Tyre Debate/Sizes

[Popester]

My treads are getting a bit bare and I am considering switching from current Bridgestone set up. My P plate 500 Chimp has skinny SO1 fronts (205/50) and SO2 rears (225/45). Given the dodgy reps on SO3s and the rocking horse dropping characteristics of SO2s I am thinking bout Toyo's or Pirellis. Anyone got hard experience of the merits/demerits of these brands. I have seen a few positive posts about Toyo's and if Pirelli is good enough for the porker brigade I could slum it. Any alternative recommendations welcome, or any positive testimonials for SO3s.

I am also planning to beef up sizes, latest 500 spec seems to suggest 225/50 fronts and 245/45 rears - anyone know if sliding wider rubber on will cause problems. Car has Griff-style wheels which I think have stayed the same dimensions over the years.

Ta

Steve

[NoisyGriff]

I've got a set of Goodyear NCT F1s on my Griff. They are excellent (mind you, anything would have been better than the SO2s the car arrived with. They must have been about 6 years old and had about as much grip as a set of wooden tyres).
They have worn reasonably well, too. I'll have to check the sizes. The new Griff, I believe has 16in wheels front and rear as opposed to 15 fronts and 16 rears.

[trefor]

Regarding sizes, I fitted 225/50 and 245/45 SO2 PPs to the front/rear of my Chimaera (4.0 style wheels). No problems (although I do have PAS). There's plenty of grip now.

Regarding SO3s - Yesterday I had fitted 4 x SO3s (225/45x17) to the girlfriend's Audi TT - they have already shown a vast improvement in ride quality and feedback compared to the Michelin Pilot Sports the car came with (it did 25k on them though). Too early to decide if grip is better or worse though since it takes a few hundred miles to scrub the gooey stuff off them. I'm impressed so far though. They also look quite good on the car, not as nice as SO2s though (if you're into looking at tread patterns).

T/.

[whitechimp500]

My 5ltr (power steering-Griff wheels) runs on 225/50/15 Pirelli PZERO on front and 245/45/16 Pirelli P6000 rear - fitted by main dealer to replace worn Bridgestones - dont think Pirelli make P6000 in 225 therefore PZERO on front.
Can unstick Pirellis if im less than sensible with right foot (can unstick any tyres with a big TVR!),but they seem very good in normal fast driving.
Anyway,am currently waiting delivery of 17" Raceline RL7s (allegedly JANUARY) to which im fitting Dunlops!

Incidently any other CHIMAERA'S (not GRIFF'S) running on Racelines out threre?

[bennno]

quote:

Regarding SO3s - Yesterday I had fitted 4 x SO3s (225/45x17) to the girlfriend's Audi TT - they have already shown a vast improvement in ride quality and feedback compared to the Michelin Pilot Sports the car came with

Sorry got to disagree I swapped the Pilot sports on my 330 BM Sport and have found the SO3's to be dismal. Grip is down and it has turned a 'dead straight with hands off the wheel car' in to one which constantly tramlines and wanders all over the road.

With DSC engaged i used to get about a metre of slip at the rear before the car sorted itself, with the new SO3's it goes about 2-3m out of line and requires an awful lot of opposite lock to compensate.

Just for background information, I made the switch 3 weeks ago and have done circa 2K miles since.

Ben

[shpub]

Bear in mind that us sprinters would change to any tyre that would give us any additional advantage and that will tell you what is the best tyre for your TVR/Porsche/whatever.

Guess what. A couple of years there was a mixture with mainly Yoko AVS and Bridgestones SO1/RE71. Now everyone is running S02s. The S03 reports I have heard have been good providing the tyres are scribbed in correctly. Dunlops/Avons/Goodyears/Pirellis are all conspicious by their absence. The only other tyre that is seen is the Toyo Proxy but that is on a couple of Elises.

What this all means I'll leave up to you.

Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk

[Marshy]

Have just got S03s on the front of my Chimaera, but am still on S02s at the back, given as they've got a good 4/5mm of tread still.

S03s seem OK so far, but my red "you're going to crash!" snowflake has been on almost every time I've been out since. Grip doesn't seem appreciably poorer than the S02s, but they were pretty well worn. S03s *do* tramline like a bastard though, which the factory warned me of. It's disconcerting to go around a corner and get feedback from the wheel that *feels* like understeer, but is in fact just the tyres following road imperfections. Wasn't really aware of that with S02s on.

Ah well, perhaps I'll just wait for the warmer weather and swap the lot for something else when there's a chance to use them properly.

[trefor]

quote:

quote:

Regarding SO3s - Yesterday I had fitted 4 x SO3s (225/45x17) to the girlfriend's Audi TT - they have already shown a vast improvement in ride quality and feedback compared to the Michelin Pilot Sports the car came with

Sorry got to disagree I swapped the Pilot sports on my 330 BM Sport and have found the SO3's to be dismal. Grip is down and it has turned a 'dead straight with hands off the wheel car' in to one which constantly tramlines and wanders all over the road.

With DSC engaged i used to get about a metre of slip at the rear before the car sorted itself, with the new SO3's it goes about 2-3m out of line and requires an awful lot of opposite lock to compensate.

Just for background information, I made the switch 3 weeks ago and have done circa 2K miles since.

Ben

Fairy snuff. I'll watch out for tramlining - not noticed it been any worse than usual yet and it usually shows on some of the local roads. (I'm sure you have, but if not - have you checked the tyre pressures JIC?)

BTW - I understand there are several flavours of Pilot Sports and for instance only one is recommended for the TT, maybe our 'old' tyres were different too. Different tyres work in different ways on different cars, maybe the 3 series isn't friends with SO3s (possibly the same as with some peoples experience on TVRs????)

Regarding rear end slippage: whats wrong with that then? Her TT is post suspension/spoiler mods and needs a bit of life in it

T/.

[pbrettle]

Steve,

You mentioned Toyo's for sprinting - arent the new Tuscans coming with Toyo's as standard now. Replacing the SO2's that were on the car! What tyres are on a Tomato then? The sales man at TMS that I met at the AA ridedrive event wasnt too impressed by the Tuscans with Toyo's but rated them better than the SO2's in the dry.....

Anyone with experience...?

Cheers,

Paul

[RCA]

Don't know if this helps but I used to have Toyo's all round on my old Clio Williams and they were amazing in the dry but pretty naff in the wet, Look good though.!!!

[shpub]

quote:
Steve,

You mentioned Toyo's for sprinting - arent the new Tuscans coming with Toyo's as standard now. Replacing the SO2's that were on the car! What tyres are on a Tomato then? The sales man at TMS that I met at the AA ridedrive event wasnt too impressed by the Tuscans with Toyo's but rated them better than the SO2's in the dry.....

If TVR's problems with sourcing good tyres have been anything like mine, then It is a real struggle to get anything at the moment. TVR have been trying a lot of alternatives but I don't think they have made any decision yet. In my experience, changing the tyre is like changing the suspension settings as it also acts like a shock sbsorber/spring in its own right. This is absolutely critical with the ultra low profile tyres that are now seem to be the fashion. Less with the standard Griff/Chimaera wheels because of their slightly higher profile. I think the S03 sidewall is a bit stiffer than an S02 and that this is causing the problems that people are experiencing and is why the Toyo seems to solving the issue. So I don't think you can compare what TVR or any other manufacture are doing with their cars and tyre choice because the background behind the selection or whther they have modified the suspension settings. I also keep remembering that the S02 was heaped with the same criticism when it came out and then suddenly it became fashionable and opinion changed. I took a set of part worn S02s to a track and reduced my lap time dramatically. That convinced me. I also had to play with tyre pressures a bit to get the best out of them as well.

A couple of guys that I do know that they know what they are talking about rate the S03 as a good tyre. So we shall see as they say.

Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk