Tyres - yes, yet again!

[Bruce Crowthorne]

I am reaching the stage in my rebuild when I need to choose some tyres.

I have searched the archive and have seen mentions of ...

Dunlop SP10 good (when warm)
Michelins ?? bad (too hard) , XAS FF
Goodyear GP S good (esp. in wet), bad (too hard) or Eagle
Firestone ?? fair (like goodyear)
Pirelli P2500 good (predictable)
Kleber 145R13 average (unpredictable break)

I am keeping the standard 4.5 rims and would like decent all weather grip (I aim to use the car all year) and be suitable for the odd track day (well maybe once a year).

So what do you have on yours?

And what would you recommend?

Thanks in advance
Bruce

PS Sorry to keep asking dumb questions but hopefully you can bear with a newbie

[steveww]

Your info on the michelin is incorrect. The XAS FF is a very soft compound indeed. Excellent grip in wet and dry conditions as well being rated to 130mph which the others are not. The only down side with these tyres is the price.

[stuartgb100]

Another downside is the mileage (or lack of it !) that you can expect from the soft compound ... particularly if you're planning all-year use.

Having said that, I'm also running the Michelins (albeit no more than 5k mileage), and am very happy with them.

Regards,
Stuart.

[Bill]

I find Pirellie P2500 to be excellant for road use - on my car for 3 years

[poiuyt]

Yokahama Y379B - 165/70X13, "S" speed rated and about $45 per tire at Tire rack.

I use these on both the 69 Elan S4 and the 78 Fiat X1/9. Perfectly fine for the street - good in the wet (mostly in the Fiat - don't drive the Lotus when it's raining) and no tire squeal around the turns.

Steve Becker
New York

[pamitchell]

Does anyone have experience with Vredestein Sprint + tires,155-13?
TIA
Phil

[patrics]

Hi
This is a question for Steveww.
Steve you must have had your Michelins for over a year now and by the sound of it done lots, including trackdays so how are they wearing? how many miles have you done?
Obviously you wouldn't want them to "go off" before they wear out, so time wise how long should a soft compound tyre last?

Regards
Steve

[steveww]

IIRC the Michelins have been fitted for 2 years now. I do about 3000 miles per year so they will have done aproximately 6000 miles now. This milage would have been a mix of enthusiastic back road blatting, track days and regular driving. So far they have plenty of life left in them. Certainly the track days do tend to scrub down tread a bit.

[1964 S1]

Michelins for me. Definetly not Goodyear Eagles. Nothing too hard. Yokohama sounds like a good deal.
Ask as many questions as you need! Keeping Elans on the road benefits our whole small tribe.

[msd1107]

I seem to remember on a site that gave specs for the Michelin XAS tire that the tread wear rating was 60. Assuming 100 gives 20,000 miles, then you might expect as much as 12,000 miles per set. Of course, track days would bring that down substantially.

It seems that most of the rest of the tires mentioned here are for small sedans, and give rather pathetic figures for cornering grip. With tread wear ratings of 220, 250, 300, or more, the amount of traction they offer would be rather limited.

Back when Elans were new, one of the magazines tested the Elan for cornering. They got .73g with standard tire pressures of 18/23 and .78g with 28/33. This was with what passed for high performance rubber in those days. And no car got above .78g, so the Elan was as good as it got.

I'll bet that using modern sedan based tires would get roughly the same cornering performance, which means that many modern cars would have ultimate cornering capability that exceeds what the Elan could do with these tires. Of course, we would feel we still have a good cornering vehicle because the small size gives the impression of better cornering performance (and in tight corners that is true)

So the XAS, with its more modern and sticky rubber would give a more modern level of cornering performance. And provided you can live with the cost of the tires is probably the best compromise.

David
1968 36/7988

[1964 S1]

Mine are MX 4's. Are XAS available in our size?

[msd1107]

Michelin XAS are available in 155-13, 165-13, and 185-13 sizes. See:

http://www.antiquetyres.com.au/michelin.html

http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/radial.php

David
1968 36/7988

[pereirac]

I seem to remeber Paul Matty in the UK suggesting Uniroyals?