tyre recommendations

[shav]

Thanks guys, this is great info. And no Dan, Im not gonna get new rims. I like the Spec B rims despite the only 7" wide width. I think they look awesome.

To make the short list dependent on price and fitment:

Bridgestone RE002 Adrenalin
Kumho KU36

Other possibilities as suggested and upon further review, price and sizing are:
Hankook RS3
Yokohama C Drives?

Can anyone recommend anything else or provide any feedback on the other choices?

[JamesR]

i just bought a set of Bridgestone S001.
i got them on special at Bob Janes, buy 3, get 4th free.. $354each, fitted and balanced. [special ended end of May]
i previously had RE050A's, and they were over 65k old, and i only changed due to canvas showing on inside corner of fronts. need to rotate tires more...
but they still had plenty of grip, can only hope the S001's perform just as well!

I just bought a set of these as well only I got them for $329 each on the same buy 4 pay for 3 deal and I LOVE them. They are ridiculously grippy on both the wet and dry road and are quieter than the old re050a tyres. I got 225/40/18 so they'd fit the standard spec b rim cause the 215/45/18 were more expensive and harder to get. Only thing to watch out for is the slightly lower profile of the tyre puts the speedo out.

CHEAP!
It was such a good deal, too hard to pass up! Free rotation and wheel alignment after 5k kms too!
I got 225/45-18, maybe that's why mine were a little more.
I chose this size to bring my speedo back closer to actual speed. It was nearly 10ks out, now only about 5ks.
I have only driven around town in the wet, plenty of grip though! And quiet.

[shav]

CHEAP!
It was such a good deal, too hard to pass up! Free rotation and wheel alignment after 5k kms too!
I got 225/45-18, maybe that's why mine were a little more.
I chose this size to bring my speedo back closer to actual speed. It was nearly 10ks out, now only about 5ks.
I have only driven around town in the wet, plenty of grip though! And quiet.

One thing I didnt take into consideration is that my car has got the Spec B rims fitted as an aftermarket option. My car is not a factory Spec B which means the previous owner would have had the 17's fitted and changed to Spec B rims later. It might be best for me to check my speedo against my GPS to get an initial reading first off???

[deadlegs]

As far as I know the 17 inch rims would have had a tyre profile that would be simillar to the total height of the 18 inch rims so if you keep a simillar tyre size you should be ok. The lower the side wall of the tyre the faster the speed will be on your speedo and vise versa.
You can work out the difference in tyre wall height pretty easily.
Eg. 215/45/18 means the tyre is 215mm wide and the height of the wall is 45% of the width and 18 is obviously the rim size in inches.
So the wall on a 215/45/18 tyre is 96.75mm and the wall height on a 225/40/18 is 90mm.
As far as exactly how that changes the speedo, I don't know, but like I said, you can now see that a 225/40/18 tyre will give you a faster speedo reading.
Hope that helps.

[RX25SE]

Couple of things:

Fitting a 225/40R18 will add about 3% to the speedo error that already exists.(most seem to be 9% out with std tyres). In a 40 series tyre you need to go to a 235 to get within 1% of the original diameter but as stated above, too wide for a 7" rim.

If you are running big camber, a asymmetric treaded tyre can not be swapped on the rim to even out wear (the outside is always outside) whereas a directional can be.

Take into account of the tread wear rating for each tyre. Small numbers equal soft, more grip but more wear.



With the alignment setting I have and the type of driving I do, I tend to look for a directional tyre with a treadwear between 180-200.
I will be looking for a 225/45-18 to reduce the speedo error when mine are due for replacement.

[shav]

very interesting guys. i got this calculated from that Miata tire calculator site

Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference
215/45-18 3.8in 12.8in 25.6in 80.5in 787 0.0%
225/40-18 3.5in 12.5in 25.1in 78.8in 804 -2.1%

Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference
215/45-18 3.8in 12.8in 25.6in 80.5in 787 0.0%
225/45-18 4.0in 13.0in 26.0in 81.6in 777 1.4%

What do you make of it? I am wanting to keep the speedo reading as close to the reading I have now as possible. I understand there are other factors like tire wear that come into it.

RX25SE - Thanks for that feedback on tire direction mate. Basically your saying that I should run with a directional tire for better tire rotation if I am thinking of running negative camber more than stock?
I do want to run a bit of camber when the new tires get fitted, to offer a little bit of extra handling. But not to the detriment of too much additional wear. Would the RE002 tire pattern be ok still? From what I can tell its still a unidirectional tire.

[kiwigene]

very interesting guys. i got this calculated from that Miata tire calculator site

Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference
215/45-18 3.8in 12.8in 25.6in 80.5in 787 0.0%
225/40-18 3.5in 12.5in 25.1in 78.8in 804 -2.1%

Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference
215/45-18 3.8in 12.8in 25.6in 80.5in 787 0.0%
225/45-18 4.0in 13.0in 26.0in 81.6in 777 1.4%

What do you make of it? I am wanting to keep the speedo reading as close to the reading I have now as possible. I understand there are other factors like tire wear that come into it.

RX25SE - Thanks for that feedback on tire direction mate. Basically your saying that I should run with a directional tire for better tire rotation if I am thinking of running negative camber more than stock?
I do want to run a bit of camber when the new tires get fitted, to offer a little bit of extra handling. But not to the detriment of too much additional wear. Would the RE002 tire pattern be ok still? From what I can tell its still a unidirectional tire.

Your speedo is probably already reading ~8% over your actual speed. I think ADR says speedo's must read +4 km/h + ­­upto 10% over. Your speedo could be out by 14 km/h at 100km/h - i.e. your really only doing 86 km/h.

If you go for 225/40-18 you'll be making the difference worse than the 8% already. Going for 225/45-18 will improve the difference slightly.

Consider this - if your speedo is out by 10%, once your car has traveled an actual 90000 km's your odometer will be at 100000 km's ...

[shav]

Thanks Gene. Im gonna test that out using my GPS on the way home from work tonight. That will give me a more accurate reading of whats going on.

[mynameisdaniel]

RE002 is assymetrical but not directional (even though the tread pattern looks like it should be).

Don't go KU36, very noisy and not on the same performance level.

[shav]

RE002 is assymetrical but not directional (even though the tread pattern looks like it should be).

Don't go KU36, very noisy and not on the same performance level.

Ok, Thanks for the heads up Dan.

[paggaz]

very interesting guys. i got this calculated from that Miata tire calculator site

Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference
215/45-18 3.8in 12.8in 25.6in 80.5in 787 0.0%
225/40-18 3.5in 12.5in 25.1in 78.8in 804 -2.1%

Specification Sidewall Radius Diameter Circumference Revs/Mile Difference
215/45-18 3.8in 12.8in 25.6in 80.5in 787 0.0%
225/45-18 4.0in 13.0in 26.0in 81.6in 777 1.4%

What do you make of it? I am wanting to keep the speedo reading as close to the reading I have now as possible. I understand there are other factors like tire wear that come into it.

My experiences with both tyre sizes...at 100km/h on your speedo, the GPS reads:
90-91 km/h with 225/40/18
96 km/h with 225/45/18

I believe the stock size (215/45/18) read 94km/h on the GPS when the speedo was at 100.

[shav]

Yeah I reckon your calculations are right Nathan. Just checked with gps. On my speedo at 60kph the gps reads 57kph. So yoy reckon if I went the 45 profile it would be closer to true?

[BaSeLine]

I ve had spec b`s on the car for a while. As soon as I got these rims 2 years back I put on Kumho Ku 36. They were a bargain at $170 each (probably could ve got them cheaper). After that I got Continental Sport Contact 3 for $250 each. I highly recommend it in wet and dry road. All profiles above are 225/40/18. Just another option for you. BTW dont forget about the wheel alignment when getting your treads.

[shav]

I ve had spec b`s on the car for a while. As soon as I got these rims 2 years back I put on Kumho Ku 36. They were a bargain at $170 each (probably could ve got them cheaper). After that I got Continental Sport Contact 3 for $250 each. I highly recommend it in wet and dry road. All profiles above are 225/40/18. Just another option for you. BTW dont forget about the wheel alignment when getting your treads.

Thanks for this info Andrew, much appreciated. I didnt look at the Conti's but I will now. Have heard limited reviews on them. And yes, will definitely get the wheel alignment at the same time.

[shav]

has any of you guys heard of Falken FK493's?

I cant find any details on that model. I can see plenty of reviews for the FK453's but not FK493. I was told its a new model.

Can get them fitted and balanced at Bob Jane for $230 a tire fitted and balanced in a 225/40R18.