Your 07 XKR was developed under Ford's roof at the time and I can testify to how these things were developed by them. Engineers developed various characteristic specs which were distributed to a list of approved suppliers. The suppliers returned candidate product for consideration, usually already develped or in production. Then purchasing ruled on which were acceptable based on cost against marketing's target sales range. I'm not saying that engineers did not follow developed design parameters but, like much of any mass produced product, designs are borrowed for applicability and cost reduction. If car companies sold cars strictly by engineering specifications no one could afford to own one. Engineering managers know which characteristics are musts and which are wants. In the end though, it has to pass the cost test.

I doesn't mean there isn't rubber out there that will be optimal for any particular vehicle in terms of a person's drivig style, safety, comfort, ect.. It is just that OEM tires tend to be decided via various compromises in order to sell the vehicle.

As stated before though, tires have improved over the years so one should expect to be able to benefit from that. The biggest problem is that it gets subjective, prone to personal "belly buttons" that muddy choosing what might be best for you.

One of the least mentioned "belly button" points is the age of the tire when purchased. Old rubber gets hard which changes characteristics badly which can color one's opinion of that brand/model. That is why I always insist on tires manufactured less than 6 mos earlier.

 

I don't think there was that much development for the XK on the Dunlops. Just my opinion. If it was, it was a poor partnership as the Dunlops are priced to the moon. How many owners replaced with for the same tire? For all the years I have been on this forum, a small minority have stayed with Dunlops.

 

I replaced my OEM Dunlops with a set of Falken Azenis 453 Ultra high performance summer tires and they are way better in my opinion. There is less noise and more grip for way less money than the Dunlops. Was an easy decision for me.

 

How old were your dunlops when you replaced them?

I find even replacing a three year old tire with the same brand/model tire makes for a huge improvement over the three year old tire.

I try to remember how a tire was when new, and compare that way.