Tyres..

nathan.warren69

Ex. Club Member
Hi Guys,

I need to get some new tyres on my car as the current ones are getting low on tread and the rear ones are really old, any suggestions on which ones I should get and how much I should look to pay? im looking for a cheap-ish performance tyre, please share your experiance :)

Thanks in advance :)
 
How much should i look to pay for those and what are they like? I havent got traction control ( Annoyingly ) so i need something that can help reduce the slip..
 
Dunno what price in your size but you won't get better grip for the money :).
 
how much did you pay for a set of nankangs? I just thought if im going to get new tyres might aswell pay a little more and get some decent rubber currently my torquey little engine will smoke the tyres when pulling away fast if i dont get the revs just right, i just want a little more grip :)
 
haha whys that :) I just have to remember that yes I have no traction control and a surprising powerful engine, it would just be nice to not spin so much when you take off quick, is there anyway to make the power come in sooner, currently the power doesnt come in until about 20 in first and about 45 in second..
 
Fair enough, i just wondered if with lower Profile ones, they would make the car much bumpyer or if handling will be improved or anything or if they would just look differnt?
 
doesnt sound like a bad deal :) also will Lower profile tyres make a differnce to handling or performance?

http://autospeed.com/cms/A_108915/article.html

with a normal open-diff, each wheel can only handle so much torque during launch. once one of the front wheel spins, the excess torque is then simply wasted away as heat n smoke from that tyre. the other wheel would receive minmal torque. result is loss of traction and poor acceleration.

to make full use of the available traction from both front tyres and the available torque for the greatest accelration, install an LSD
 
Sorry to sound dumb but LSD being Limited Slip Diff? and what would this do and how would it be fitted?

yep limited slip diff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_Slip_Differential

This is my Gripper 1.5way clutch type LSD i brought off matt humphris in oxford.
not cheap at £750 but essential for high power setups imo

scaled.php


see my blog page 50 post 2453 for details
http://micra.org.uk/threads/pollymobiles-rebuild.35251/page-50

what happens is torque going through the diff ring & diff casing forces the diff pinion pin against this wedge shaped ram which then pushes against these clutch discs between the diff casing and the driveshaft.
the result is the more torque applied, the more the driveshaft are "braked/locked" against the casing, which couples the 2 wheels together therefore engine torque is shared more equally between them.
 
nathan.warren69 said:
how much did you pay for a set of nankangs? I just thought if im going to get new tyres might aswell pay a little more and get some decent rubber currently my torquey little engine will smoke the tyres when pulling away fast if i dont get the revs just right, i just want a little more grip :)

I didn't pay for them they were on the car when I bought it, the tyres themselves are part worns which are at least 3yrs old covered approx 20k miles (if not more) and still have plenty of life in them, I find they only loss traction in the wet other than that they are really good value for money
 
That's what I like about Toyo's. They're the only tyre I've ever had that give me grip confidence in the rain :).
 
I've got plenty of confidence in the nankangs in the rain, but heavy acceleration in the rain will get them slipping but show me a tyre that would hold its grip under them circumstances
 
aye they both affect one another but are different parameters with different limits.
traction is the max longitudinal force a tyre can handle before slipping.
cornering grip is the max lateral force a tyre can handle before slipping.

saw this vid of tiff talkin bout grip n traction when cornering


tyres can only handle a limited amount of shearing force both forwards & sideways combined, depending on the tyres Cof and the amount of downforce.

subjecting a tyre to shearing forces only longitudinally or laterally at any one time will make full use of the tyres ability within its limits (tis why you should brake and accelerate in a straight line and corner with a balanced throttle).

subjecting the tyres to both shearing directions at the same time (accelerating or braking during cornering) and you're asking the tyre to share its limited total ability between both grip & traction.
when both of them combined exceeds the tyres total limit, the tyre begins to slip and lose both traction & grip, which allows that corner of the car to slide towards where it naturally wants to, straight ahead.
 
What sort of gains would i get from lower profile tyres? Pro's and Con's?

Low profiles are to give you less roll therefore better handling but the price to pay is the lower the profile the more uncomfortable the ride.With ultra lows you feel every bump in the road,and you'll definately be avoiding big potholes.The welding guru in my hometown does a lot of business repairing cracked & broken alloy wheels for low profile owners.
The other consideration is filling the arch gap,if your car is as low as it can go then 40mm or less profiles look ok & may help with less arch scraping,but there's no point suffering such tyres if you've got a big gap between arch & tyre.I put some 18" wheels with 45mm profile on a Jaguar XJ6 with standard suspension & it has made a noticable difference to the ride quality,if I had bought the wheels & tyres new I would have gone for a bigger profile,even going up to a 60mm profile would have made a positive difference & filled the gap.And I would have had narrower rims so I got some protection from kerbs,scratched them the first time I parked!
Also what I've found is that ultra low profiles get stuck in the track of the road ie.They want to follow the white lines and camber of the road..
With road cars I think it's about getting the balance right between road/track looks & comfort with wheels and suspension.ie.it's great having a very low car with ultra low profiles but if you've got to drive the car everyday on our rubbish roads it can take the fun out of it...
I always buy second hand tyres,the shops/E bay are full of good quality part worns from scrapped/unfinished projects for a fraction of the price new...
 
a mate at work has nankangs on his astra they where on it when he bought it and he said they are awful especially in the wet
i have seen references to them on the net and they have been called ditch finders , hedge finders as that will probably be where you end up in bad weather.
buy the best tyre you can ,i like the continental 3 used them for years not the cheapest tyre around but its worth paying a bit extra when you think you have an area about 13mm wide across the width of the tyre keeping you on the road in all conditions
 
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