I got lucky with mine on here second hand but you can get them imported. Google will tell you who through - I can't remember. Shame the $au has dived though...
The 195/55R15 Tyre Thread
- Thread starter GTI124
- Start date
I got lucky with mine on here second hand but you can get them imported. Google will tell you who through - I can't remember. Shame the $au has dived though...
I thought that 185s were available on Jax tyre's site and they were $16 a tyre dearer than 195s, however they are not now.
'Just have to drive on the fat ones
.
'Just have to drive on the fat ones
.
I don't think they were on last week and dealers are not always aware of what upcoming specials are. Bob Jane look to have the the same deal. Might be easier to find a dealer that you have confidence in.
There can be a huge difference in stores depending on staff in most tyre chains.
I've just got a set of 15" speedlines refurbished. Collecting them from the powder-coater tomorrow. Gotta make a tyre decision now! Are the RE003s (in 195/50/15) going to be too wide?
Struggling to find many options in the 185/55/15 size!
Michelin PS3s are an option, or continental c2s
Any thoughts?!
Struggling to find many options in the 185/55/15 size!
Michelin PS3s are an option, or continental c2s
Any thoughts?!
SORRY 306 People!
Here is what they (195 50 15) look like on RAT 205.
+ out of interest compared to Proxes 888 (same size in all respects).
They are great in wet, not had opportunity to belt them in dry yet. Though a lot stickier than RE 002s.
Thanks for the pics mate. They look good
195/50 has the same circumference as 185/55 so gearing will be the same. I can't imagine that it will foul anywhere as, on any given side, it will only be 5 mm wider. Steering is unlikely to be heavier.
I love the PremiumContact2 but it would not be as crisp or wet-grippy as the PS3 & the PS3 would not be as crisp or wet-grippy as the RE003. In Bridgestone's preview of the RE003 at the beginning of 2015, the crispess comparison tyre was the PS3 - advantage RE003. In wet grip, the comparison tyre was the Conti SportContact5 - considered a draw (quite a good result for Bridgestone given the SC5's wet prowess).
You've right that the shortlist in 185/55 is PS3 & PC2 but each is inferior to the 195/50 RE003.
I'd get the RE003 & the decision is sweetened by Bridgestone currently having a "4 for the price of 3" deal.
cheers! Peter
What is the opposite of crisp.... Soggy??? At or beyond the limit of traction PS3 is king of soggy!!!
But the PS3 scores a big fail when you gets silly and do things like get all four wheels pointing a different direction to the one you are traveling, or heavily load up side of the front end.
The rest of the time though it is brilliant.
Jo
By crisp, I mean operates at low slip angles.
Perhaps unnecessary but to avoid misunderstanding, a tyre's slip angle is best explained by reference to a front tyre's behaviour in cornering. Say one had a circle painted on the ground & drove around it very slowly with one's front tyres following the circle. There would be an alignment of tyre/wheel & circle such that the fore/aft axis of the tyre & wheel would form a tangent. Now up the speed. The steering wheel turns the road wheel & it can only turn the tread contact patch via the sidewall & bead. Some sidewall structures transmit this force more directly than others. In some cases (comfortable, nice riding tyres commonly) the wheel turns a fair way & twists the sidewall before the contact patch is affected. So, instead of the wheel forming a tangent, it points inside the circle followed by the contact patch. That angle of difference is the slip angle of the tyre. The slip angles a given tyre operates at can be lessened by increasing tyre pressure (thus tautening the sidewall) or increasing wheel width (thus tautening the sidewall). When one tunes a car's handling balance by playing with F/R tyre pressures, what one is doing is playing with the relative slip angles of front & rear tyres.
cheers! Peter
Great explanation, Peter.
So from what I have experienced, would that mean that at 40 psi the re002 kept its slip angle below a point where detrimental sidewall/contact patch deformation occurred and ps3 did not??
Jo
Pretty much.
There can be complications to the story such that two tyres can be equally resistant to twisting distortions (the crispness factor) but one still fold under more than another. Much depends on how they've done "hinge points" for vertical load bump accommodation & belt edge reinforcement.
And, in a car with suspension that tends to go into positive camber during hard cornering, an over-rigid sidewall can also be a bad thing, not a good thing. This is because there is not enough sidewall flexibility to allow the tyre to operate like a radial much at all. Under cornering, a radial is designed to have some fold-under of the sidewall, with the tread virtually migrating laterally inwards but staying fairly flat to the road. With an over-rigid sidewall, the tread climbs on to an edge at some point with considerable & rapid loss of working tread & lateral traction.
cheers! Peter