Hi,
Having just failed an MOT due to damage to wheel bead rims on both near side wheels, I’m considering buying a new set of (non Mazda) alloys and have noticed a few people on the net do tyre and wheel deals. Most offer a choice of tyres to go with your chosen wheel.
I currently have Bridgestone 205/45/R16s on all four wheels.
What are people’s views on a good replacement (or even if sticking with the Bridgestones might be the best bet).
Many thanks.
Federal 595 RS
Cheap + Very Grippy
Alan
LET THE ARGUING COMMENCE !!!
[:P]
Anyway, I have 195/50/15’s with a Michelin pilot flavour at the moment, But in the other room are my refurbed alloys fitted with Toyo proxies T1R’s with 195/45/16 for the front and 215/40/16 for the back, When I get around to fitting them I’ll let you all know if the 215’s was a huge mistake [:O].
(The Michelin pilot’s are good though.)
Scotty B
I’ve just swapped Marangoni Zetas (excellent wet or dry, but they wear quickly) for Toyo T1Rs (underwhelming so far, but fingers crossed - see my thread).
I’ve also had on my MX5 in the last three years:
Bridgestone Potenza somethings (quite grippy wet or dry, delaminate when horribly abused)
Falken somethings (average, but predicatable)
Yokohama A048 (grippy when hot, less so when cold or wet)
Colway cut slicks (grippy when hot, terrifying when cold or wet, utterly unpredicable, needed loads of balancing weights and were a pain to fit leading to three written off wheels)
Yokohama 509 (average, but predicatable)
Falken Eurowinter (awesome in snow, amusingly low grip in the dry)
Pirreli P-Zero (good in the dry, terrifying in the wet)
Bridgestone M+S winter tyres (amusingly low on grip, hard wearing and no delamination)
plus a few dozens others of that I had for too short a period of time to make a judgement.
My GF has Federals on her Civic to replace the OE Bridgestones, and we both hate them (vague sloppy feeling and slightly unpredicable)
Be aware that my MX5 is driven to and from track events on public roads in all weathers. All opinions above were based on road use except comments about delamination, which were based on the sort of driving that takes a new tyre down to the canvas in a couple of miles.
I’ve found Marangoni Zetas to be the best compromise between grip in all conditions and the high wear (about 8k road/track miles to the wear indicators) is a small price to pay, as is the actual price (50 quid a corner in 195/50R15). Your mileage may vary, almost certain to be better.
I recomend them despite the fact that they politely declined to sponsor me.
I had Toyo Proxe4 fitted last week, disaster! squirmy and muchy and had the effect of rolling over in the bends. Nice garage in Exeter (save on tyres where they build tasty stainless systems as well) took the proxies back and for a minimum fitting fee put firestone SZ90U on the fronts, rated highly on tyretest.com. They seem fine so far and well matched to the BF Goodrich G Profilers that I inherited with the car.
My choice also, but the Federal SS595 for road use,
http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m4b589s344p9656
Mozza