Going the wrong way in upgrades. But have a suprising result. I had some Empi wheels with 195/60 General tires. car was twitchy in hard cornering. Almost like grip grip grip and whoa snap wiggle whew got through it. Put on my new FUCHS with 165/70 Kumhos and now the car seems to just carve through the corners with a very secure feeling. grip grip grip accelerate grip grip grip GRIN GRIN GRIN.

Can someone explain why? and what will happen if I finally go to 205/50-15 tires?

I would suspect that tire compound made a big difference here.

The general's are probably 50K mile tires and harder. Kumho are softer and grippier, better for a sports car.

I'm sure the Kuhmo's are more sticky than the Generals. The Kuhmo's are probably rated higher also... like the Generals may have a "H" rating or something. They will last forever with a hard compound... where as the Kuhmo's will go away quicker with a softer compound.

B

New tires will always "stick" better. The Kumho's are much stickier than the general's. A change to the 205/50's is like a change from diapers to pull ups! I just put on Kumho exctas last week and my favorite curve went from 70mph with skippig through the end, to 85 and hold tight. Amen!!!!!!

Lets hear from the AX experts.

Joe.. you where one of the first members to join this BBS.

Where have you been ??


B

OK, call me an autox expert...

When you think of "hard compound" street tires think of tires made of concrete. Hit the brakes and just slide forever.

"Soft compound" is like an eraser on the end on a pencil. Hit the brakes and the eraser compresses onto the pavement and you stop shorter.

All street tires have a wear rating stamped on them. I think higher the number the harder and longer wearing it is.

Paul

Brad I lurk around everyday. Only and my .914 cents when I FEEL that I know what I am talking about.
Sure do like the site: you guys are a riot. liked it better in the beginning when it was a free for all.

It was pretty crazy back then.

I can post a couple old lady pics if you like!

I'd be interested to hear about the effects of a 195/50-15 tire too. I was thinking about getting them the other day, mostly by accident. I had gotten the aspect ratio(second number) wrong when I was looking at tirerack.com.

My car has Fuchs 4-bolts and currently 195/60-15 that are just about done.

Putting on the 195/50-15s raises several issues:

clearence
fitment (on the rim, i.e is it wide enough?)
speedo error

If anyone can answer these, I'd appreciate it.

- Joe

I ran my first five AX's with Yokohama street tires, 195-60-15 and stock Fuchs. It was fun, but I was sliding all over the place. The tires are hard, and show little wear. I recently aquired a set of 15 by 7 Panasports and 205-50-15 Kumho VRacers. The difference is night and day. Way more grip and stability. Less roll over on the tire when taking corners due to the shorter and stiffer side wall.

Kaptkaos, If you have 195-60's on your car now, I dont see a clearence issure with 195-50's. Speedo error will increase, somewhere there is a program where you can enter the stock tire size and the new size you plan to run, and it will calculate the speedo error. One thing to consider if you plan on using 50 series tires is the fact that the shorter side wall means more revolutions per minute, thus meaning your RPM's will be higher at speed. It makes your car a bit quicker, but it burns more gas also!

Chris, this is exactly the advice I was looking for. Thanks.

i've got 195/50's on my '14 and i second what was just said.

not reccomended for highway driving, unless you like hearing the constant drone of 4000rpm. that said, for busting around town or joy rides through the hills, they're great (a little extra torque, less sidewall to flex).

nathan

Speedo error calculator-

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html