlop and Pirelli line-ups:

Dunlop

Max Performance

SP Sport 9000

SP Sport 9000 DSST (Run-flat)


Ultra High Performance

SP Sport FM901

SP Sport 8000/8000E

SP Sport 8080E

SP Sport 2000


Ultra High Performance All-Season

SP Sport 5000

SP Sport 4000 A/S


High Performance All-Season

SP Sport A2


Performance All-Season

GT Qualifier T


Standard Touring

D65 T Touring

D65 T Touring Elite


Grand Touring

SP Sport 270


All-Season

SP40 A/S


Winter

Graspic DS-1

Graspic HS1

Graspic HS2

Winter Sport M2

----------------------------------

Pirelli

Max Performance

PZero Rosso

PZero System


Ultra High Performance

Pirelli eufori@

P7000 Summer

P6000

P700Z


Ultra High Performance All-Season

P7000 SuperSport All-Season


High Performance

P6000


High Performance All-Season

P6 FOUR SEASONS

P4000 Super Touring


Touring

P6000 Sport Veloce

P4000 Super Touring

P400 Touring


Winter

Winter 210 Snow Sport

Winter 240 SnowSport

Winter 210 Asimmetrico

Winter Ice Asimmetrico



The bottom line is that the Dunlop is a Z-rated "max performance" tire and the Pirelli is a V-rated "ultra high performance tire". Tirerack considers neither an all-season, and neither is described as such on their respective websites. So my question is; which one (if either) is MINI claiming is the "all-season" tire, or is there a third option? Has anyone requested all-seasons, and if so, what did you get?

Again, this is purely for my own curiosity. Regardless of what MINI considers my tires to be, they will be coming off to be replaced by proper snow tires this winter...

-Ricardo