Sorry, didn't mean it to come out like that, I just presumed that the only tyres you'd tried on the Zed were the ones you listed: I didn't realise you'd tried the good stuff on the car, I apologise for that.
This is what I was getting at more than anything. The T1-Rs would suit something like an MX-5 very well, but you wouldn't necessarily put them on a higher performance car where levels of expected performance are that much greater. For instance, and to stretch the point somewhat, I'd see it as something like this:
Nankang ditchfinders = Chuck 'em on a 107 or something.
T1-Rs = Great for budget performance cars, like the MX-5.
MPS/Eagle F1 Assy = 911 onwards would suit these very well.
It's all about what you expect to find on a performance level from the tyre in comparison to what car it's on. The mk3 MR2 came with RE040s on as OEM and they were horribly vague, but on the 350Z (in the dry only) they were very good, so it would seem that those tyres work best with a bit of weight on them. Stock for stock, a Zed is capable of much more than an MX-5 which is why I would always go for a better tyre to make the most of that. If I were doing 20K miles a year in the Zed then possibly I wouldn't be running PS2s as that would prove an expensive way to go about it, but as I only do about 8K fun miles a year it makes sense for me to use something that allows the exploiting of the car's performance. Truth be told though there's only the perfect tyre for the individual and their own car, not one size fits all.