e30 road tyre choice for grip? advice please.

[drak ula]

i've been driving my 320i cabrio for nearly a year now and love it, but had driven my neighbours 325i cabrio and lusted after that extra power, the difference hald a litre (and bigger valves, ports, throttle body etc.) makes is incredible! i have found the 320i to be brilliant handling and with plenty of grip, it has the bmw bbs 14 x 6.5j wheels with 195/65 marshall tyres which seem to work really well with that much (little) power.
but i recently bought a 325i coupe, it has currently has the same 14 x 6.5j wheels and same size tyres but with odd mismatched brands and the car has almost no grip at all!!!
even pulling away a bit briskly from a junction the tryes just spin in first and when i grab 2nd gear they keep spinning as i fishtail up the road trying to keep the car roughly in a straight line! yesterday i tried to beat the oncoming traffic onto a roundabout that other cars were waiting to join in front of me, i was impatient and overtook the cars in front of me at the give way line and sped into the gap between the road i was entering from and the cars coming around already on the roundabout, if i'd been in the cabrio 320i there would have been no drame, but in the 325i i got seriously dramatic sideways action all the way round the roundabout AND THIS WAS IN THE DRY ON A SUNNY DAY!!!
obviously the 325i needs more grip (i see why some had came with lsd but i can't afford one at the moment) so i intend to sell my 14s and buy a set of 15 inch bmw bbs wheels off ebay (i'm not keen on the look of huge bling wheels and love the look of the bbs cross spoke wheels abnd guess the extra inch diameter and half inch width should mean a slightly bigger but still worthwhile increase in 'footprint'. so the question is what is the best tyre choice for everyday fast driving on the road, i've seen 205/55 and 205/50 on those rims, would 205/45 or even 205/40 be better still? and what brand and model of tyre is best in terms of grip per £? all advice greatly appreciated.

[road_rager]

I used to have a 325, even with decent tyres you have to be careful! I think the lack of sports suspension and LSD doesn't help either

[4rephill]

My previous car was a 325i sport on standard BBS cross spoke 15" alloys and the correct tyre size was 205/55/r15.

I wouldn't bother messing around with lower profile tyres on these rims as the ride quality will suffer.

I used to run Uniroyal 440's and then 550's on it @ £80 per corner fitted.

Tyres can be a very personal thing, one mans "super tyres" can be another mans pile of ste".
The best advice I could give is to buy the best tyres you can afford. Falken 452's are currently rated very highly on alot of BMW forums at the moment and are cheaper than the "brand" name rivals.

Just avoid Wanli's, in the wet, they're lethal, an absolute joke of a tyre!

[phelix]

Mismatched tyres, particularly budget ones, are not a recipe for good handling. It's worth getting the tracking checked front and rear to make sure something isn't bent. Are the pressures all correct?

I plan to try the Falken on my E61 at some point - they look like good value for the money.

[phelix]

And how old are those tyres?

[Ritchie335is]

I used to use Toyo T1Rs on my Sport and they were great. Didnt last too long though.

[Buzzkill]

Did a lot of hunting around recently for good value performance for everyday use and went for the Kumho ku31's on my 323i. One or two people i know were impressed with them on their own cars, and the feedback off the net is almost all very positive. Pound for pound they are unbeatable allround for everday use imo.

Camskill or tyreandgo.co.uk offer the best prices from what i could find.

Edited by Buzzkill on Saturday 24th October 23:55

[clarkey318is]

Ritchie335is said:

I used to use Toyo T1Rs on my Sport and they were great. Didnt last too long though.

I had those too, they're fantastic tires. Just about to get another set.