Currently have my winter set up (Blizzaks) on since im still waiting for my new rims to come in and I only drove on the factory summer tires for a few months before I had to through the winters on so i cant really comment. Regardless im gonna get the Michelin's, and 275 is to much meat for me on a 9.5 inch rim :p

Sidewalls are very soft on the Continental DW and steering precision is poor compared to the PSS.

I am running 275/35 on the 9" front sport Rays which is the minimum rim width recomended. The 9.5" Nismo fronts would be fine. Reduces understeer and balances handling.

The Ventus V12 may be worse that the stock summer tires that came on your Nismo. The Michelin's are a good choice especially since you have a set of winter tires to run in the cold.

im usually a Mich man but a lot of good things said for Bridgestone SO4, not sure what the $ difference is

re: Hankook Ventus tires
 

I've gotta say, I've run Ventus tires on several of my previous cars, including my Genesis Coupe 3.6GT and a Cadillac CTS coupe. My Nismo Z came with a new set of them on it from the dealer too. (Bought it used with 14.5K miles on it and dealership claimed they had to sell it with brand new tires, in order to qualify as a Nissan Certified Used vehicle. But obviously they went with what was cheapest for them.)

I don't race my cars on the track, but I want a tire that can handle high speed cornering and hard braking, as well as performing well in the rain. If anything, I can say the Ventus V12 performed as well as I could ever ask for on my CTS Coupe. (It was a bigger, heavier vehicle that was fast, but not REAL fast. Might have felt differently about the tires if I had the CTS-V.)

I haven't yet had the opportunity to really test the limits of the tires on the Nismo Z ... but I did have to do some freeway and back road driving in a rainstorm already, and the Ventus tires seemed perfectly adequate.

So my feeling is, if you're honestly just going to drive as a daily driver, but still want good performance on a budget? Ventus V12 is a great option. Only way I'd pay hundreds more for something else is if I needed every advantage for the track, or if there was enough evidence that you'd get more tread-life out of one of the others and still at least as good of performance. (IMO, Ventus tires do wear out relatively quickly.)

I run the S04's @ 265/305 and they grip just fine for my DD...they even did well enough for a track day @ Streets of Willow.

Yes, RE-11's are superior but, S04's are great bang for the buck.