Auto News 5

Even before our summer Miata arrived, we had planned to purchase a second set of tires. Knowing that the nimble, rear-wheel-drive roadster would see several track days and autocrosses, we wanted more aggressive rubber to help us turn faster laps and to preserve the stock Yokohama Advan A11As for daily use. When our early outings to GingerMan Raceway revealed that the standard 205/50VR-16 rubber was quite clumsy due to its tall and flexible sidewall, the need for grippier tires took on a new sense of urgency.

I'm driving in a sewer. Well, not a sewer per se, but a big tunnel beneath the city of Liverpool. The tunnel is filled with a knee-high river of fetid water, and I can definitely picture Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles living down here, so if you called it a sewer I wouldn't correct you. "Have you ever read Stephen King's It?" I ask Micah, my driving partner. He has. And if you haven't, it's about a murderous clown who lives in the sewer. Let's talk about something else, like the Land Rover Evoque we're driving, which has puddle lights in the side mirrors that project an image of the car on the ground when the door is opened. I'd try that, but I really don't want to get out of the car, on account of the stinky water down here in the not-a-sewer.