Re-tiring my '74, 165/80 15 Options

[flipb]

Far from retiring it, I'm getting to drive my '74 2.0 a lot more lately. Engine is freshly built 2056; Evil-rebuilt trans.

The car came to me with Kumho 165/80 R15 tires -- OEM size, if I'm not mistaken. They're fine and have at least half their tread left, but I noticed a date code of 3003 -- I believe that translates to a date of manufacture of the 30th week of 2003. Primarily out of fear for what a catastrophic blowout could do to the car, I'm thinking it's time to replace them.

I'm leaning heavily toward keeping the OEM size. I love the go-kart feeling and I can pretty easily control the rear end with the torque of the 2056 and those skinny tires. It's strictly a fun road car... no racing ambition. And it's not a CW car, but I like showing the OEM tire size for Cars & Coffee.

I've come across 4 tires available in 165/80 R15. I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has experience with these or has a compelling reason for me to consider something else (e.g. fatter tires).

• "Classic" All-Season from Tire Rack (made in China, $68/ea)
• Vredenstein Sprint Classic ($104.50/ea)
• Vredenstein T-trac Summer Tire ($129.80/ea)
• Michelin XAS (expnsive)

So... anyone with experience/opinions?

[euro911]

I like a little more patch on the ground with the 2056 in the 'BB', so I run 195/65-15s as well (on 5.5" wheels). Putting Pirelli 185/65-15's on my wife's 1.7L ... a little wider than the 165R15s that are on there now (5.5" wheels too).

I noticed that some of the old cars in the Porsche museum have Hankook equivalents of the NLA Michelin XZX 165SR15 tires (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif)