Tyres

[Silver Surfer]

Dunlop SP Sport 8070.

SS

[TheSebringOne]

Are these Dunlops still available since I thought OEM tyres are no longer available?

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

OK.... New Dilemma!!

I just took my old OEM alloys out of the garage and noticed that the fronts are something like 6mm+ of tread. I either just take them off and pretty much bin when I switch to AD08's... or.... rather than that just match some rubber to them.

I never noticed anything wrong with the rubber I had on there. never let me down in wet or dry etc.

They are Dunlop SP Sport 8070's... what would be a good match in the rear for those? or not!?

TIA

Hi Boomin33,

Before deciding on using the Front tyres on your old OEM wheels, I would recommend checking the age of them.


Any tyres over 3 years old will loose its initial performance significantly that will affect not just the dry/wet grip but more importantly, the brake performance.


Quite often, I see NSX with more than 5 years old Front tyres…

The worst one I saw was well over 10 years old…


Several years ago, one of the owner of vintage car got killed by road accident due to his tyre being so old and failed on the motor way even below the speed limit.


Being as a vintage car, it was not used a lot and thus, the tyre still had lots of meat left but it just couldn’t handle the heat/load generated during the motorway speed due to its age.




You can check the manufactured week No. and year of your tyre by looking at the stamp mark on the side shoulder.


Most of the tyre manufacture will follow the same rule.


For example, this one is from my Front tyre.

It was manufactured in the week No. 23 of 2010.


Hope this will help a little....

Kaz

[Boomin33]

helps a Lot Kaz. Thanks for the info.

mine are 5003 ..... so a good 8 years old. there are no cracks or anything in the tread... Rubber looks good etc.

You still saying, even with 10,000 miles during that time... that it's risky to be driving on them?

[NSXGB]

OK.... New Dilemma!!

I just took my old OEM alloys out of the garage and noticed that the fronts are something like 6mm+ of tread. I either just take them off and pretty much bin when I switch to AD08's... or.... rather than that just match some rubber to them.

I never noticed anything wrong with the rubber I had on there. never let me down in wet or dry etc.

They are Dunlop SP Sport 8070's... what would be a good match in the rear for those? or not!?

TIA

Switch to the AD08's all round. Did you manage to get the exact sizes and where from in the end?

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

helps a Lot Kaz. Thanks for the info.

mine are 5003 ..... so a good 8 years old. there are no cracks or anything in the tread... Rubber looks good etc.

You still saying, even with 10,000 miles during that time... that it's risky to be driving on them?

Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this.

It could be fine for another few years, it could be fine for this year or it could fail within a few months as it all depends on so many different conditions.

Wear/age is just one element and it’s like talking about the tyre speed rating without taking the load factor into the consideration.


After working closely for the tyre projects with two different manufactures, I can comfortably say tyre is a very complicated and sophisticated thing.


Tyre is part of engine (we call tyre as 2nd engine on our NSX), chassis, suspension, brake, etc package and all sorts of factors will change the lifeing of it.

Addition to this, weather, environment, etc or even different tyre model/manufacture will also play as the key factors for the lifeing.

The way you shift the weight of the car while driving your NSX is also an important factor.


Sometimes, the number of heat cycles have greater effect than the age/mileage.

This is typical on the track day tyres.

Even at the same mileage, the one with lots of heat cycle may loose performance faster than the one with less cycles.

On some of the F1 tyres, the scenario was the opposite. We on purposely heat cycled the new tyres just to get extra performance.

These are the extreme cases and not the same for the production car tyres but good way to explain the complexity of the tyre and also the importance of looking at the car as a total package.

Using old tyre is like a gamble.

You may be able to keep using the old tyres (and save some money) but you may pay the price later if you couldn’t stop the car 5cm before hitting something when it would have been possible with the new tyre.

If I were you, I’ll just replace them.

Kaz

[Chris B N]

One of my friends in the Tyre business recommends change no later than 5 years as the rubber compound hardens and loses
flexibility, some of which is due to UV radiation.
Also I believe that some European Countries have legislation regarding age again at 5 years.
£600 over 5 years irrespective of wear, is a small price when you consider the value of your NSX and that the high cost of repairs can result in a write off with what appears to be minimal damage.

[278kmh]

in germany there is no law that says, that the tyres cant be older than...
but we must take ZR or Y specifications for our NSX.

[richmills]

Hi All

I need to get some new tyres for my 02+ (OEM sizes), but after reading this thread I'm still no clearer on what the best options would be.

I've been using Bridgestone RE050A for a few years and like them very much, but it doesn't seem like you can get them in the front size any more. I'd like a similar handling tyre that's good in both wet and dry, any suggestions?

Cheers, Rich.

[Senninha]

Hi Rich,

I've been running on the new ADO8's on 02+ rims for past 4-500 miles. I'm yet to be out in heavy rain but to date have had mixed weather conditions and have to say they perform very well.

They were also very quick (<100 miles) to settle down and show the benefits.

HTH, Paul