Posted By : Nigel Gibbins,
08-Aug-2005, 04:12pm
Dunlop SPs are fine on a car that gets a lot of use, but my experience (and that of my friendly tyre fitter) is that they easily lose shape if left
standing for a while (we're talking months here I think). When I first bought my GT6 (which had done 9,000 miles in 10 years), it had SPs on all
round and I had bad virbation problems, although they were balanced up (on wires) using the proper clamps. However, the vibration didn't quite go
away until I changed them for Firestones which were by far superiour to the Dunlops.
The wear rate is good and the grip is fantastic, but both these factor are reliant of the proper pressures and tracking of course.
You should use no larger than 155s for tyre width as the spline adaptors already increase your track setting and more than that will have your
wheels extending beyond the bodywork (esp at the front)... even with that the fronts can rub (on the very outside) on the wheel arches if you take
a speed bump too quickly - the rears are fine for clearance but I wouldn't want to put the extra strain of a 175 on those rear axles (known
weakspot).
When were talking road cars, IMHO wider tyres give you no extra benefit (some would say they look better) but they do increase the wear rate of the
steering/suspension components - as for more grip in cornering... well, who are you trying to beat? Why do you need to corner faster? These are the
questions I asked myself and so my GT6 stays on 155/78s.