Tyre Recommendations?

[BrownBear]

Need to change my tyres pretty soon and was thinking of moving away from the S03 PP's I've been using for what seems like forever...

Anyone have any recommendations for Road use on standard 16/17s?

I'm considering Darren's choice (Kumho V70A), but was wondering if anyone has any other options/opinions?

Thanks

[forumadmin]

Kumho MX. Both myself and Mo have them, on the track as well, and for the money think they are great. They have performed as well as tyres costing twice as much (like S03's).

[mcibuk]

Seems like Khumo is getting the votes - I can also say they are a good wearing tyre - don't really see a major difference between these and teh Yokahama's

[duncan]

Purchased 4 new tyres this week, I went one size up for both front and rear, i.e, 225/45 16 (F) and 255/40 17 (R) with Continental, Conti Sport Contact 2's.(£575 all in inc VAT, fitting etc)
My reasons; only matched axle sets in O.E sizes were A022 Yoko's (currently available), quoted £575 and £700 by Yoko re-sellers; and Michelin Pilot Sports quoted at £585. For the latter, Michelin UK noted that they were discontinuing these in favour of Michelin Pilot Sport 2's. The originals were directional, so different tyres NS and OS, the latter are asymetrical but not directional, further the M Sport 2's are not available in O.E sizes and with only one original was listed by Michelin in the UK decided not to.
Going up a size gives more choice, I wanted a tyre that would still be around when the rears needed replacing next time. I'm not a trackie so I wanted the tyres to cost less per mile than petrol so I opted for the Conti 2's with a Treadwear Rating of 280.
(Michelin PS 2's are 220, Yoko A043 (F only) are 160)
I had the Front & Rear cambers and toe in's set to the lowest, least aggresive limits of the factory tolerance, so once I've run the tyres in I'll just have to see how they feel and how they last.
Hope the above ramblings help, and good luck.

[trackdemon]

FWIW I'm running Yoko A022's up front and Pilot Sports on the rear, all in OEM sizes. Yoko's have cost me under £200 from http://www.elite-design.co.uk/frameset3.html and the Michelins were (I think) £<£240 from Costco. Like Duncan, I've had the tracking setup to be a bit less aggressive and as a consequence I'm getting substantially more life out of my tyres: I have to admit that on the current tyres I'm really enjoying the way my car handles on the road (oversteer is a bit tricky to control on track), it has a slight bias to understeer followed by neutral then gentle oversteer if really pushing.

[BrownBear]

Thanks for all the input - however, I'm going to try a set of TOYO T1R's in the larger sizes as suggested by Duncan as

a) they were recommended to me
b) Elite have them in stock
and
c) My tyres need changing right now! having them done tomorrow

I'll let you know what I think of them..

Incidentally the price also swung it for me

(The final consideration is that as I'm selling my car, even though the Kumho's may be the dogs, chances are, the person I sell it too will thing 'cheapo tyre' and walk away...sad, eh?)

[NSA]

Any negative views about Dunlop 8050s? My NSX wears them all round and I need to buy two new rears. I've heard they're a harder compound than the Yokos, which is fine.

FYI: Recent 60,000 mile service ex cam belt (done at 36k) was £471 all in.

Also saw a yellow NSX at junction 26 southbound on the M1 May bank holiday weekend. Anyone here?

[Flinty]

Hi Joe and others.

I would be interested to hear how the Toyo T1R's are going.

I replaced my rear Dunlop 8050's with T1R last week and like Duncan, decided to go up a size to 255/40/17. I'm still running Dunlop's on the front which are okay, but always lacked grip due to harder compound. The Toyo's immediately give more grip in the tail than i remember when dunlops were new, but i'm now suffering another gremlin...

When driving in a straight line, it feels like the tyres are flat. The car drifts left and right and direction changes seem to follow a microsecond after the steering wheel. Weird feeling.

I've checked the pressures and they're good, but it feels decidedly uneasy, being exascerbated at speed.

The tracking/geometry was done by Honda about 4 weeks ago - @ 3 hour job - before changing the tyres.

Any ideas chaps - or it it just a very poor decision to go up 10mm width - surely it doesnt make that much difference to the handling? It's definitely not drivable in it's current state - i'll end up in a bush :oops:

Thanks for any tips.

Flinty

[BrownBear]

Hi - Very happy with the T1R's - as good as the SO3's, cheaper and quieter to boot - so a good move for me, at least..

As to your question - I've noticed that with larger tyres, the car tends to 'grab cambers' quite a lot (ie: wants to follow the camber of the road) which is disconcerting sometimes when joining a motorway from a slip road and one side of the car wants to get on the motorway quicker than the other :shock: It's not worrying, but more a 'odd' feeling..

What pressures are you using (I use 33F/36R)?
What type of road does this happen on? Slow speed/A-road/B-road? (for me, NSX's have this odd feeling around town (ie:30-40mph) where you think the pressures are out but when you hit an A road it goes away).
Do you have a Coupe or Targa?

Sorry, more questions than answers, but collectively we'll probably get there in the end..

[Flinty]

Thanks for the ideas.

Glad to hear ur getting on well with your T1R's. That's good to know.

The problem is evident on all roads - but is most noticeable on flat A's where the surface is good. I run 40 psi on the back and 34 on the front - as recommended on the door pillar. Mine's a 96 Targa - like BrownBear's - - with 68k miles - it's not scuttle wobble.

I have an 04 330BMW with 255's and i know that grabs tyre trenches on the motorway really badly. It's definitely not that. It feels altogether more spongy. Cornering is fine, but it's worryingly bad if pulling in and out when overtaking (as some of us may do quite regularly) or even when re-engaging drive in straight line after changing gear under hard acceleration. Literally just like having a flat tyre.

Rang Honda this morning - they reckon it's the new tyres needing 500 miles to bed in. Not so sure - i've not had this problem on other cars with new rubber - but is the NSX just more sensitive - more feedback ?

Not sure i fancy doing 500 miles in this condition !

Thanks again fellas for any thoughts.