I am sorting out a few things on my newly purchased 1.8 mk1 and have been looking into wheels and tires, I was originally going to change them to 15 inch with 195 50s but after spending a bit of time working on the old gal this week she is in remarkable condition for her age and looking pretty original, so now I am thinking of keeping the original 14 inch rims with 185 60s as I like the loriginal look ( and of course the wheel tire combination would be lighter) so can anyone recommend a really good 14 inch tire ( both in the wet as well as the dry) or would the 15 inch option really be that much better, my main objective is to keep it looking as original as poss.
My mk1 came with a newish set of Continental Eco Contact 5s, which I expected to want to change. Once I got the suspension sorted and aligned I’ve been really happy with them. Lots of people really rate Toyo Proxies and various Khumbos too.
I had Vredestein Sportrac 3 on my NB (195/50R15), and was very happy with them wet and dry. They also did 60 or so laps of Castle Combe (dry) without drama. Good on wear too. The 3’s aren’t available any more but the Sportrac 5 is about £40 in your size from mytyres.
Dunlop Sport BluResponse have reviewed well I believe, and are only a couple of quid more.
Both are asymmetric. The Vreds I had were directional, but i don’t see why they would replace the Sportrac 3 with a poorer tyre.
My 19 yr old daughter shares my 1.8 mk1 with me so I wanted tyres which would be safe in wet and dry conditions. I have fitted Rain Expert 3 tyres and they are really excellent and not too noisy
Cheers
Matt
Yep. The UniRoyal rain experts are fantastic. Made my mk1 feel like it had grown ABS in wet conditions compared to my Pirelli P6000’s which were scary.
Running on Dunlop Street Response now and they are brilliant all round tyres for the mk1 on 14" rims. Not as tenacious in the wet as the Rain Experts but that is ok by me.
Good matched boots make all the difference on an MX5
That is certainly true IME. My Mk2 came with a Firestone and a Kumho on the front, and a pair of Barum Bravuris on the back. The back was sliding at very moderate speeds at nearly every roundabout if there was any sign of moisture. They all had good tread.
The four new Vredesteins cured it, 100%. Never had the experience again.
I am very fussy about tyres, and although there’s no law against it I will not have different tyres front and rear, and I move them round to wear them evenly, replacing them all at the same time; sometimes it is impossible to match tyres if you only need two, and even if you can, different tread depth means different grip levels especially in the wet.
It stands to reason that if you have differential grip front to rear you will change the balance, and if you have less grip at the rear than the front it is potentially dangerous. I had a Land Rover that locked the back tyres very easily in the wet - having the back trying to overtake the front when you are trying to slow down is not remotely funny.
Thanks all for your replies, I think it will either be the vredesteins or the uniroyals depending on availability, I think I will stick with the 14s for the moment as even with the mismatched tires that I have on now it drives very nicely so thing can only get better.
Economically, the tyre you decide on should should be chosen on how many miles you drive on them each year, and also whether you are a fare weather driver like me. Why pay for expensive tyres if you only drive about 3,000 miles each year? The tyres will have started to deteriorate long before the tread is all used up. My tyres are inexpensive and the car sticks to road on bends as though it was on tram lines.
I disagree with this quite strongly. The measure of a tyre is more than it’s wear rate.
Premium tyres as well as offering better overall grip and performance are more capable at the times you need them most. Should you need to anchor up then a premium tyre will allow shorter stopping distances - in that situation they really can be the difference between bent metal or not. Also good tyres tend to lose grip more progressively so if you do find yourself on the limit for whatever reason it is less likely you will lose control.
14" tyres for the mx5 are not expensive for premium brands anyway - roughly £40-50 a a corner. You may save a tenner a corner going for cheaper tyres but is it really worth scrimping on the only contact between you and the road?
We all have our “favourite” types of tyre and personal opinions but fitting better quality tyres is generally cheaper than paying for the aftermath of an unnecessary insurance claim!
I always research the tyre rating labels. I often do it by looking at Ebay pictures and those on other online tyre suppliers; by law they should display the rating labels of tyres put up for sale. I ignore the ones that don’t.
i totally agree with you on there is more to a tyre than just its wear rate, I personally want something that’s going to be good in both the dry and the wet with no unexpected surprises and in this case something that is going to suit the car ( not too big, to small or too heavy)
I pay close to £175 a corner for my Mazda 6 and my motorcycle tyres are not cheap either but I value my life and don’t mind paying that bit extra for good quality… on a separate note, I can remember when people used to fit remould tyres to save a bit of money and the roadsides used to be littered with bits of tyre.
I have just ordered vredestein sportrac 5 all round in 185-60-14 (as I really wanted to keep the light wheels) should be here tomorrow afternoon ready for the mobile fitter to come round and fit them Thursday morning, will report my thoughts on them once done a few miles.
I hope they are as good for you as the 3’s were for me.
The tyre fitter should not need you to point out that they are asymmetric and a subtle check that they say ‘outside’ on the outside when fitted may avoid giving offence!
I’d be inclined to try them on the Mk4 when it needs some, but the Yokohama V105 seem fine, and the Vreds only seem to come as XL in 195/50/R16. I assume yours will be 82H?
I would hope you wouldn’t feel the need to tell a surgeon to ensure they have new, sharp scalpel’s or to say to a plumber, make sure you use solder in those joints. Why you would feel the need to tell someone who fits tyres for a living that they have to get the outside face on the outside? Would you expect to say “make sure you fit those directional tyres so there are two left and two right” or “make sure you fit the bigger tyres at the back”?
As a tyre fitter, I can tell you that Sportrac5 do not have Outside anywhere on them. Like many asymmetric tyres they have only the inside face marked.
No, I wouldn’t tell a tyre technician or a plumber how to do his or her job, and I didn’t suggest that. But mistakes happen.
I have complete confidence in the tyre man I use, I drop the car or wheels off and leave him to it, and he has given me some very valuable advice over the years. But I would try to satisfy myself that they knew what they were doing if I hadn’t used them before.
There are less competent (or less careful) tyre people and plumbers as with any profession, and I have come across both. In the case of the one in a tyre bay it was a very young and clearly inexperienced youngster in a local tyre business with a very good reputation who cheerfully sheared a stud on the spare wheel mounting of my CRV. I managed to stop him doing the other two. I haven’t been back.
The experience with a surgeon who twice tried to send my wife home with an infection that her GP had sent her to hospital with, insisting she did not have one, was rather more serious. Blood test and scan revealed that she did indeed have one, which was then operated on. Said surgeon was nowhere to be seen.