GR86 GR86 - What wheels and tyres are you thinking about?

[qajteq]

Hey,
I have 2nd set of tyres & wheels for track. 17x8 with 225/45 semi-slicks.
Ever since I bought the 225 for stock 7,5J rims, I kinda miss the "precision" and response of more stretched tyre on rim. Currently I'm debating to opt for a another set, street only, 18x9J, with 245/35 tyres.

It's essentially same setup as stock, except the width of course.

My biggest concern is - would it make car significantly slower due to more rolling resistance? I'd expect big bump in grip levels, but just wonder how much of a acceleration you have to sacrifice.

The 235 width tyre as a compromise is no go. The 40 profile is really tall, 35 too slim.

Anyone did such a switch?

 

[Beans]

Need to finalise a tyre choice soon. Still leaning more towards the Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport. Anyone know where's cheapest? I'd still have to pay for fitting but I'm hoping when I get them sealed, there's a wheel specialist next door who could mount them for me and possibly do sensors too.

These are supposed to be good, if a little older now. Yet to try them.
Camskill is where I usually find the best prices

 

[ravydavygravy]

Sorry just seen this, they are Hyper Silver and I got them from Torque GT. Depending how the light catches them they go from being a kind of quasi-chrome silver to quite a dark silver.

Cheers, do you have tpms fitted?

 

[DesmondWheelsEU]

I've had four of seven pallets delivered from Japan, so that means I have the sets of 17x8 +38 5x100 that I custom ordered. These do not exist anywhere else!

Of those not sold, I have one set each of gloss white, gloss silver, satin gunmetal, and gloss gunmetal left.

Once I've finished breaking down the pallets I can photograph one, but they'll look exactly the same as the 5x114.3 pictures I shared before.

Zoo price £2,300 inc. VAT for UK customers, EU customers £1,920. Both plus shipping.

 

[BenjiSayers]

Cheers, do you have tpms fitted?

Not at the minute, the place I was getting them fitted seemed convinced they'd be corroded on so didn't want to try them. I'll need to take my OEM wheels somewhere in the future to get the old tyres removed so I can have a crack at taking them off.

At the moment, on start up the little orange warning light by the odometer flashes for a few minutes then goes solid.

 

[MorrisM]

Anyone with experience of UK winter driving on all-seasons or winter tyres? Thinking of getting a set of 17” rims with 225/45’s for this winter, but not sure whether dedicated winter tyres (Goodyear Ultra Grip 9+) are overkill for the UK winter and whether I’d better with a set of all-season treads (just to use for the winter). Used daily.

 

[chopper602]

Picking up a set of refurbed GT86 wheels on Saturday (another trip to Scotland!), which are fitted with Michelin Cross Climate tyres. Get them swapped over with the standard wheels soon, which will give me a great excuse to use paint to get rid of the blackness of the original alloys. Just have to decide on a colour or effect next. It's a toss-up between, a goldy bronze, shadow chrome or a gunmetal . . . once painted they might also be due new tyres, but only at 15k miles so should be able to get further with them
(My old V60 Polestar would go through a front set of tyres in 8k miles and that was mostly commuting )

 

[sim86]

Anyone with experience of UK winter driving on all-seasons or winter tyres? Thinking of getting a set of 17” rims with 225/45’s for this winter, but not sure whether dedicated winter tyres (Goodyear Ultra Grip 9+) are overkill for the UK winter and whether I’d better with a set of all-season treads (just to use for the winter). Used daily.

I moved onto a set of Goodyear Vector 4Seasons last winter and was a happier driver on them than on the stock PS4's. Went to 225 width on the stock 18" rims. (I've been a very lazy boy and kept them on all year with no issue...). I am based in South East England so not expecting to get the worst of winter but felt the PS4's fall off below 5C ish, which still happens enough.

 

[DesmondWheelsEU]

Anyone with experience of UK winter driving on all-seasons or winter tyres? Thinking of getting a set of 17” rims with 225/45’s for this winter, but not sure whether dedicated winter tyres (Goodyear Ultra Grip 9+) are overkill for the UK winter and whether I’d better with a set of all-season treads (just to use for the winter). Used daily.

All seasons in the winter is the better choice in my opinion, it’s what I am going to do again this year.

I did it in the past with some Kleber Quadraxer tyres that I had fitted to an old daily driver, in comparison to summer tyres it felt so much more confident in the cold, damp roads. Stopping distance on snow was also vastly improved over summer tyres.

Plus if it is slightly milder they handle it better .

 

[Sonic]

I’ve used A/S tyres on my cars for the last 3 Scottish Winters (and a previous Summer) - so much more confidence inspiring than Summer tyres once the temperatures start to drop.

 

[Swizzle]

After a terrible winter in 22 i switched to all seasons on 16 steels for winter 23 and didn’t see any snow or ice, grip was noticeably better in the damp though

 

[Conscript]

For those who have switched to a 225 tyre on stock wheels, what's the consensus? I'm tempted to do this as it seems there's a greater range of choice in this size (Goodyear F1AS6, Michelin PS4S), and cheaper too. I know 225s fit, and there's probably other advantages - squarer tyres look better IMO, might give the wheel a bit bitter protection, and if I understand, they might end up showing 1-2MPH lower on the speedo (which would actually be more accurate I think). But what I'm most concerned about is losing steering response...I really don't want to compromise steering feel.

I might have asked this before, but I can't find the response now. Reason I'm bringing it up again is I have a week where I don't have to be in the office coming up, and might get the wheels refurbed in that time. If I get the tyres done at the same time, I won't have to worry about them being damaged during fitting. My stock PS4 do have a fair bit of life left, but I've not been that impressed with them in the wet.

 

[KobayashiMaru86]

The benefit of having so many tyre options it's a no brainer and will be extra grip too, even if you lose a smidgen of feel. Within 2 drives you won't even think about it. I changed to PS5 at the same time too. New wheels I'll go Goodyear F1 to expand my tyre palette a bit.

 

[Conscript]

The benefit of having so many tyre options it's a no brainer and will be extra grip too, even if you lose a smidgen of feel. Within 2 drives you won't even think about it. I changed to PS5 at the same time too. New wheels I'll go Goodyear F1 to expand my tyre palette a bit.

Happy with the PS5? At the moment it's a toss up between those and the F1AS6

 

[KobayashiMaru86]

Happy with the PS5? At the moment it's a toss up between those and the F1AS6

Slightly better than the PS4 overall. Hoping wear will be better. I'm going Goodyear but only because I've had Michelin for far too long. I need to try something else. They seem to come in different grades though. Need to make sure I get the right ones

 

[Conscript]

Slightly better than the PS4 overall. Hoping wear will be better. I'm going Goodyear but only because I've had Michelin for far too long. I need to try something else. They seem to come in different grades though. Need to make sure I get the right ones

Yeah, I used Goodyears in the past on my GT, was always very happy with them. And they are cheaper, too.
Perhaps I will make the move to 225 then. Only one other thing - I have some negative camber up front, only 1.5 degrees or so. Presumably that's not enough to worry about rubbing with only an extra 10mm width on the tyre? I could go and stick my hand in the wheel arch to check, but it's cold and set outside

 

[KobayashiMaru86]

Yeah, I used Goodyears in the past on my GT, was always very happy with them. And they are cheaper, too.
Perhaps I will make the move to 225 then. Only one other thing - I have some negative camber up front, only 1.5 degrees or so. Presumably that's not enough to worry about rubbing with only an extra 10mm width on the tyre? I could go and stick my hand in the wheel arch to check, but it's cold and set outside

I'm -1 and have no issues.

 

[NunoHenriques]

Yeah, I used Goodyears in the past on my GT, was always very happy with them. And they are cheaper, too.
Perhaps I will make the move to 225 then. Only one other thing - I have some negative camber up front, only 1.5 degrees or so. Presumably that's not enough to worry about rubbing with only an extra 10mm width on the tyre? I could go and stick my hand in the wheel arch to check, but it's cold and set outside

I am at -1.5 as well on 225's with no issues.
The only thing I have noticed was a little bit more body roll, however I changed from PS4 to Conti Sport 7, therefore the brand could have an impact on that.
Apart from it and taking in consideration the prices and choices I am not going back to 215's.

 

[Beans]

Yeah, I used Goodyears in the past on my GT, was always very happy with them. And they are cheaper, too.
Perhaps I will make the move to 225 then. Only one other thing - I have some negative camber up front, only 1.5 degrees or so. Presumably that's not enough to worry about rubbing with only an extra 10mm width on the tyre? I could go and stick my hand in the wheel arch to check, but it's cold and set outside

Think you'll be fine mate. I'm at -2.3 camber on 225's (8j et45) which are slightly closer to the strut than the oem wheels and they juuusstt about clear the strut

 

[qajteq]

For those who have switched to a 225 tyre on stock wheels, what's the consensus? I'm tempted to do this as it seems there's a greater range of choice in this size (Goodyear F1AS6, Michelin PS4S), and cheaper too. I know 225s fit, and there's probably other advantages - squarer tyres look better IMO, might give the wheel a bit bitter protection, and if I understand, they might end up showing 1-2MPH lower on the speedo (which would actually be more accurate I think). But what I'm most concerned about is losing steering response...I really don't want to compromise steering feel.

I might have asked this before, but I can't find the response now. Reason I'm bringing it up again is I have a week where I don't have to be in the office coming up, and might get the wheels refurbed in that time. If I get the tyres done at the same time, I won't have to worry about them being damaged during fitting. My stock PS4 do have a fair bit of life left, but I've not been that impressed with them in the wet.

I'm also on GR86.org, so I'll just paste my comment from there:

215 stock MP4 vs 225 MP4S I have no idea if it's being more gripper model, or wider tyre, but Michelin 215 is realitveily narrow, while 225 is bulky as hell. It almost feels like jumping to 235. From the looks perspective, they look more serious, raw, much better although it's only "a step up". Unfortunately you loss some of the precise and refinement with wider wheel. It's a trade off, slightly more grip vs less input feedback. They feel a little floaty when pushing hard in turns. 225 is the way to go for 8J, but you can run them on stock 7,5J. Just my feedback is that they are less balanced than stock width.

I do appreciate the positive factor, that they are audible less noisy, probably due to different compound being more soft. A nice bonus.

This was from original post.

After that I did more than 10k kms on these and can fully repeat myself.

Simple formula - 225 tyre goes to 8J, 245 on 9J and so on. The "middle" sizes such as 235, you guessed it, 8,5J.

More stretch = better precision.

It's floaty enough for me to reconsider going back to 215 or swapping the wheels to 8J...