I was thinking of going with 16 inch wheels and running the Yokohama AO32R's. I had these on my NA Impreza a few years ago and ran them all the time. (It was my "daily driver", but I didn't drive daily) And they lasted to my best ability to estimate, over two seasons about 8,000 miles. I bought them used, with only one tire not still showing the secondary rain grooves. I think this is the 3/32 tread depth (what they would be shaved to for straight circuit use), and I used them all the way to bald. THey were very durable, I was worried at first about how tough they would be but the tire has a very heavy caseing, had stupid stiff sidewalls and felt clearly heavier than the stock tires in the same size.
Of course I don't know if this tire is available anymore.
It use to be available in soft and hard compounds, and now it looks like the AO48 is the replacement and they have more sizes available. I was thinking of trying these with 205 in front and 225s in the rear.
These are available in 15 and 16 rim size (and taller if that suits you).