Drivers of the Dunlop SportMaxx RT largely praise its strong dry and confident wet grip, stable high-speed manners, and generally quiet, comfortable ride with good aquaplaning resistance. Many note predictable handling and strong braking, often comparing it favorably to OE or budget tyres. The most consistent drawback is very fast wear, with several owners reporting short lifespans and rising noise as the tread diminishes; a minority also mention softer sidewalls that dull initial steering response. Overall, it's a high-performing summer tyre best for those prioritizing grip over longevity.
What owners mention most counted across 157 reviews
Using those tyres as a factory setup for my 2016 Octavia Sedan (CNG power). Tyres after less than 17.000 miles are almost gone. This was predictable as SportMaxx are tyres suitable for heavy rain: I live in the north of Italy where the climate is all but wet and summer temperatures are very high. Despite this, the tyres provide a very high driving comfort and silence. Won't buy them again.
Just got my brand new leon at the end of August 17 ( so under 1 month) and to my disppointement it arrived with Dunlopp Maxx RT. I didn't like the bluesport model as the wear was shockingly bad but these tyres are just as awful. The handling is scary and the tyres feel really unstable in straight lines as well as corners (lack of grip) and on the motorway. No problem with the car itself. Maybe the high wear will be a good thing as I can't wait to get rid of them. I would not recommend Dunlopp Maxx rt
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Excellent tyres with great grip and handling and in comparison to other tyres I was using in the past these have a great wear, too. I was able to drive 20,000 miles (32,000 km) while I was never able to make more than 25-26,000 km on other tyres. This was the first time I wanted to buy the same tyres again, but then found out that Dunlop has come with the next generation SportMaxx RT2 so I decided to buy those. We will see if it will be the same good as SportMaxx RT ;-) Thumb up, Dunlop!
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Driven 25500 mostly motorway or long drives thru France. The front tyres have about 1mm to go while the back have lots of tread left. I like the fact there is a rim protector but don't know if that is the case with many other tyres. Not seen any reviews that suggest this mileage is excellent, good or bad.
Good dry performance and good road feedback. Very good behaviour under hard braking.
In the wet i've found them average (continentals probably better in dry), probably due to "XL" and low profile size tire.
Front tires were in the marks after 25000Km, replaced them by a new set of Dunlop Sport max rt MO.
This tyre has very good grip in dry and wet conditions. After 3 years of using, they are on the end of life but still provide good grip. I'm buying them again.
Grip was good in both wet and dry. The ride was pretty decent given sports type car. My driving style is very laid back. Rarely over accelerate. Mainly motorway driving. Yet the most disappointing thing about these tyres is that they wear very very quickly. In less than 12000, then are down to minimum and require changing. Definitely would NOT recommend these tyres because of this.
These were the tyres fitted on my MX5 mk2 when I bought it.
Excellent wet and dry grip.
Started getting a bit 'loose' feeling when they got close to the legal tread depth limit, but that's only to be expected really!
Replaced them with Avon ZV7's due to the price difference for 16" wheels. Both the Dunlop and Avon perform really well with the Dunlop's giving a quieter ride.
I'd recommend either for an MX5 with 16" wheels.
I'ld to share some experience with my Dunlop SportsMaxx RT during its end-of-service life span. The tyres were worn right down to the wear-bars. Tyre noise was very high and irritating and aqua-planning was getting to be a dicey affair on wet roads.
I was pondering how to solve those 2 factors while waiting for a set of new Dunlop RTs.
RTs have 3 circumferential bands of rubber at the centre. Sips - for water drainage, are only moulded at the 2 outer edges. I stand corrected but a solid band of rubber is bound to transmit noise when tyre rolls or hits road bumps or road irregularities. I was guessing that by cutting some thin channels across the 3 circumferential bands, it would help to break up vibration and noise along each band. At best, noise and vibration might even be prevented altogether.
And my guess was correct !
Using a standard NT razor cutter, initially I only made cuts across 2 bands - I left out the centre band n order for the tyre to maintain straight-line stability. There was a marked reduction in rolling noise. Encouraged by this, I made deeper cuts in the form of a V shaped cross section. Each strip of V shaped rubber cut from the tyre's 2 circumferential bands was about 3 to 5 cm in length. I spaced every cut randomly 1cm to 3cm away from the preceeding cut. This was to mix up the frequency of noise generated by each band and I was hoping the different frequencies would cancel each other out.
The reduction in rolling noise was sensational.
Better yet; the improvement in grip on wet roads was remarkable. But aqua-planning was still an impending disaster during heavy rain storms.
But in dry road conditions, the braking grip was fantastic ! However, cornering grip was a total wash-out as the tyres were worn to their terminal life.
After cutting these sips, the tyres really wear very fast. The tyres were almost bald when the new set arrived at the dealer. It was a huge relief to have new RTs installed as I was really fearful of losing control of the car from aqua-planning.
It took around 3 weeks to complete just the front pair - without removing them from the wheel well. No way of doing the rear pair unless you are prepared to remove them completely from the car.
My Camry's suspension, brakes and wheel alignment is extremely well set up and unless your car is similarly taken care of; please exercise EXTREME CAUTION if you are attempting the above. Prefereably, install new tyres without delay.
Excellent grip and handling in wet and dry conditions not just for cruising at the motorways or some average city driving but also excellent for some spiritual driving as well . Although these tyres are not the best in the wear I found them very confident for driving until they were totally worn out still maintaining good grip in wet and dry. Definitely the tyre worth of buying them again
I had these tyres fitted three years ago on my heavy Alfa Romeo 1.9 JTS (1.5 tons) knowing fully well that they will not last as long as my previous ones (Continental Premium Contact 2) which I could not find anymore. The Contis lasted 85.000km and these ones lasted 65.000km with the front ones reachning the tread mark limit and the rear ones having 2 mm left, without ever switching them back to front. You have to bear in mind that roads in Greece are not as rough as in other countries so there is much less wear on the tyres. The dry grip on these tyres was excellent. The road feedback was very good too. I was pushing it more and more around the corners and roundabouts for a controlled slide and I could definitely feel when it was about to go. The wet handling was excellent too and on a few occasions it did save me from crashing into the front car under heavy breaking. In Greece there's a tendency not to always keep the distances due to heavy traffic and lane switching. Once there was a 7 car pile up in front of me, I was the 8th!!! The tyre wet braking was phenomenal at the time and at that moment the tyre earned its money. The tyre's handling was also very good, the Alfa 159's suspension setting is good anyway and the tyres complement this. Another very good factor is that the tyre was very quiet, at the beginning and the first 50.000 km or 1.5 mm above the tread limit. After that I started hearing noises from the front ones, I thought it was the wheel bearings. I knew it was the tyres I had heard it from others who were using these tyres too. Many tyres do this when they come near the end of their like and the tread marker. The tyres were very comfortable, I did most of my driving on motorways, driving to and from work and I have no complaints with feeling the potholes and uneven surfaces found on the Greek roads, I have felt much worse ones. One aesthitic criticism would be that although the tyres were inflated to the recommended pressure and maybe a little bit more (2.5 bar on my car), the tyre looked like it was under inflated, both front and back. I guess this was the heavy car and perhaps the tyre's soft side walls. All in all a very good tyre (I was not really a Dunlop/GoodYear fun) which lasted in Greece but I guess not so much in UK or Germany where the roads are much rougher, hence the low "wear" mark it got. I would definitely recommend this tyre but be aware of its life span.
