The maxxis road tyres are cheap and do the job but they're spongy and not a great go fast tyre.
 
The maxxis AT tyres (all terrain 4x4 tyres) are fantastic and much better bang for buck than cooper.
 
The Bridgestones Potenza have been consistently the worst bang for buck tyre I've ever owned.
 
The Hankook Ventus Sports have been by far the best bang for buck tyres I've ever owned.

Bloody hell its hard to find a legal tire for MR2's!!!
So i have 17" 7" rims on the rear and i need 2 new tires. The easiest size for these rims to fine are 215/40's
The problem is, is that none of the 215/40's i can find match up to the 91v weight requirement indicated on the tire placard...
 
Now I'm gong to have to go the expensive route and go 235/40's, but the issue with this is that (I'm not 100% sure but) you can't have a 235 on a 7" wide rim...
 
so...
 
now i have to buy 2 rims for the rear that are 8" wide... let this be a warning to all who buy a second hand car with 17's on them. The guy i bought it off even worked in a tyre shop, but i guess he just didn't care...

I had 235 on a 7" rim for about 7 years when I first brought mine with no problems 

Yeah i know its possible, I just need these tires for a roadworthy...
 
I'm looking at some Dunlop SP9000 at ozzietires fro $140 each, but i can't find the weight rating on them. The bloody idiots over there can't take 2 seconds to go look at the tire and tell me what it is, they keep promising that they'll call me back when they have it. They even called me once to call them because i presumed that they had the answer, but then they told me they'd have to call me back because they didn't have it... WTF!?!?

Ok, question...
 
Am i better off spending the extra $400 on getting 2 x 8" wide rims for the rear (minus getting a little back from the 7") and getting 235/40's or would it be just as good (and legal?) to run the same tires on the original 7" wide rims?

about the only thing i can find that suits all requirements is a Zeetex HP103 235/40/17 94w... not exactly a named brand. At least they're only $95 a tire fitted... :/
 

Tyres just need to be the same (within 15mm larger and 26mm smaller) rolling diameter as factory and have the legal "load and speed" rating. You might want to double check the vic legislation has no variation, but according to the ADR's for a vehicle with a tyre speed rating greater than S you only required a minimum of S. The load rating must be as per the vehicle placard. 
 
http://www.infrastructure..._V2_1Jan_2011%20v3.pdf
 
According to the link I posted earlier you can fit tyres to a 17x7 wheel with the same (+-1mm) diameter of:
235/35 (might be a stretch but will fit)
 
225/40 (realistically the widest on a 7in rim for best performance according to Yokohama)
 
215/40
 
205/40 (same width as stock)
 
That should give you loads of options, but you can be liberal with the aspect ratio. I'd look around 30-45.

Hi after spending many hrs searching thru tyre manufactures websites an shops I could only find 3 different tyres you could get for a matching front and rear tread pattern that will be legal load rating and closest to factory rolling diameter:- Dunlop SP sport maxx - Maxxis (forgot series) - Falken FK453 which is what i went for fronts 205/40/17 an rears 235/40/17.
Maxxis were the cheapest for budget bout $750 set - Dunlop crazy price $2000 set - Falken $1120 set an doing an awesome job gripping the twisties :)