Tyre size??

[Mistertwokw]

Just wondering what set ups people have with there 1.5's.
i have 15" wheels on at the mo with 195/50/15 tyres on them..is this way to skinny. They are a 6.5J alloy..whats the widest tyre i can put on them?.
Ki

[lodgeman]

mine are 16's 215/40 fronts and 225 rears

[Jiff Lemon]

Staying with 195/50/15's at the moment - Although going with some very sticky rubber :)

[randomfactor]

I've got a spare set of 225/40 R16, but they look like they'll foul the wheelarch.

Lodge-have you rolled the rear arches?

[MegatronUK]

I ran 195/45x16 front, and 225/40x16 rear. Nice balance between keeping it sharp and still plenty of grip.

YMMV on stock arches.

[lodgeman]

I've got a spare set of 225/40 R16, but they look like they'll foul the wheelarch.

Lodge-have you rolled the rear arches?


no standard front and rear!

[randomfactor]

Do you get any fouling on the rears? Have you got a pic of the back of the car, when I fitted my wheels, it looked like a good bump would take a chunk of rubber off

FYI, have you seen this place for your tyres? I've seen some replacement yokohama A539's for my wheel for 56quid...delivered http://www.mytyres.co.uk

[lodgeman]

Do you get any fouling on the rears? Have you got a pic of the back of the car, when I fitted my wheels, it looked like a good bump would take a chunk of rubber off

FYI, have you seen this place for your tyres? I've seen some replacement yokohama A539's for my wheel for 56quid...delivered http://www.mytyres.co.uk


no fouling on the rears at all- i have new tokico uprated shocks on the rear and fensport progressive springs that are 25 mm lowered . dont forget when you use the lowered springs you get the extra neg camber! hth

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2006/07/183.jpg
this pic was taken when i had some shit springs on -the second is with the fensport ones!

http://www.twobrutal.co.uk/forum/images/recovered/2006/07/175.jpg

[adamh]

i have 16" rims with 215/40/16 fronts (7.5). and 245/35/16 rear(9) . exactly same rolling radius as the standard mk1 578mm. et30 on the rear with a spacer and also lowered 30mm. and they are well clear of inner arch. but..they stick out a tad. thinking 215/225 is kosher.

[Mistertwokw]

so what is the largest tyre size that will fit on a 6.5J rim?

[randomfactor]

Looks great, I'll have to get me some wheelnuts and swap my wheels over.

[rattymr2]

grip from tyres has as much to do with compound and tread pattern as it does with width. you can get more grip from a decent 195/50 tyre than a crap 215/40/16. the thing with the 195/50/15 is that it is a common motorsport tyre and also the size of the lotus elise front tyre- yokohama do a very sticky tyre but it will only last about 5000miles. depends what you use the 2 for. i have been told about a german remould race tyre that is very grippy, cheap and road legal.

[MegatronUK]

so what is the largest tyre size that will fit on a 6.5J rim?

I wouldn't like to go any further than a 205 really; you'll get a very rounded sidewall and quite a bit of sideways flex. 185 is nice, 195 about the max.

[Mistertwokw]

thanks, will stay on what i have for now then

[Terec]

I wouldn't like to go any further than a 205 really; you'll get a very rounded sidewall and quite a bit of sideways flex. 185 is nice, 195 about the max.

Not really, thats starting to get into the realm of streching the tire onto the wheel, My Ford Cougar with 6.5wide rims came stock with 215's and I personally run 225's on it without any problem, nice solid fit and feel to the tires. I wouldnt go beyond 225 on a 6.5 wide wheel.

*Note, I also run 205 wide Hoosier DOT tires on my 14x5.5 wheels which when actually measured would be closer to a 225. Its a bit of a pinch, but I've seen worse and I know I'm not loosing any grip from the 205 on there vs a 195 of equivilent construction.

[wangan_x]

but your gonna have a very uneven tread pattern im with megatron 205 is really as big as you should go

[Paff]

There was a discussion on piston heads about this sort of thing and it seemed like the conclusion they came to is you can run 205's on a 6.5J wheel if you really wanted but most of them would rather run that width on a 7J.

I run 205/40/17's (well I will run them again once I sort out tyres for them) no real issues with rubbing except it occasionally does during hard cornering if there is a bump mid corner or full lock in reverse

[Gary Symons]

I run 195/40/17s on the front and 215/40/17 on the rear. Have had the rears rub a little so 'adjusted' the lip on the rear arches.

Another bit of info, with my setup the speedo appears to be spot on. i.e. at a registered speed of 60mph my GPS tells me I am doing 57mph.

[Shugsta]

How do you find that setup for balance and grip Gary? I'm thinking of going 205/225, so same front to rear ratio IYSWIM.

[Gary Symons]

How do you find that setup for balance and grip Gary? I'm thinking of going 205/225, so same front to rear ratio IYSWIM.

I actually wanted 205s on the front but I had to fit 6mm wheel spacers to allow the alloys to clear the ST205 calipers.

Havent had a chance to drive the car enthusiastically yet, so cant really comment, felt ok on my sensible drive to work (still getting used to it), + the car is currently still off the road. Really must get a new alt fitted. Also have to play around with some airflow mods for the boot mounted IC.

[MegatronUK]

Not really, thats starting to get into the realm of streching the tire onto the wheel, My Ford Cougar with 6.5wide rims came stock with 215's and I personally run 225's on it without any problem, nice solid fit and feel to the tires. I wouldnt go beyond 225 on a 6.5 wide wheel.

*Note, I also run 205 wide Hoosier DOT tires on my 14x5.5 wheels which when actually measured would be closer to a 225. Its a bit of a pinch, but I've seen worse and I know I'm not loosing any grip from the 205 on there vs a 195 of equivilent construction.

215/225 on a 6.5" rim? That will have an absolutely huge amount of bulge in the sidewall. I'd bet that you've got no more contact area than a 195 or 205 section tyre.

6.5" = 165mm wide.

A 205 section tyre has a contact patch of roughly 190-205mm wide. Where does the extra width go? The sidewall. The more rubber you have in the sidewall, the more flex you have.

Your 225 section tyre is almost 2" wider than your rim, there is no way that is going to improve handling one bit; traction possibly, handling no.

[Terec]

your not looking at the mounting width of the tires, looking at the spec for the tire, the standard mounting size that was used in the testing of my 225/50 tire was on a 7" wide rim, with recomended mounting on a 6" to 8" wide wheel. You can see the specs for the tire I am using here http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Spec.jsp?make=Kumho&model=ECSTA+711&vehicleSearch=false&fromCompare1=yes&partnum=25HR6E711&tirePageLocQty=%26partnum%3D25HR6E711 every road racer i know(including my boss) tries to fit as much tire as they can get away with. With a good Z rated tire, and proper air pressures, your not going to get a whole lot of flex in the sidewalls from what I have seen and driven on.

It must be understood that the section width(225) has little to do with the mounting widths for the tire. And a crude drawing below, the mounting width mates to the wheels bead width(the wheel width) and there is some 'extra' width to the wheel which beyond the size of it.

-------------------
|<-section width->|
|........................|
|........................|
--....................--
. |.................|
mounting width

edit note: fixed drawing, and I'm not trying to sound like an ass, just trying to pass along experiances and a bit of data in the wonderful world of pnumatic tires