Tire Makes & Pressures

[mk1-mark]

Following on from my recent questions regarding the squirmy back end on my Elan Sprint.

I was wondering if folks could give me recommendations for decent tires to use, and any recommended pressures.

Thanks,

M.

[pete.skellon]

I've always ran my S4 with 18lb front and 23lb rear. At the moment I use Goodyear, but have no other ideas for tyre make, other than make sure thay are sutiable for a 120mph car i.e don't use cheap remoulds.
Any other recomendations for tyres?

Pete

[mk1-mark]

"Don't use cheap remoulds"

I like your sense of humour!

M

[types26/36]

make sure thay are sutiable for a 120mph car i.e don't use cheap remoulds.Pete

So expensive remoulds would be O.K. then

[steveww]

To limit the ammount of movement you want a tyre with a stiff sidewall. The problem is there are not many performace type tyres in 155x13 size. The best on the market is the Michelin XAS FF available from http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/ quite expensive though at ?100 each. For pressures start off with what is in the book and see what you think. You can tune the handling a bit by changing tyre pressures. Currently I am running my S4 at 29psi all round but I intend to try some lower pressures at some point.

[richardcox_lotus]

I'm using Dunlop SP10's with tubes on my sprint. (Original Wheels so no beading)

I used to run 18/23 F/R but have increased it by a couple of pounds all round & prefer it. Also, although I think these tyres are fine (And cheap !) I have had 3 inner tube failures in 4 years. I think it's caused by the fact that modern tyres (including the SP10s) seem to have internal ridges for bracing. These then cut into the tube, making it more susceptible to failure. I think the problem is increased when setting the pressures low - the car isn't used every day & just sitting in the same spot for a couple of days tends to result in more problems

That's my theory, anyway !

[tonycharente]

RE: " I'm using Dunlop SP10's with tubes on my sprint. (Original Wheels so no beading) ":-

I'm happily running with Dunlop SP10's (rear) and SP30's (front) on my original S4 wheels WITHOUT TUBES. Indeed I seem to recall that one of the tyre options in period was TUBELESS (the Firestones? - I can't remember).

Has ANYBODY had ANY problem running modern tubeless tyres WITHOUT TUBES on the original S4 / Sprint wheels, please?

Tony

[1964 S1]

I run tubeless 165/70 Michelin MX4 on my S1 with stock steel wheels, they replaced the dry rotted but still good Pirelli tubeless. I don't race the car but corner hard and have never had a problem with deflation. Check the surface on the inside of your wheels where the tire mounts. Rusty/rough wheels = air leaks.

[reb53]

I've always run tubeless without any problems, apart from one occasion.
That was going sideways over a railway track which gave me 4 flats in about a tenth of a second !

Ralph.

[miked]

Steve,

I cant recall but did you say that you were tubeless with the XAS on the minilites.

Mike

[nebogipfel]

Uniroyal Rallye 680's Cheap and reasonable quality - I reluctantly chickened out and put tubes in them but have to say I don't like the look of the ribbing on the inside of lots of these modern tyres when it comes to fitting tubes.

The car feels fine on them. My only gripe is they have really ugly sidewalls ... lots of patterns and text proclaiming them to be wet weather tyres.

Back in the day my Sprint was shod with the original Dunlop SP Sports. They were fantastic, the car cornered like it was on rails and they also gave a very quiet and comfortable ride (if I remember correctly they were all textile construction which may go some way to explaining it) I think you can still buy very expensive modern SP Sports but I'll bet they're not the same.

[nebogipfel]

This was the same post again so I edited it

S..Sorry I must have St ..Stuttered

[stuartgb100]

Mike,

I know from talking to Steve that both he and I run the XAS FF tyres on Minilites, without tubes. Neither of us has yet noticed any loss of pressure.

I think both of us are still experimenting with various tyre pressure settings, though!

Regards,
Stuart.

[miked]

Stuart,

thanks for reply about the tubes. I take it that the minilite has the correct rim to suit tubeless. The guy at Longtone sold me a set of tubes (with the XAS) saying I need them ???. My miniltes have not arrived yet. So do you think I should not bother with them with having all the new right bits.


Re: the Dunlop SP Aqua jet. I purchase a set of these at quite high cost three years ago when I put my S4 on the road. I did about 75 Miles and then pulled them all off and wrote a letter of complaint. Absoloute pants. No side wall strength at all. I talked to P Matty who had a set upstairs that had been taken off. Came from that vintage trye place in the new forest area as I recall. They gave me my money back. I never had the pleasure of riding on the real ones in the 70's, would agree that they must have been good back then. The remakes that I had were certainly not. The hype that they were not available followed by finding them made me want them! The SP10s that I put on next were a lot better.

Mike

[stuartgb100]

Mike,

I checked with Minilite regarding inner tubes as soon as my Minilites arrived. They said that today's high manufacturing tolerances mean that the traditional rim profile (with a bead) is no longer necessary. In addition, each rim is computer-analysed after manufacture.

On the practical side, I know that Steve did some recent track work (Castle Coombe?). He has made no mention of problems.

Hopefully he'll jump in to this thread sometime soon.

Regards,
Stuart.