Tyres - a thought

[amarshall]

Since the annual hunt-the-tyre has started again (and it appears that Dunlop and Bridgestone have stopped production of 215/50/ZR15s leaving only Toyo with the right tyre size) I can't help wondering if it would be worth getting together as many owners of cars that need these tyres as possible. To date, I've found evidence of the following using 215/50/ZR15s - please add any more you find - if I can contact the owners' clubs I'll see if we can get some sort of lobby going to get a manufacturer to restart production :

Lotus Excel (all round)
Lotus Esprit (fronts)
Audi Quattro (all round)
TVR Griffith (fronts)

[amarshall]

I put SP9000s on the rear of mine in November. Had to get one replaced after it picked up a knife blade at the weekend - local tyre place struggled to find one and told me that their contact at Dunlop had said that production had ceased!

Fortunately - they located one, so I'm back on the road in a proppa car tomorrow....

[Cathy]

It's just rude when that happens, i picked up a nail a couple of weeks after having new tyres on, fortunately mine was repairable. New tyres seem to act as magnets to sharp pointy objects.

[Steve C]

I don't think you'll get much help from the TVR crowd on this one. Early Grifs / Chimaeras without PAS used 205/55x15, early cars with PAS used 215/50x15 - later cars with PAS switched to 225/50x15 without problems.

The last time I bought a set, the Bridgestone SO2-PP's were available in 205/55x15 and 225/50x15 for the front, with 225/50x16 or 245/45x16 for the rear.

Maybe the Audi Quattro club is worth a try!

[amarshall]

Anything's worth a try - we can't end up any worse off than we are at the moment, judging by the discussions about insurance etc. it could become a bigger issue in the future.

So - anyone know of anything else that uses/used 215/50/ZR15s ?

[Spav]

Don't forget some of us need 205/60/ZR14s

[dpr59]

Peter,

Whats ground clearance like with 205/50.

I would imagine slightly narrower would shift the aqueous stuff better.
More weight per square inch, but the speed bumps on our estate kill my front rubber deflector.

The slightly higher profile of the 225 seem to have helped this a little.
Still approach them gingerly......

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Hey Dave,

Ground clearance IS less on 205/50/15's but it works out to about 5mm/0.2 inch less than 215/50/15s.

Buuuuuuutttttt I've compensated for this by adding an extra small aluminium plate pop-riveted to the spoiler/inside the front wheel arch. This reinforcement prevents (to some extent) the spoiler from dropping completely after impact with speed bumps.

Truth is, bald 215s (compared to fresh 205's) will get you into trouble with speed bumps at some point.

Anyway, I can see a life after speed bumps. Surely local councils will eventually see the error of their ways? After all, isn't the proliferation/popularisation of SUV's a direct result of increasing numbers of speed bumps? And SUVs are sooooooooo antisocial -aren't they?

Peter

[dukeofpeckham]

Encouraging words from ClanMan re 205 tyres in place of the obsolete 215s - there seems to be a reasonable choice in that size.

Has anyone tried both 205 and 225? Just wondering which might be better.

[Wootan]

Morning All

I just wanted to clarify the insurance side of this tyre business. No Insurance company would be looking to repudiate a claim for a tyre size 10mm different from the manufacturers specs. Tyres rarely become an issue as an engineer has to be able to show that the tyre contributed to an accident, as long as the rating on the tyres is correct, you'll have no problems using 205's or 225's.

Cheers

[bash]

Just to put another viewpoint on this, Im an accident investigator and forensic vehicle examiner in the police and have been for a number of years. I cant think of any instance of anyone being taken to task over tyre sizes in a serious incident. I could see that if someone was driving like an idiot on a spacesaver or some other extreme could be an issue, but thats not the issue here. As long as the tyre is lawfull, doesnt interfere with brakes, steering or suspension, then I dont think we would be interested. Ive had my SE a number of years and Ive had 215/50, 225/50 and my current 205/50 tyres. The 225's were ok and gave slightly better road comfort, the 205s are also ok and give better very wet road grip. In truth all of them gave no problems and the alternatives were in my view just as good as the vastly overpriced originals. Tyre technology has moved on in the last 20 years. Having said that Ill be surprised if you get a definitve reply from any insurance company having had many dealings with them on the civil litigation side.

Bash

[Ozzy_UK]

i was looking at getting some 205/50/15s front, and 225/50/15 rear...

does anyone know where the speedo reads from?

just if standard was 215/50/15 then the fronts would be:
1.7% too fast (at 60mph actual speed = 59mph)

and rear would be:
1.7% too slow (at 60mph actual speed = 61mph)

was just a thought...

useful tool here: http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

Oz.

[amarshall]

OK - dragging the thread back to my original point....I'm not a stickler for originality, but I do quite like having "correct" tyres.

What I'll do is create an online registration form so that anyone with a "difficult" tyre size can register their car, tyre size and interest getting the correct size (with an indication of how much they would pay) so that I can try to produce some demand figures to show to the manufacturers.

Rather than go to owner's clubs, I'll see if I can get the motoring press (in particular the classic car mags) to mention it when it's live.

Excel owners will, I hope, be the testers for me.

[graeme thompson]

If I remember correctly from my boy racer days, doesn't the original 2.8 injection Capri run 215/50/15's. I know the later models with RS alloys use a different size but I'm sure the ones with "pepperpots" use this size.

[amarshall]

Nice bit of detective work Graeme - googling confirms that some Capris are on 215s. As are some VW Passats...

I bet they're not ZR rated though !