Tyres Yet Again!

[terryp]

Hello
I curently have 185/70 13 Goodyear and apart from a small amount of rubbing at the front wheel arch under heavy breaking everything looks and feels OK
BUT the tyres are getting old, but I'd really like the car to look the same (I don't like the look of +2s with smaller diameter tyres)

Whats the best to use now?
Toyo 350?
Yokohamas A021s (I have these on my Caterham and I don't think its possible to lose the car!)

I can't spend loads of money as they would have to be posted here and then the local garage charges nearly as much as the tyres to put them on.
Also I've heard of garages having problems with Lotus alloys, what's this all about?

Thanks to all

Terry
PS I've tried to search but it seems a topic that the answers change with time.......

[peterako]

Hi Terry,

There's another thread running in the Elan section on this.

I have Vredestein Sprint + 80s on my +2 and they're pretty good all round tyres. (165 R80 13s)

Plenty of good grip in the dry and wet, though the car is, by nature, a bit more tail happy in the wet on our lovely 3rd world greasy roads here....

I would guess that the Yoko's are grippier but wear quicker(?)

Yes, tyres are a very tight fit on the Lotus Alloy rims. Taking the old ones off may be the biggest problem as the garage may be afraid of damaging the rim.

Plenty of grease is in order.

Take care,
Peter

[kstrutt11]

I have 175/70 yokohama's on mine, they grip really well and transformed the handling. Fitting tyres on the std alloy's is very tight, one of my wheels had a slightly wide rim and had to be machined back to get the tyres on.

[terryp]

Thanks for that, I've just checked and the Yokos are ?100 less 12.5% + Postage per tyre
So what else , my budget is no more than ?50 to ?60 / tyre
Thanks

Terry

[terryp]

Hi Terry,

There's another thread running in the Elan section on this.

I have Vredestein Sprint + 80s on my +2 and they're pretty good all round tyres. (165 R80 13s)

Plenty of good grip in the dry and wet, though the car is, by nature, a bit more tail happy in the wet on our lovely 3rd world greasy roads here....

I would guess that the Yoko's are grippier but wear quicker(?)

Yes, tyres are a very tight fit on the Lotus Alloy rims. Taking the old ones off may be the biggest problem as the garage may be afraid of damaging the rim.

Plenty of grease is in order.

Take care,
Peter

Peter
I found these on a French web site but which ones?
http://www.achat-pneus.fr/pneus-vredestein/sprint-plus/

Thanks
Terry

[terryp]

Thanks also to John who sent me a PM.
PS your email address is not working!

Terry

[peterako]

Hi Terry,

165 R13 82T

Not sure what the difference between the two that the site has listed (other than price and one marked for good weather only....).

I paid ?50 each fitted (Might have been a bit less)

Best of luck,
Peter

[terryp]

What about this one?
http://www.allopneus.com/YOKOHAMA-S760- ... 16170.html

[twincamman]

I use 25 pounds all around on my 7 europa and elan -WITH 1/8 TH total TOE IN AT FRONT AND 1/16 REAR --the handling is neutral to slight over steer on throttle off --turn in is even -----so you may start there ---I use 185 13 arriva good year and the only good thing about them is they are round and hold air --so---under steer is when the front of the car hits the guard rail ---over steer is when the back of the car hits the guard rail ---horse power is how far into the guard rail you go and torque is how much of the guard rail you take with you ------------tail happy is for Jimmy Bob Thornton in his NASCAR chebby -ed

[Famous Frank]

Terry, I too am looking for tires for my S2 Elan, and good High Performance tires in a 13 inch size have dried up. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with any of these three tires? I'm considering 175/60 x 13 on Panasports 5 inch wide.

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?d ... htweiter=1

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?d ... htweiter=1

http://ssl.delti.com/cgi-bin/rshop.pl?d ... htweiter=1

The prices are sure right.

[Daholmes19]

I picked up 4 Doral tires a few weeks ago (thx Tony) they are being fitted in the next few weeks. I won't know how well they perform until the snow as gone but again you can't fault the price.

http://www.treadepot.com/tirelist.html? ... nd=1857013

Only issue I could find on line, they are a Cooper tire generic brand, is a complaint they wear quickly, not an issue for me

Cheers
Dave
Woodstock, ON
Canada

[JJDraper]

This may be heresy, but I am seriously considering downsizing back to something close to the original tyre width. I currently have 14" Minilites with 175/70 Dunlop SP Sport 200 tyres, and have covered a reasonable mileage (10k) in the last year in varying conditions from dry, to wet - very wet and snow & ice. They have given and continue to give great grip. I am getting the car ready for its first MOT test after a year back on the road and here's the thing, I put back on a set of the old 165/80 13" wheels and they felt better to drive on. Less grip, sure, but the car felt sweeter, lighter and more controllable. Among the items I have to fix for the MOT is the sloppy steering which has developed, traced to a severely knackered steering joint. Simple, you say, fit an upgraded steering joint, to replace the old original type -which was new last year, and that is what I intend to do. My beef is that the forces transmitted by the wider tyres are feeding back into the rest of the suspension and get me worried about what is the next weak link -upright? hub? Wheel bearings? In addition, I have noticed an increase in fuel use of over 5MPG(imperial), compared to the pre-resto car, which used 165/80 X 13s. Does the car really need the level of grip of wider tyres? Does it make for a 'better' car, or just one that goes round bends faster? If you only use the car for a few miles year, this probably doesn't worry you, but 5MPG over 10k miles adds up to over 400GBP a year, or a set of new tyres...

On the plus side, the grip of the wider tyres is fantastic, especially in the wet. I wonder if I could get the same levels of grip with narrower section tyres with stickier rubber, such as the Michelin XAS' often talked about. With the saving in fuel, I would be almost able to afford a new set every year!

Honestly though, do the pro's of wider tyres outweigh the cons I have outlined above? - Discuss!

Jeremy

[terryp]

Jeremy
Very interesting, I have a similar problem.I have 185/70x 13's on the car and I am frightened that by fitting 165/80 x 13's I will notice loss of grip?
Its exasperated by the fact we have 3 other cars .....an old Jeep Cherokee, an old VW Golf Mk 3 and a Caterham. Before we got the Caterham the Lotus steering felt ultra tight , the Golf OK and the Jeep very floppy. After getting the Caterham which the steering feels ultra ultra tight, the Lotus feels OK but a bit floppy, the Golf feels floppy and the Jeep feels positively dangerous. My fear is that by going for the thinner tyres this will this be even worse!
Would the difference between 185's and 165's on Lotus alloys be that different?
Thanks
Terry

[JJDraper]

To add to my previous post, tyre pressures make a hell of a difference to the absolute grip. I run the 175's at 23psi front 25back and the 165's would run lower, down to around 20/22, front/rear. In the dry and driving fast, I would run at higher pressures; but winter and in the wet, run lower. The cars are very sensitive to tyre pressure - I suspect playing around with this can alter your view on just about any tyre! The car also seems to need to get the tyres warm to get the best out of them - for the first 5-10miles they always seem dead.

Now that there is no free air in the UK, I use my own mini compressor and an accurate gauge.

Jeremy

PS Terry, I would check your steering joint. You need a willing helper to slowly wiggle the steering wheel, while you look and feel for play in the steering joint or elsewhere in the steering train. It took the assistance of Mrs D to trace the problem in 30 secs!

[AussieJohn]

Free air in Sainsburys in East Yorkshire. [A bit far to come though!]