I haven't bought tires for my 914 in over 20 years. The last set I bought were Yoko A008R's. Those were when I still autocrossed, and they were the second best set of tires I'd ever had. Lousy wear, but who cared. The best I ever had were P6's - good dual purpose tires.

I am no longer an autocrosser (vertigo) and will probably not hardcore concours again. I have tires & wheels for that.

Looking for contemorary tires to mount on my 5 1/2 chromies that will provide good adherance and reasonable ride. My 914 is lowered 1/2 inch & now rides on Boge yellows. Medium to low wear characteristics are fine.

Tires will be used primarily for touring.

What say the gurus?

For your car...The Michelin 165's

....& I think that's what he has on the other concours set he mentioned.

For the DD/touring set Pat, you'll want to be aware of speedo/odometer error so you don't build up "ghost mileage" due to differing circumference tires.

You could go for those 185/75HR15 Michelin repops, which were a 914-6/4 option back in the day, & a favorite of AXers of both mid & tail dragger flavors - that is, if you don't mind paying $400+ each last I looked.

Otherwise several of the top mfgrs. have 195 - 205 width range tires, but you may have to test several out on your car with your wheels to make sure you have adequate clearance front & rear & no rubbing on turns in front - thus reducing turns lock-to-lock (which was the problem with many of the early `80's 195/65HR15s which I tried back then on mine - also front lowered 1/2" - 1" IIRC).

Also lower profile means harder ride, since our 914 suspensions were tuned for the added cushioning of taller 80 profile tires. So expect to feel more road irregularities progressively from 80 down to 65, 60, 55, 50 etc. profiles - which isn't good for us old farts & touring.

I haven't explored the specifics much lately, so others can chime in on which size/make works best for them.

Interested to see other's recco's & what you get, for my future "DD/touring set"!

Pat,
[edited first post] I have Kumho Solus 195/65R15 on my 914 stock steel rims. Tire Rack or Andy's circumference chart had them very close to stock. Hence why i bought them.
I also have 50 series Kumho Ecsta's (205/55R15) which i use for autoX and they do turn more revs per mile than the 65's.
Hope that helps!

195/65R15 are a good match for the original 155R15 only.
You will need bigger tires to match the 165R15.

Speaking of ghost mileage, what is the specification for the diameter or the circumference of the original 165r15 tire? I've read the original tires had a diameter of about 25.6 to 25.8 inches. Is that correct?

Tire dimensions are on here - 25.39":
http://www.914world.com/specs/tirecalc.php

165 vs 195/65R15 is only 1.6% too fast, so 155 may be a bit less error with a slightly smaller diameter than 165s, but 195/65(S or H)R15 was what Porsche itself recco'd in the `90s for 914s when 165s went away.

165 vs 185/70(H or V)R15 Michi XWX's are only 0.8% too fast, look period correct, are tubeless (vs. 165HR15 XAS being tubed), and are very sticky.

155R15 --> 25.01"
165R15 --> 25.65"

The tire calculator on this site wrongly assumes that the 165R15 sidewall is smaller (80). All those old tires had 82 sidewalls.

Then with 195/65 at 24.98" & 185/70 at 25.19" you can expect about 0.02% too fast on 155(/80) > 195/65 - agree it's a closer match, but 1.6% is still acceptable speedo error, since most mfgrs back then were allowed +/-5% - so we all added 5% to speed limits since we knew we wouldn't get stopped!

For some reason the tire calculator on here doesn't have 155(/80)R15 size, but I think Tire Rack etc. do have that size on their online calculators.

I've heard differently Valy, but anyone can go measure a 165 & ht. then divide for an actual percentage to see if it's 80 or 82 or??

Yes, but I've heard the new tires aren't actually the same diameter as the old tires. That's why I was asking if there was a spec for the original (back in the day) tire sizes.

tacomaworld has a real nice tire size calculator:

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/tirecalc....82r15-195-65r15

I'm really liking the Kumho Ecsta XS. It's an extreme performance summer tire with enough grooves to be acceptable in the wet. They probably don't stick as well as the Falken Azenis before them but they're still very good, really predictable with a lot better ride.

I had those once. They rode like bricks & refused to wear out. Hated them & swore never to have Michelins again.

I'm not concerned with "ghost mileage" from other rolling radii. My car is 39 years old with 67k miles. If I have to pay the toll for more mileage I don't care. I just want to drive it with with confidence. I want something with some stick, for the backroads in Lancaster county.

I still have almost brand new Cn36's mounted on restored steelies if I ever want to try concours again (not likely).

I will NOT pay $400/tires for antiquety.

I want tires that are fun to drive. Don't care if bumps are alittle harsher - it isn't a daily.

Thanks Matt...I'll check out the Solus next week.
Pat

Supposedly you can still get the Pirelli P6000 from the Tire Rack. I have no idea how the P6000 compares to the P6. But I do have P6000's on my 914 right now and they have been okay:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?ti...1&tab=Sizes

Looks like the P6 might still be available? Hmmm.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?ti...artnum=965VR5P6

I just got a sticker set of 225/45/15's from hoosier in the A6 flavor....

you might want to try those.

.....That's the tire I use(on porsche's)..I'm happy with them!(Pirelli-P6000)

(Dunlop's another)

good brand, good tire, good price, and reviews well http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?ti...Y&tab=Specs

Pat I know your looking for a standard tire. Just wanted to pass along that Lonstone tire in the UK offers quite a few different repops that Coker does not have if you ever decide to replace your CW tires. P Centuris, etc.. Cheaper than Coker too.