My 2 cents,
Tyres do not make massive difference for road driving as you are unlikely to be taking it to the limits too many times. Have had the Bridgestone, SP9000 and Toyo, Toyo by far the best. Suggest you do smoother gear change apply power progressively to stop the tail wagging.
On track different matter, tyres are king, next is suspension setup.
As for Elise, awesome car and far quicker around corners than a Zed, but simply because we have to break earlier , however Z can come out quicker when you have the capability to put the gas back to max.
If you want a real car for trigger happy tail get a 7 way more fun.