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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - Tyres

Whats the current feeling on tyres please. Been running on Yokohama 195 x 60 A539, on 15in wheels. In my limited hands performed very well, but no longer availble in this size and I don't want to decrease profile size. Don't want long life or economy, just good un sticky!
Rich Evans

I use Eagle F1 in that size
Paul

As a follow on to this thread; what size tyres can i go up to without having to put any spacers in? I am looking at fittining 195's on standard MGB body. At present i have 14 rims.

Thanks
Graham
GLG Lavis

Michelins XM1's, Nice big water channels so good in wet weather as well. I had read that Michelins are not good in the wet , apparently not true in at least this case. High treadwear rating and low rolling resistance. Quiet.
195 by 60 on 15 by 6 inch wheels. No rear guard flareing required. The closest point is about three quaters of the way back on the rear wheels Graham. No rubbing but certainly less than one centimeter clearance. I would not go any larger (195 by 70's for example) as these will bulge more and likely rub. also this will throw your speedo out and in Australia at least is outside the max for legal wheel tyre diameter on MG's.
Peter

Peter is right about size - I have heard the same about Michelins too but they are expensive so I am using a korean V rating Hancoop tyre - which are half the price and reasonably sticky.

Roger
RMW

The Kuhmo Ecsta V700 in a 205/50ZR15 is a great choice. They should last around 3000 miles and come with 5/32" of tread for racing. Talk about sticky!!! You would definately need a panhard rod though, and that's the smallest width offered in 15".
Jeff Schlemmer

Is it worth going upto a 15" rim's?
GLG Lavis

195-60-14 Falken Azenis. They are very sticky and still handle the rain. Cheap also (kinda). After many years of running all my cars on "R" compound tires, these are the way to go

Pete
Pete

If y'all say so, but I swear by my Toyo Proxes RA1s (205/55-14) shaved to 5/32". I dont care if I have to replace them every 2 years. Awesome tire.

http://www.toyo.com/tires/tire_lines/high_perf/ra1.html
Carl Floyd

I've got a set of Goodyear Eagle F1's on my Alfa GTV and they're a fantastic tyre, and excellent in the wet.

When the time comes to replace the tyres on my GT I'll definitely be replacing them with F1's.

Paul
Paul Grundy

GLG
Steering gets lighter and more responsive with larger wheels lower profile tyres. Also little bit more rubber on the road. Essentially is a case of, if you are going to buy new wheels anyway, then you may as well go up a little in size cause it won't cost you anything to do so.
I had to replace my rostyle wheels with minilite replicas to fit the wider ventilated type brake calipers, and I also needed new V rated tyres for the V8 swap. made sence to get 15 by 6 wheels with 195by60 tyres instead of 14 by 5's etc .
Peter

Try www.edworthys.co.uk, I think they got them in stock.
I run the same tyre and find it excellent in the dry and wet.
Nick

It's a bit of a generalization to assume that a 15" tire will put more rubber on the road than 14". Might be so in some (okay, maybe many) cases.

There is more to the contact patch equation than just diameter & section width. The tread design (especially the void ratio) & crown radius of the tread also contribute to the contact patch area. So much so, that I bet my 205/55-14s have a bigger contact patch than most 15s used here.

http://www.toyojapan.com/tires/pdf/TTT_08.pdf
Carl Floyd

I'll second the vote for Falken Aziens the model 215 is an awesome deal although I think they are being discontinued as we speak to make way for the 615 which is an equally awesome tire with vastly improved wet weather performance. The Model 215 is SUPER CHEAP especially in the 14" size. I have them on a 90 Miata aned they transformed an already great handling car. They stick like glue, but are really a summer performance tire. The 615 will handle the wet as well but costs much more. Grassroots Motorsprots did a pretty goot tire comparo many months ago and the 215 betters tires costing many times more.

Autocrossers on a budget swear by them. I think I paid maybe $220 for all four of them.

Regards,


Brian C.
Brian Corrigan

Carl:

I have been where you are and have ended up where Brian is at: Got hooked on sticky autocross tires with the old yoko 008R, on to the BFG-R-1, then had to try the Kuhmo Victoracers (On the GT from hell as we speak) and now the Falken Azenis on my daiy driver. Keep in mind that these are all street driven cars with the odd track day or autocross. I only ever had a seat cleaning moment due to rain once (that is all it takes) and learned to respect them in the rain. The Azenis offer ablut 90% of that dogged grip that you get from the pure race rubber, plus the bonus of not having to do two laps of the hood to warm them up. I expect to get 3 seasons of driving out of the Azenis while the autocross rubber was getting a bit thin by the end of the second summer.

If I was trying to hook up the power of a V8 with the limited tire sizes that will fit the MG, I think the "R" compound tires would be almost mandatory after some form of anti-wind up for the axle. The Azenis would be a real good compromise for real world driving.

Pete
Pete

Thanks, Pete.

I'll keep that in mind when the cords start showing. ;)
Carl Floyd

This thread was discussed between 21/02/2006 and 25/02/2006

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