Re: My Tire Dilemma

["Steve Marinello" <smarinel@neosoft.com>]

The T1-S has very rounded sidewalls and looks MUCH narrower than you would
expect for a given size.  When someone in my office had his tire dealer
order them for a 300ZX and they arrived, he changed his mind and went with
SP8000's because they looked so much narrower than the D40M2's he was
replacing.  However, their performance is supposed to be phenomenal.  The
Firestone SZ50 is very similar...rounded sidewalls; great performance and
ride.  Check the specs on the web and you can see that the section widths
and tread widths differ by a large margin.

I almost got the T1-S's or the SZ50's for the '85 ur-q because I was worried
about clearance with 225/50=16 SP8000's.  The rolled shoulder may actually
give us the clearance we need for some of the rubbing situations we know all
too well in trying to upgrade to wider size tires.

Steve

----------
>From: "Kaklikian, Gary" <Gary.Kaklikian@Compaq.com>
>To: Audi Fans <quattro@audifans.com>, "'one@humanspeakers.com'"
<one@humanspeakers.com>
>Subject: RE: My Tire Dilemma
>Date: Fri, Dec 10, 1999, 5:34 PM
>

> Toyo makes the T1 (or T1-S now) in that size. I haven't tried them yet, but
> from what I've heard they're probably equal or better than the Michelin's in
> the dry and definitely better in the wet.
> Now if only they'd make the RA1 in that size ...
>
> Gary Kaklikian
> 86 4kcstq
> 86 5kcstq
>
>> ----------
>> From:  Huw Powell[SMTP:audi@mediaone.net]
>> Reply To:  one@humanspeakers.com
>> Sent:  Friday, December 10, 1999 11:49 AM
>> To:  Audi Fans
>> Subject:  My Tire Dilemma
>>
>> For about 16 months now, since putting 15" wheels on my coupe, I have
>> been running 215/45 tires.  The first four were some used ones from a
>> lister, Continental Sport Contacts.  When I finally had hit the wear
>> bars on the front, I started looking for replacments.
>>
>> That's when I discovered 1. these were quite old tires and 2. no one
>> makes 215/45-15 tires.  Except, briefly, for a about one week this
>> spring, Michelin made one pair of Pilot SX-GT's which I bought from the
>> Tire Rack.
>>
>> now there are none.
>>
>> Trouble is, these tires are great.  I can drive sideways without
>> screeching or riding the sidewalls, they even last pretty well.
>>
>> I alway used to buy $50-60 tires (Falken FX-06C's were my all time
>> favorites), these Michelins were $125 each.
>>
>> I wanna know, how much of what I like about these is due to the
>> outrageous (for my car) width and how much to the construction, design,
>> price, etc. or is it just what all tires with a low enough profile ride
>> like?
>>
>> Cause I need at least a pair of tires right now and I am going bonkers.
>> 50 series 195's or 205's will "fit", but looking at 195's on the other
>> coupe, they just seem so narrow I get vertigo...
>>
>> I just don't want to wind up losing all the fun driveability I have
>> gotten used to...
>>
>> thanks for your forbearance of my ignorance!
>>
>> --
>> Huw Powell
>>
>> http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi/
>>
>> 82 Audi Coupe; 84 4kq; 85 Coupe GT; 73 F250
>>
>> http://people.ne.mediaone.net/audi/thoughts.htm
>>
>