Are those of you who have moved away from the Yoko tyres been impressed by better wet performance / braking & is it worth the loss in ultimate dry grip?
I still have the original AD07's on the front. But on the rear I've had a couple of pairs of AD07's, a pair of Proxes 4's, and now I have Continental Extreme Contact DWS. Whoa nelly, do they have better grip in the wet. I can floor it on wet pavement and the TC light usually doesn't come on (base model, standard mode). Supposedly these DWS tires also kick serious butt in snow (at least when new), although I haven't had a chance to try that.
There is some loss of dry grip. In fact it seems like I get the TC light more often on dry pavement than wet, although I don't see how that can be possible. It doesn't always come on, and it doesn't stay on long. Is that worth it? Depends on what kind of weather you get, and how you drive. I feel I can drive with more abandon in wet conditions (when I used to just drive carefully), but now I can't count on max acceleration when dry.
Thoughts on all three tires (note that all thoughts are based on street driving; I have not been to the track):
AD07: Best dry grip. Great handling. Gotta change 'em a lot. Not especially quiet or smooth.
Proxes 4's: Almost-as-good dry grip (not quite); but somewhat worse than the AD07 in wet (despite being all-season--this surprised me). A little quieter, with a slightly smoother ride. Cheaper to buy, and lasted twice as long. Handling did suffer a bit (most notable when driving on freeway ruts), but then I still had AD07's on the front; putting Proxes on all four tires probably would have helped.
Extreme Contact DWS: Definitely less dry grip than the AD07's, and even the Proxes 4's. But awesome wet/snow grip. Not as quiet and smooth as the Proxes 4's; probably similar to the AD07's (but almost a year passed between the two, so it's hard to compare). Handling is similar, but probably a tiny bit worse than the Proxes 4's, although again I'm still running AD07 on the front. About the same price as the Proxes 4's, but should last 75% longer.
If you live where it's always dry or always wet, the choice may be simple. But if you have a dry season and a rainy season, I think it would come down to choices like the following:
If you bought the Roadster because it's a sports car and you want to always have the best grip (and are willing to give up some time and money to get it), get an extra set of wheels and run AD07's (or AD08's) in the summer, and Contact DWS in the winter.
If you bought the Roadster because it's electric, and you just want cheap, simple and safe (and are willing to give up a little performance to get it), get a full set of Contact DWS.
Somewhere in between, if you don't need perfect grip or the cheapest solution, but you do want great dry traction to demo the car and nice general driving characteristics, and you'd rather drive carefully in wet than swap wheels twice a year, the Proxes 4's make sense.
