New Tyres

geoffblick · Postby **geoffblick** » Mon May 23, 2011 10:17 pm

Bought the new NA8 home today. Front tyres are new chinese & one has a slow leak & is down to 15psi. Rears are Bridgestone with 4mm of tread & are directional but one is pointing in th wrong rotational direction!!! Anyway went to two local tyreshops. First quoted $115 for Pirelli P6 & $90 for "Silverstone's" I suspect they are not English. Next place was $129 for Bridgestone & $119 for Pirelli P6. What are your thoughts on the Pirellis? Geoff.....

93_Clubman · Postby **93_Clubman** » Tue May 24, 2011 12:04 pm

Haven't used P6s since the late '80s, however they were a good tyre then, but suspect they're now trading on their past reputation like the P7.

Around the prices you mention the Bridgestone RE001 & Kumho KU31 are popular, but some sizes apparently aren't available:
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de Bounce · Postby **de Bounce** » Wed May 25, 2011 9:01 pm

Pirelli P6's are daily drive tyres at best.

Performance car requires performance tyres, not cheap crap especially when R001's and KU31's can be had for under $130 to suite an NA8.

pepejesus · Postby **pepejesus** » Wed May 25, 2011 10:21 pm

Probably need to know more about what you plan to use the car for and also what your expectations are as to grip/wear/noise etc.

As others have said the Bridgestone R001 and Kumho KU31 are a popular choice, as are the Michelin PP3 (I think that's what they're called?), for a real-world street dríven performance tyre.

There are quite a few road legal non-R-comp tyres available now that are a step up from the above in terms of dry grip, eg Dunlop Z1 Star Specs and Kumho KU36, but you'd be wasting your money (IMO) on tyres like that for a daily driver that doesn't get tracked.

The only street tyre I have used on my car is the Toyo T1R and they have been pretty good - they give decent grip and wear, they're quiet, and they're good in the wet. I don't know what they cost nowadays or how the perform against any other street tyre as the only other tyres I've used on my car are R-comps. I've used the T1Rs at the track a couple of times and they are... not awful but not great, they give decent grip initially but will get hot and greasy fairly quickly. They are also very soft in the sidewall which gives a good ride but not so good response.

Varjak · Postby **Varjak** » Thu May 26, 2011 8:31 pm

I've recently been in the same boat, as mentioned the Kumho KU31s get a great wrap on this forum so I have gone for a set of those, at a reasonable price of $115 per corner for 205/50/15s.

I can wholeheartedly recommend Tyrepower in Reservoir for fitment. I have found previously that who you get to balance and fit the tyres can be almost as important as the tyres themselves. On several occasions I have had poor balancing, over inflated tyres and scratched alloys around the wheel nuts. This is an independent tyre fitter and Ray clearly has a passion for good customer service and a quality job. He does a lot of MX5 work.