Tyres again!

[NiceCupOfTea]

I need a new set of boots for the Roadster - 15" wheels so 195/50 R15. They're refreshingly cheap after the Saab.

Now, I have heard both Toyo Proxes T1-Rs and GoodYear Eagle F1 GSD3s recommended highly for MX-5s. I have Toyos on the Saab and they seem pretty good for a budget performance tyre. The GYs are very very pricey on the Saab.

Strangely, on mytyres.co.uk the F1s come in at 35.80 a corner and the Toyos at 40.80.

However, a friend who worked in quality control at Dunlop when they were taken over by GoodYear doesn't have a single good thing to say about them and reckons their QA is atrocious I have had a bizarre failure on a GSD2 in the past

Also, being a 1.8 Roadster, it's not got huge amounts of power. I want something pretty grippy as it's an all year round car, but not *too* grippy if that makes sense I guess the most important thing is that it is progressive. I don't want a tyre that suddenly lets go, especially if Mrs.NCoT is driving it in the cold and wet this winter, something with a nice progressive breakaway is important...

So folks, what do you recommend?

[juansolo]

In that size; Yokohama Advan Neova LTS (actually Elise Mk1 front tyres).

[MX-5 Lazza]

juansolo said:

In that size; Yokohama Advan Neova LTS (actually Elise Mk1 front tyres).

They are great tyres but don't really fit into the "not too much grip" category

The normal advice is the Toyos & GY tyres that you mentioned but if you want good grip all year round but not too much grip in the dry then maybe you should consider normal "all season" tyres rather than high-performance summer tyres. Goodyear NCT5 or Ultragrip are very good in all weathers and pretty good in the dry too but don't have the ultimate grip that the performance tyres have. They also have the advantage of actually working when the temp gets below about 5C which is when performance tyres turn into hedge-finders.

[jon-]

MX-5 Lazza said:

The normal advice is the Toyos & GY tyres that you mentioned but if you want good grip all year round but not too much grip in the dry then maybe you should consider normal "all season" tyres rather than high-performance summer tyres. Goodyear NCT5 or Ultragrip are very good in all weathers and pretty good in the dry too but don't have the ultimate grip that the performance tyres have.

Sound advice. Something like the Falken FK512 might also work. More ideas can be found on http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/

[MX-5 Lazza]

Be careful taking advice from tyre review sites. They usually rate the cars on "normal" cars. As we know, the MX-5 is a bit picky about it's tyres and a tyre that works well on other cars can be rubbish on an MX-5. Bridgestone SO3 is a good example (the SO2 was great but replaced with the "improved" SO3).

[jon-]

MX-5 Lazza said:

Be careful taking advice from tyre review sites. They usually rate the cars on "normal" cars. As we know, the MX-5 is a bit picky about it's tyres and a tyre that works well on other cars can be rubbish on an MX-5. Bridgestone SO3 is a good example (the SO2 was great but replaced with the "improved" SO3).

While sound advice (that tyre review website does in fact have a section for model specific reviews so if there were say 20 tyre reviews from MX5 drivers you'd have much better information) the S03 in question was ""improved"" for all cars, not just the MX5!

[abomb1969]

Thanks for the heads up on the mytyres price for the F1's, just ordered 4 for £143 delivered. I just read a review done by a BMW mag and the Goodyear beat the Toyo by quite a few places, test performed on a 325i, spirited driving and 205/55-16:



http://www.goodyeartires.com/eagle/articles/eagleF...

Edited by abomb1969 on Monday 3rd September 22:09

[MX-5 Lazza]

abomb1969 said:

Thanks for the heads up on the mytyres price for the F1's, just ordered 4 for £143 delivered. I just read a review done by a BMW mag and the Goodyear beat the Toyo by quite a few places, test performed on a 325i, spirited driving and 205/55-16:

That makes sense. Toyos have soft sidewalls so a 325 would feel too soft on them. Doesn't necessarily mean that they are that much worse on an MX-5 (though I don't like them for exactly that reason - and the fact that the set I had that were 2.5 years old and had covered 10k miles were very badly cracked on the sidewalls and between the treads and looked more like they were 10 years old!).