Car ruined by fitting good tyres

[Boobonman]

My £400 volvo 940 estate came wearing some of the shonkiest and worse performing (but legal) tyres on the rear, and was absolutely amazing fun. 200 odd bhp with worn 'runstar' tyres with a minuscule 185 profile gave some of the mildest, easily provoked and held oversteer in moist conditions known to man.

They were looking a bit past their best, so replaced with some falkens of the same dimensions at micheldever tyres.

Just been out for my first decent run some two weeks later, encountered a few sodden roundabouts of choice, and the car is literally st now.

An astonishing amount of lateral grip in the wet compared to before, I reckon ten fold.

The car is now significantly less fun IMO.

It is arguably safer.

Am I wrong for wanting my old tyres back?

[B'stard Child]

Boobonman said:

Am I wrong for wanting my old tyres back?

No

[poing]

I know exactly how you feel

I loved having nasty tyres on the back of the mx5, but one or two unprovoked sideways moments made me decide to get them sorted since the OH also drove the car and I did't want her to have to deal with it. Shame because it was great fun!

[MJK 24]

My W124 came with two Chinese Rubber Co., one Tigar and one Triangle. Four Continental's later and I feel infinitely
safer!

[Captainawesome]

I used to run a mondeo st with dunlop sportmaxxx up front and ditch finders on the rear. Come the rain there was fun to be had.

It's what I cut my oversteer teeth on.

Much, much easier in a RWD. Although my present car has sport con ti's all round. Still slides like a bugger though.

[HoHoHo]

New Falken tyres = ste ride.

After a few hundred miles = acceptable ride.

Simples.

[ScoobyChris]

Interestingly I was thinking the very same thing today. About a month ago I swapped from summer to winter tyres (for the first time) on my lowly RWD diesel shopping car and have found they've certainly livened things up and where the fatter summer tyres provide almost limitless grip, the narrower winter tyres are so much easier to overwhelm. Certainly more fun, although it is wearing out my TC light

Chris

[DanielSan]

10 second burnout should get the tread down but still legal. Slide away all you like then

[ShayneJ]

you are a closet drift wizard AICMFP


or as the poster a few back said the tires are NEW!
give them a few hundred miles to fully bed in
and you should be able to provoke them to
misbehave.

[ShampooEfficient]

I had wornout Chinese tyres on the rear of my 190E, I replaced them with Pirellis. 99% of the time it's a massive improvement, theres less clinging on when I'm tipping into a bend... but I've had to adjust the amount of power I use when negotiating a wet roundabout. It's now much more dramatic and likely to end in tears...

[daveco]

Running worn rear Savas on an E46 325 has been a huge amount of fun. Take the ESP off and you really appreciate what a balanced chassis is all about. I've learnt a huge amount about controlling a drift because of them (where conditions permit).

[Boobonman]

DanielSan said:

10 second burnout should get the tread down but still legal. Slide away all you like then

it

I think it it's more the composition of the rubber, rather than tread depth. The lateral grip is keeping the car in a straight line and I don't like it, just under steers now.

[Impasse]

Stick another 20 psi in them...

[poing]

Boobonman said:

t

I think it it's more the composition of the rubber, rather than tread depth. The lateral grip is keeping the car in a straight line and I don't like it, just under steers now.

In which case you need to balance that out with 50% more power, off to the tuners you go to get a V8 fitted

[Ozzie Osmond]

That Volvo has lethal rear suspension.

I wouldn't worry too much about the tyres...

[RA500]

Swap the wheels over, front to rear and try again...

[HustleRussell]

Used to run my Caterham on 10 year vintage Avon 'Enviro' tyres... 185/70

[BorkFactor]

My Astra has Kumhos on the front which are alright, but came with mismatched budgets on the rear. It oversteers quite nicely if you provoke it on a wet roundabout which is great fun!

Strangely I haven't got it to understeer yet. It must be broken.

[Boobonman]

Ozzie Osmond said:

That Volvo has lethal rear suspension.

I wouldn't worry too much about the tyres...

Care to clarify? I've done over 5k in it in the last year, I dint think the rear suspension has killed me yet?

Gonna put the new tyres on the front, see if that improves things.

I'm just astonished what a difference it made, really shows why they have earned the 'ditchfinder' moniker...