Favorite Tires?

Durability and performance are on opposite sides of the equation.  Soft performance tires will expire at a much faster rate.  What size are you going to run? 

These cars are so light that tires will last almost forever.  Go for sticky and enjoy them.  Mine (Goodyear Eagle RS-As) have lasted more than 10 years now, which I should not have allowed.

id go with a softer sticky tire as the mileage per year is not that great

my car from VS came with Pirelli P4s, decent tire

I put other P4s on my girlfriends Honda Accord and she got 75K out of them and another 10K left but the sidewalls deteriorated after 6 years I don't think the speedies get that much mileage so ride in comfort instead of long mileage.

Pure summer's hard to find but Vredestein makes them.  

http://www.vredestein.com/car-...mer/sportrac-5/info/

The Pirellis P4's look the part but are a hard compound.  It was not enough to tire for my  souped up  IM Turbo.

Lane Anderson posted:

These cars are so light that tires will last almost forever.  Go for sticky and enjoy them.  Mine (Goodyear Eagle RS-As) have lasted more than 10 years now, which I should not have allowed.

You obviously run less negative camber than I do out back.

As mentioned above, a tire with more performance will have a softer compound and will wear at a faster rate, but unless you put as many miles on your speedster as Jim M I wouldn't be concerned about tire wear.  For most of us our tires rot out before they wear out.

If you can fit 205/55-16s on your car you're a lucky bugger, because there are some really top performance tires offered in that size.

Here's three very highly rate maximum performance summer tires:

1.  Bridgestone Potenza S-04 Pole Position (top pick, but most expensive)

2.  Continental Extreme Contact DW  (almost as good as the S-04s but considerable cheaper)

3  Ventus V12 EV02  (cheapest of the 3, but also a step down in performance)

I have been on Michelin Premiers from Costco for a couple of months now. They handle great and the front end sticks! 60,000 mile warranty, free rotation, free balancing for the life of the tire.

I run Bridgestone Potenza Pole Position tires on my Mazda 6, and they are terrific. Great wet performance.  Wear is reasonable.  Handling is excellent. Run Khumo (?) tires on the Speedy, since that is what it came with.  I think they are a softer compound, relatively, and seem to work fine.  Car corners fine. As is said, our cars are light, and wear rate is low.  I don't think shopping for high mileage warranties is the best criterion for the Speedster.

Yes I'll be running  205/55R16 The POTENZA S-04 POLE are $110 which is reasonable. I'll never get high miles on the Island so softer and good in the rain are important.

Thanks all..

Don't know anything about drive flats. Off hand I'd not want to go there. Don't know anybody that runs those.  On the other hand, if the roads you use daily are full of hazard, then maybe these make sense.  Good luck.

El Frazoo posted:

I don't think shopping for high mileage warranties is the best criterion for the Speedster.

Depends on your budget. The Michelins perform better than the Yokohama's that I had. 

I did a bunch of research when I was looking for tires for my Touareg, and ended up with a tire by Nexxen.   I had never heard of them, but I am very pleased.   Very low road noise, with good traction in snow.  I know that's not the application here, but they were inexpensive too.

Other than higher cost, less tread wear miles, and the harsh ride, isn't the other issue with run flats that: yeah they don't go flat immediately so you can still drive it to get it replaced BUT only about 100  miles at no more than 50 mph.

Dennis Linkletter posted:

Yes I'll be running  205/55R16 The POTENZA S-04 POLE are $110 which is reasonable. I'll never get high miles on the Island so softer and good in the rain are important.

Thanks all..

the Z guys (entirely different car) love the SO4, my Z came with REO5OAs which I have no fault with(mature driving) but the young'uns go with SO4s

WOLFGANG posted:

Other than higher cost, less tread wear miles, and the harsh ride, isn't the other issue with run flats that: yeah they don't go flat immediately so you can still drive it to get it replaced BUT only about 100  miles at no more than 50 mph.

Along with the first 3 characteristics Greg wrote, run flats are heavy (3-4 lbs more than a comparable tire of the same size, and that's with our small tires!) as well. Wrong place to be adding weight when you're looking for performance.

And run-flats cost a LOT more and cannot usually be repaired when punctured.  Perfect, as long as you are a tire company.  My BMW originally had run-flats but I have since replaced them with much better conventional tires (Michelin Pilot Super Sports) and obtained a spare and jack kit from Bavarian Autosport.

About 4 months ago I got a set of Falken ze950, 185/65x15. Kind of soft, 40k mile warranty, I have about 2500 miles on them, they stick very well, don't squeal and they are inexpensive. Can't beat that!

Guys, the 15" tires we run on our speedster are crap when it comes to performance.  The sad news is that no one makes a high performance tire that fits our cars (regular body).

These basic tires are okay if you just into cruising your speedster down the highway and never exceed the posted speed limit through corners, but if you occasionally like to do a bit of canyon carving these tires will leave you wanting.

Dennis is very lucky he can fit a seriously high performance tire on his car. 

 I have a set of ZE 950s on my wife's old Chevy Tracker and they're a decent tire  but something like the S-04 Poles is in another league.

Ron, they do exists but they cost a pretty penny.  I ran these on my IM before Henry widened my rims to 7.5 Inches in the rear.  They were fricken awesome and they have the vintage sidewalls.  Expect to pay just under $300 per tire and only get 12K to 15K miles before they need to be replaced.  175/70's for most standard body speedsters. 185/70's are a 1/2 inch wider.  I was going to run the AVON CRZ66 225's in the back but they are 9.13 inches wide and that may have been a problem on my standard body car.  

http://www.avonmotorsport.com/historic/historic/cr6zz

There are 17" wide five available

http://www.airkewld.com/Beetle...els-Tires-s/2200.htm

$300 per --- you guys have jumped way out of my universe.

In hindsight best to pay more in Indo.. I think it's just too risky to buy tires to run on 16" wheels that nobody I know has run/fit on an Envemo..
Best to just wait and try on a few combinations at a tire store..

Maybe see how 185-55 r16 on the front and 205-55 r16 on the rear does for clearance
https://www.tacomaworld.com/ti...=185-55r16-205-55r16

Maybe  Michelin Premier A/S,  they review well and come in these sizes.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/...1=yes#RatingsReviews

Thanks for all your input as always..

Here is a shot of her outside the paint booth 

That's gorgeous, Dennis.

Looking good, Dennis.

Is that a right hand drive Envemo? Very Cool!

Thanks for the kudos, I'm thrilled with the paint. Shot it in PPG Envirobase HP. I had never used a water based paint before.  Have not seen it since they did the compounding and final polish.  I did the RHD conversion here in Indonesia, we cut and moved the glove box and then made up the instrument cluster in metal and fiberglassed it in. Turned out great.

I'll say. Killer job, Dennis.

Hello Dennis,

What is the color ? BMW, Porsche, Mercedes Benz ? Audi? or none of those ?

Looks great.

It's a 1966-67  911 Porsche color.   6601   Steve Mcqueen painted a few of his Porsches this grey.  Looks very different in different light as this forum post shows.
http://www.planet-9.com/club-9...che-991-turbo-s.html

Dash conversion

Thanks Dennis, no wonder I liked it, it is the color of my 1968 912. My computer showed it a little lighter.

Some better pictures

Great car.. Unusual color.. Love it but as you know it's different in the sun/different light.. that the factory color?

Dennis Linkletter posted:

Great car.. Unusual color.. Love it but as you know it's different in the sun/different light.. that the factory color?

Yes, original paint, however roof was repainted. It was matched perfectly.