Product Review: BF Goodrich g-Force Sport Comp-2

With the rear tires on my S2000 going bald, and Dunlop no longer making their Direzza Z1 Star Spec tire, I needed to get a whole new set of tires. My original plan was just to get the Z1's replacement, the Z II. After some thinking, I decided on a different path. I had originally installed the Z1 Star Spec tires on my car with the hopes of finding time to do autocross, or even participate in a track day event. Unfortunately, my busy schedule never allowed me to partake in any automotive sporting events, which meant that replacing my current set of aggressive summer tires with another set of aggressive summer tires made no sense.

Considering my new driving needs, I was looking for a summer tire that still offered excellent dry and wet weather grip, but had a longer tread life and a slightly lower rolling resistance for better fuel economy. This essentially ruled out all aggressive summer tires, or what Tire Rack likes to call, "extreme performance summer tires." I had thought about going back to the OEM tires, the Bridgestone Potenza RE050, but despite being a less aggressive tire than the Dunlops, the tread life was actually shorter than the Dunlops. The Bridgestone tires are also needlessly noisy and expensive.

Image courtesy of Motor Trend

When East Brother was still driving his 2006 Acura TSX 6-Speed, he had mentioned that he chose the BF Goodrich g-Force Sport as his summer tire of choice. I also remember him saying good things about the tire. I decided to take a look at the g-Force Sport's successor, the g-Force Sport Comp-2. I was lucky enough to find reviews of the tire written by fellow S2000 owners, and the reviews seemed to be positive. With a much higher tread wear rating than the OEM Bridgestone tires, or the Dunlop tires I had on my car, as well as being quite affordable, it seemed that I had found my tire. I had hoped to order the tires from Tire Rack, but due to the poor shape my rear tires were in, I felt it necessary to get the tires changed out before it was suppose to rain in a few days. I called a local tire shop in Redondo Beach and got the tires mounted to my car.


During my first few days of driving on the BF Goodrich g-Force Sport Comp-2, I could definitely tell there was less grip than the Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec. This was a result that I had expected, and was not surprised at all. Despite the lack of grip compared to the much stickier Dunlop tires, the BF Goodrich tires still perform very well during spirited driving. During hard cornering, the rear of the car does feel like it wants to snap oversteer a bit when getting back on the throttle. This was no different than the OEM Bridgestone RE050 tires. Considering that these tires saved me a total of $400 over the Bridgestones, and have roughly 2.5 times the tread life, I am pretty happy with their performance.

From a daily driving stand point, the BF Goodrich tires are definitely a much better choice than the Dunlop tires I previously had, and even the OEM Bridgestones. There seems to be far less road noise compared to when I had the Bridgestones or the Dunlops installed. The ride quality is also much better than both tires. Since the BF Goodrich tires have a lower rolling resistance than the Dunlops, I was seeing my fuel economy climb back up to the same range as when I had the OEM tires installed. I definitely consider this a plus as the Dunlop tires were routinely getting me an average of two MPG lower on my daily commute.

Image courtesy of NASIOC

When the rain did finally come, I could not make out much of a difference in performance between the Dunlop tires and the BF Goodrich tires. This is mainly because I tend not to try anything drastic, or do any testing when it rains. Nonetheless, I found this to be a positive sign as it shows my new tires perform equally well in the rain during daily driving compared to my old, stickier tires.

The BF Goodrich g-Force Sport Comp-2 is definitely a great tire. If you are in possession of a sports sedan, sports coupe, or sports car, this is definitely a tire to consider. It offers great dry and wet performance for daily and spirited driving, has a fairly long tread life for a summer tire, and is relatively inexpensive for a summer tire. I am not sure this would be the tire to pick if you planned on doing anything motorsport related, but for daily driving, this is a tire I would definitely recommend.

tags: automotive, BF Goodrich, tires