Iām going to replace all 4 on my ND, 16" wheels, the following Kumho variants are available in 205/45/16
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Ecsta Le Sport Ku 39
Ecsta PS31
Solus 4S (looks like an all season tyre)
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Any thoughts on which of the above may suit the MX-5 better?
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Iām not interested in negative comments about Kumho, or this brand is better commentsā¦
We have Kumho Ecsta PS31 on our old 2002 Sport Ian. They have proved more than sufficiently grippy, are wearing even & very well.
Not the best in the wetāonly ifā¦ if you are deliberately inducing the locking diff by dropping the clutchĀ ā¦but much, much better than even the Toyo Proxes we all used to default to.
However, I find I can maintain as safe progress at the same speeds wet or dry. Heavy water dispersal is excellent.Ā
However, our chassis is ancient in design comparisons of course.Ā
Frankly, Iād be onto NickD here if you do not get definative answers (our resident tyre expert guru.)
Heās not biased as to what he sells.Ā
Hope this helps.t
i have the PS31s on my NC sport (front Tyres) Pirelli Cinturatos on the rear.
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really good tyres, i have used khumo on previous cars and i think they really are under rated unlike hankook which i find are extremely overated.
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u had the KU39s on a Renault megane a Fabia VRS and couldnt complain. think the PS31s are meant to be the āsportā type as they seem to have a chequered flag on the sidewall
I expect you will only get the KU39 in that size, certainly from UK stock anyway.
I have these Ecsta Le Sport Ku 39 fitted to my Mk3 sport in 17ās, I can fully recommend them.
In the 17" size I thought Iād read they have been replaced by the HS51, the 16" size could still be available, NickD would confirm this most definately.
Gosh!Ā
40 odd years ago there were very few variants on passenger car tyre sizes, today there are many hundreds if not thousands. No one manufacturer makes āallā tyre sizes.Ā
The most popular car (PCR) tyre size tyre size in Europe is 205 55 16. If you have any aspirationsĀ to be a volume tyre supplier you will make this size. Going on the good old 80/20 rule of those thousand tyre sizes, 80% of the volume will be in 20% of the sizes. the 345 35 15 Lancia Stratos rear tyre is not a high volume item. The decision for a manufacture to make a certain tyre will depend on market size and other conditions. As new cars and also tyre demands are evolving new tyres may come along but manufactures may not want to invest the Ā£40K plus into mould tooling, then the considerable expense of testing and standards approvals into what they see as a low volume product, especially if they have an existing product or that market sector is already well covered. Additionally a PCR tyre takes on average 24 minutes to produce so at full 24 hour capacity a mould can only make 60 tyres or 15 cars worth in a day. A factory will have many moulds and machined dedicated to the 205 55 16 tyre and other popular sizes, but to make low volume products there will be less equipment and also producing these takes away from other production which is why frequently smaller less popular tyre cost more than larger popular ones. Also, tyre production is driven by orders, so while a manufacturer may list a tyre and may even have produced it previously, they are not going to manufacture and stock pile thousands tyres unless they are confident of the sales.Ā
So as far as 205 45 16" tyres go, while it was used on cars like the 206 GTi and others, it is still not a popular tyre and decreasing in popularity as those cars decline. Therefore a manufactures will be less inclined to invest in new tyre designs in that size, or not at all, and will therefore continue to supply older patterns if they have a demand. It is also possible that they have produced the newer design in a particular size and list it, but that there is no demand for it and in particular in the global market it may when be geographicalĀ influences such as Kwik Fit in the UK buys a tyre in Pattern A because it sells here because we like a certain type of car and driving where as Hungaryās Kwik Fit buys the same size but in a different pattern because it suits their market better.Ā
So all of that is to explain why tyres come in different flavors.
The final bit of this is that every ad and piece of marketing for every tyre in history says they are brilliant at everything super short dry braking to improved response in the wet, yada yada!Ā
The HS51 is Kumhoās comfort biased tyre. It is asymmetric. It replaced amongst others the KH31 tyre pattern. It is considered to be more āpremiumā than the SP31, what ever that means and generally is noticeablyĀ refined, as in less noisy. It is not a sports tyre in that it has a relatively compliant carcass and while it turns in fine it only has average grip. If you push hard you will feel the tyre roll and will squeal loudly. Not that it lets you down, it has great progression even in the wet letting you know what is going to happen next if you keep on and that can be a very great blessing to many drivers particularly in MX-5ās
The PS3 is a directional tyre and sits on the sport side of the comfort / sport divide. I canāt really tell you anything about it because I have never used them. Kumhoās stock ordering system does not list them in any of the MX-5 sizes although they can be had from Europe.Ā
The PS71, I have fitted and used a lot of. Again it suits the MK-5 well. It is more sport oriented than the PS31. Itās wet performance on road in both cornering and braking is very decent and while it wonāt have the ultimate dry performance of more aggressive tyres it does a good job.Ā
The KU39 is an older design and was being phased out in favour of the PS range, but as above it still exists in a number of sizes and in Europe it can still be got in sizes that are not imported into the UK. Again a decent tyre, had good wet performance if not worn, could take a few laps on track without falling to bits but was noisy compared to the more modern designs.Ā
Thanks Nick
I have KU39 on my VXR, Iāve been happy with them (apart from getting a nail in one).
Iām be interested to know why you would fit 205/45 instead of 195/50. More choice, cheaper?
Iāll probably replace mine later this year but it wouldnāt cross my mind to depart from the specified size. How do insurers view this, I suppose you have to tell them?
You beat me to it John. I was just about to ask the same question.
Probably what I meantā¦ just as well I didnāt order any, mixing bits of size in my head with the Rav 4 maybe
We have 7 cars in our household. Only one of them has the size of tyres on that it left the factory with. 2 have smaller ones and 4 have larger.Ā
You can go to your BMW dealer tomorrow and the car that you can buy from the showroom you could leave with at least 3 different options from the accessory shelf.Ā
wider Tyres give more grip( generally speaking), 195 was probably decided on by Mazda because it was a good compromise on cost, grip, and fuel efficiency, personally I couldnāt give a monkeys about efficiency and to a lesser degree cost, I want the best tyre on the car, if that mean changing the width then so be it, as long as you are within the recommended size range for the wheel then nobody will care.
To close this out, 4 x Kumho Ecsta HS51 fitted at 07:00 (thought they were taking the **** when that time was offered, howeverā¦) this morning, too cold and too soon to give real impressions yet.
So, 16 days later how have you found them ?
I am currently researching 205/50 R16 for my NC 2.0 Roadster Coupe.
Itās a minefield of differing opinionsā¦
Currently considering
The Kunhoās you have
Goodyear Efficient grip Performance
Uniroyal Rainsport 3
Vredstein Quadtrac 5 ( all season)
Wet handling and wet braking are probably my priorities, i had a bit of a moment on day 2 of my ownership of this car going slowly round a sharp bend whilst accelerating out, which dented my confidence in my current 6 year old tyres ( Falken somethingsā¦ )
From the options you have above and your priorities Iād choose the Rainsports, Iāve had them and they are great in the wet, I guess the name kinda says that
So far so good, I did a 200 mile round trip last week which included dual carriageway and included a trip from near Brechin to Banchory over the Cairn oā Mount (link) which is a road that can be used to assess tyre performance if you choose to do so.
https://goo.gl/maps/ErGvf3pfnUE2
This is a video from an earlier run to get an idea: https://youtu.be/rNAfKOrAGzk
The tyres are grippy enough on cold and damp roads when driven appropriately for the conditions (not driven in real wet conditions yet) and steering response is lighter than the Advans. The sidewalls also feel softer which will be linked in part to the steering feel though not to the point of being a concern, if it was I guess a couple of extra PSI would likely help.
The back end of the 5 will try to step out quite often in the circumstances you describe, more likely to do it when going slowly, a balanced set of 4 tyres at the correct PSI and a geo alignment will help make it less of a drama.