Tyres Again (Sorry) I'm confused
Discussion
Have standard wheels 7J/15 on front and 7.5J/16 on back. My tyres at moment are 205/55/15 and 225/50/16. However looking at the Steve Heath Bible my car a 97 450 with PAS was originally on 225/50/15 and 225/50/16 ???
Also now thinking what about going rears all round ie like the late griff 500s which according to Steve Heath ran on 225/45/16 front and 245/45/16 on rear ???
Also now thinking what about going rears all round ie like the late griff 500s which according to Steve Heath ran on 225/45/16 front and 245/45/16 on rear ???
ewan221 said:
Also now thinking what about going rears all round ie like the late griff 500s which according to Steve Heath ran on 225/45/16 front and 245/45/16 on rear ???
You will probably need rack stops on the front but other than that no reason not to, I have 225/45ZR16 on the front of mine.Rears can be the 225 or 245 as you say
Shoot me down in flames guys - I have only had my car about a month - but surely the key thing is what rubbers you put on, not the size of your thingies?
I can only speak from what I have found so far. The standard 15/16s were lovely, and I still have them for winter use, but I have found that the stability and grip feels much better to me on 17s, with good tyres all round. So long as you keep the rear overall dimensions about the same as the originals, it seems to be ok and the speedo is accurate. I went to 205/40 17s all around, as that was what i found. I was told to look for 215/40s, as the 225/45s caught on the rear wheel arches with my slightly more offset wheels, but found 205s first.
Remember too that the 40 or 45 is a proportion of the 205/215/225, ie it is an aspect ratio, so 40s on a 225 tyre will have bigger sidewalls than 40s on a 205, thus you can mix 205 fronts with 215 or 225 rears with 40 aspect ratio on 17 inch wheels to approximately mimic the 15/16 set-up of the original wheels and tyres.
So I feel it depends on what you are doing with the car - track day beast, fast dry weather road car, or all weather tourer.....and your choice of tyres will reflect this. I want a dry weather fast road/track car, so have gone for more dry weather tyres than all rounders. I think it looks nice, but I frankly don't care as long as it feels nice.
I can only speak from what I have found so far. The standard 15/16s were lovely, and I still have them for winter use, but I have found that the stability and grip feels much better to me on 17s, with good tyres all round. So long as you keep the rear overall dimensions about the same as the originals, it seems to be ok and the speedo is accurate. I went to 205/40 17s all around, as that was what i found. I was told to look for 215/40s, as the 225/45s caught on the rear wheel arches with my slightly more offset wheels, but found 205s first.
Remember too that the 40 or 45 is a proportion of the 205/215/225, ie it is an aspect ratio, so 40s on a 225 tyre will have bigger sidewalls than 40s on a 205, thus you can mix 205 fronts with 215 or 225 rears with 40 aspect ratio on 17 inch wheels to approximately mimic the 15/16 set-up of the original wheels and tyres.
So I feel it depends on what you are doing with the car - track day beast, fast dry weather road car, or all weather tourer.....and your choice of tyres will reflect this. I want a dry weather fast road/track car, so have gone for more dry weather tyres than all rounders. I think it looks nice, but I frankly don't care as long as it feels nice.
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