Tire Delimma!

[fred cook]

Tire Delimma!

Looking for new tires for my 1980 SC coupe. Currently it has Falken tires with 205-55-16 on the front and 245/45-16 on the rear. Wheels are Fuchs 7x16 front and 8x16 rear. Very few tire manufacturers offer the 245/45-16 size any longer. And, the ones that offer the 245/50-16 size mostly don’t offer the 215/55-16 size! After doing much research, I have come up with the following possible combinations:

1) Riken Raptor ZR A/S 205/55-16 fronts (ultra high performance all season) with Toyo Proxes T1R (ultra high performance summer) rears in 245/45-16 size. The tread patterns are almost identical with very similar UTQG (wear) ratings of 300 for the Riken tires and 280 for the Proxes.

2) The second possibility would be Cooper Tires Zeon RS3-G1 (ultra high performance all season) tires front and rear in 215/55-16 (front) and 245/50-16 rear. Ultra high performance rating with wear rating of 500. Downside is that they are made in China.

3) Next possibility would be BFGoodrich tires G-Force Comp-2 A/S (ultra high performance all season). Sizes would have to be 205/55-16 front and 245/50-16 rear. These tires would change the “rake” by about ˝” at the rear. Unfortunately they don’t make a 245/45-16 size tire. Good news is that they are made in the U.S.!

Given these choices (none perfect!), what say ye?

[ian c2]

https://tirecrawler.com/shop/result_staggered_tire/

[darrin]

fred -- since you can run 225/50-16 rears on your fuchs 16x8s, I'd strongly suggest considering Michelin a/s3+ in 205/55-16 front / 225/50-16 rear sizes -- I've been running these on my 16x7 / 16x8 fuchs for around 10k miles so far and they're, hands down, the favorite tires I've run in the 140k miles I've been driving my '86 targa -- specifically, they have great (even in very cold weather), progressive at limits and a compliant (but crisp) ride. FWIW, these were the first all seasont tires I've run on my Porsche

-- having just completed a 3.4 upgrade on my engine, I wouldn't be happy with a 10+ ft/lb drop in effective torque associated with the increased circumference of a 245/50-16 tire

[Arne2]

I second everything Darrin said, and add that the A/S3+ are made in USA also. Great tires!

[Trackrash]

Considered Toyo RA-1? https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Toyo&tireModel=Proxes+RA1

[joegt3cup]

Check out Longstone tires in the UK they carry the original Pirelli P7's excellent pricing and service.

Joe

[Bill Verburg]

Originally Posted by fred cook

Tire Delimma!

Looking for new tires for my 1980 SC coupe. Currently it has Falken tires with 205-55-16 on the front and 245/45-16 on the rear. Wheels are Fuchs 7x16 front and 8x16 rear. Very few tire manufacturers offer the 245/45-16 size any longer. And, the ones that offer the 245/50-16 size mostly don’t offer the 215/55-16 size! After doing much research, I have come up with the following possible combinations:

1) Riken Raptor ZR A/S 205/55-16 fronts (ultra high performance all season) with Toyo Proxes T1R (ultra high performance summer) rears in 245/45-16 size. The tread patterns are almost identical with very similar UTQG (wear) ratings of 300 for the Riken tires and 280 for the Proxes.

2) The second possibility would be Cooper Tires Zeon RS3-G1 (ultra high performance all season) tires front and rear in 215/55-16 (front) and 245/50-16 rear. Ultra high performance rating with wear rating of 500. Downside is that they are made in China.

3) Next possibility would be BFGoodrich tires G-Force Comp-2 A/S (ultra high performance all season). Sizes would have to be 205/55-16 front and 245/50-16 rear. These tires would change the “rake” by about ˝” at the rear. Unfortunately they don’t make a 245/45-16 size tire. Good news is that they are made in the U.S.!

Given these choices (none perfect!), what say ye?

w/ 7 & 8 forget any 245, you could mount them but any of them are suboptimally compromised for an 8
the most appropriate sized tires are 205/55(or 50) & 225/50
if you are looking for an A/S, MPS A/S 3+ & BFG G Force Comp-A/S are good places to start looking

[carreradpt]

Originally Posted by Arne2

I second everything Darrin said, and add that the A/S3+ are made in USA also. Great tires!

I am very satisfied with mine, about a thousand miles on them. Quiet, smooth and pretty good stick. I removed my 9's and my 205-55 and 245/45 re-11's and went with 8's in the rear with 225-50's. Very happy. I changed out to the m/s because I take long trips up the mountains in fall/spring and the temps had me concerned wearing the Potenzas.

[tirwin]

Another vote for the A/S3+. You know how the highways get with our big spring downpours. I would love to have a different set of summer tires for track days but I would not want to use sticky summer tires on long road trips. The A/S3+ is about as good as you can get short of a pure high performance summer tire.

[Arne2]

I had A/S3 (predecessor of the A/S3+) on my '84 Carrera at a driver skills clinic. One of the exercises was a wet skidpad and induced understeer/oversteer slides. I had the devil of a time getting the car to slide. The instructor asked my what tires were on the car. When I told him he shrugged and said, "Oh. You can't slide in the wet on these tires, not without a lot more speed than we can get here."

I just wish they made a 15" size suitable for my current 911T.

[fred cook]

I finally gave up on the 245/45 size tire and ordered a set of General Tire G-Max RS ultra high performance summer tires. Fronts are the good ole 205/55-16 and the rears are 225/50-16s. I'm hoping they will be here along about Monday. The reason I wanted another set of the 245/45-16 tires for the rear of my SC is that's what had been on the car for about 16 years and they worked great. When I first got my SC, it had the 225/50-16 tires on the rear and I seemed to spend a lot of time with my elbows twisted up applying opposite lock! Once I put the 245s on the back it was a much better controlled car. Also, it's funny how time can fly by and slip up on you! Something I discovered when I checked the tire manufacturing dates on the current Falken tires and discovered that they were dated for the 44th week of 2004! That's right, the tires are 16 years old! However, in fairness to them, they probably only have 20k-25k miles on them in that time. The age of those tires made me pause and think about the zooming around I have been doing over the last seven years since I rebuilt the 3.0 engine into a hot rod 3.3SS!

[creaturecat]

Michelins rule.

[Flojo]

Continental Sport Contact. Absolute great street tire. Best bang for the buck.

Even with Porsche spec N2 on the market (compound and sidewall reinforcement).

[Anglocanadian]

I have a set of General Tire G-Max RS,s on my BMW135 and the grip compared to the OEM runflats is incredible and also a lot quieter.
The only drawback is the need to keep them in warm place in the winter.

[Flojo]

Originally Posted by Anglocanadian

The only drawback is the need to keep them in warm place in the winter.

no problem. don't you kep your carparts in the bedroom as well?

[Anglocanadian]

Originally Posted by Flojo

no problem. don't you kep your carparts in the bedroom as well?

Actually when I lived in the UK and didn't have a garage I rebuilt my Lotus twincam in the spare bedroom !
The basement is now my "warm garage"