Hello chaps,

I've just bought an early Porsche 944 that I'm hoping to enter in a few local road rallies/tests.

I have a bit of a problem with tyres.

The car as standard came with 205/55/15 front and 215/60/15 rear. The wheels are a 7J I think.

The Blue Book indicates that I am not allowed to run less than a 70 profile as standard. That much I get. However I'm a bit stumped as to what I can do with my current rims.

I can't go down to a 14'' as they won't clear the brakes.

I've used a calculator and changing the 215/60/15 to a 195/70/15 works out at a (just acceptable) 2.3% change in rolling radius. However, on the 205/55/15 this changes to a 7.5% change which is not good.

Any ideas? I really don't want to stump up for new wheels, especially as it has got the original Porsche cookie-cutters on which I really like.

Any suggestions would be very welcome.

Cheers,

Ben

Historics have to use 70 profile tyres but isn't your car too young to be a historic? And isn't there a 2 litre engine limit on moderns (or is it less than that?)

It's not a limit on capacity it's a limit on 4 cylinders with limited overboring now too, which for the most part means the same, about 2.5.

Bens 944 would comply though, you should give it a shot Ben, much more exciting than regularity rallying

Not sure really, it meets the regs for most of the local stuff. I'm also doing the HERO Throckmorton Challenge in it which is an MSA event.

It is, to all intents and purposes, a 'classic' and it meets the criteria of most UK classic rallies. It isn't though really For anything on the continent with FIA rulings I can also use the OEM low profile tyres.

In a way, yes!

Its hard to believe the car has just turned 30 years old, really nice engineering for that time.

In reality I wouldn't actually call it a classic in the traditional terms.

The reason I bought it is there are two crews who left us for dead in the tests on the Malts - a 911SC and a Lotus Elan. The 944 is shifting things back in our favour a bit but I want an overall win next, not just a class win.

Not actually an option Ben - the first cars came on 185/70/15 tyres, which was changed to 215/60/15 later on.

944s were built during 1981.

It also said that I climbed Mount Everest, but I havent.

The first cars were built for the 1982 model year, but that doesnt mean that they were built in 1982. The car was launched in September 1981, on 185/70/15 tyres.

I wouldn't expect too much from the Falken Eurowinters unfortunately. Despite what Kwikfit will tell you, winters really are designed for snow and ice.

Based on the arguments above, in an '82 944 you're limited to night road rallies (or the yet-to-exist daylight Targa rallies), and often people use part-worn knobblies for this so it's worth checking what you could get your hands on via eBay etc. Bear in mind the following though:
- The rolling circumference of forest tyres is larger than the standard road tyre of the same size. That might give some clearance issues if you can't find a suitably low profile.
- Road rallying is fairly quickly moving towards allowing only e marked tyres, which lots (but not all) forest tyres aren't.
Despite both these problems, it's worth running on forest tyres on road events not just because of the grip level but also because they've got reinforced sidewalls. Low-profile standard tyres are easy to damage on pot-holes etc...

Generally, the favourite tyres for road rallying are:

used forest tyres, as above
Yoko A021-R (a few sizes, probably including 15")
Avon Turbosport (think that's what they're called - probably 13" only and £££)

There are frequently debates on things like the British Rally forum about the current flavour of the month.

I have done my homework you know

Build date confirmed with Porsche DE as 28th November 1981, registered date in the UK of 1st October 1982.

Will have a look into the night rallies, sounds interesting.