Interesting Tire/Wheel information

[John Karasaki <johkar@teleport.com>]

Well, I finally killed the mismatched 205/60/15 tires I had on the '87
5ktqw... or at least that 15mm bolt through one of the tires did.  That
Michelin Energy tire was at the wear bars anyway...

Swapped the wheels/tires from the urq onto the wagon.  While I did my best
impression of the tire crew at an Indy race, I took the time to weigh the
wheels/tires.  Here are the results:

225/45/16 Sumitomo HTZ tires at 90% on 16x8 BBS RF 3 piece wheels		44 pounds
205/55/16 Dunlop SP8000 at 60% on A8 5 spoke wheels				41 pounds
205/60/15 Mich. Energy tires (tires worn to wear bars) on 15x7 Fuchs		33
pounds!

Went for a short spin after the SP 8000s were on the car.  The car handled
much better with the "poor" racer worn tires!  Granted, there is about 1/2
inch greater diameter with the newer SP8000s, but I think that the 8 pounds
per wheel difference is what I was feeling.

BTW, those weights should be pretty accurate as a heavy duty postage scale
was used for the measurement.



Best Regards,

John Karasaki