Re: Tire Mix-n-Match

[Andrew Duane USG/PE <duane@zk3.dec.com>]

Hairy green toads from Mars made Dave Dahl say:

>      I just ran into an interesting problem with my '87 VW Quantum Syncro.  
>      Two of my Pirelli P6s (195/60HR14) are worn out, the other two are 
>      practically new, and the P6 is out of production.  It also appears 
>      that it's out of stock pretty much everywhere, too.  My question is 
>      this:  What do you guys think of putting BFG Comp T/A HR4s or VR4s on 
>      only one end of the car?  I want to eventually switch to those tires 
>      anyway (leaning toward the VR4s).  I'm thinking of putting them on the 
>      rear, under the assumption that the front does more work so the P6s 
>      should wear out faster up there.  Is this going to make the car 
>      squirrelly?

Well, my first advice is to go with the VR4's. The HR4 is a very
different tire, and is much lower in performance and traction.

That said, my reservation about this setup would be that the
VR4 is an all-season tire, and will have very different grip
characteristics than the P6. I have never tried it on an AWD
car, but I once put snows up front on my FWD Golf, and regretted
it immensely. The rear end swung out constantly, and turns in
snow became an adventure.

In the wet/snow, you'd have grip in the back, but on dry pavement,
you'd have grip up front. Sounds like you'd get confused easily.

I'd say get a set of the VR4's, and keep the P6's as emergency spares.
You wont regret the VR4 - I use them on my 100Q, and they're great.
They even get a 300HP M5 through the snow! All this, and they handle
at least 90% as well as the P6 on dry pavement.

-- 

Andrew L. Duane (JOT-7)			duane@zk3.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation		(603)-881-1294
110 Spit Brook Road			http://www.zk3.dec.com/~duane
M/S ZKO3-3/U14
Nashua, NH    03062-2698

Only my cat shares my opinions, and she likes dry pavement.