what tyres on a 1500 spit?

[Rich_s]

Just wondered what tyres you guys run on your spitfires, mine has 3 different makes and the cheng shin seem to grip the best (just shows how bad the other two are!!), although they are not that good.

The rears will be out of tread soon as they keep accidently spinning when pullin away on wet roads  ;), just wondered if there are any tyres that work well with this car, it spend most of the time on motroways so need something that will last a while but not too hard that it slides round corners too much.

thanks
rich

[Fizzy]

i recently fitted new tyres to my mk3, but i also went up a size in wheel width so the difference i felt in grip will also be partly down to that. after chatting to the tyre guy who my dad uses reguarly for his work fleet, he turned me away from the expensive continental's and toyo's etc that i went in to buy, insisting that i try Matador tyres. essentially they are continentals, but not made at the main continental factory (which i assume is in germany). however they are designed by continental, just a bit cheaper due i guess to cheaper production costs.

anyway, there was a good 15 quid per tyre difference between the matadors (38 quid each) and 'premium' brands, but the difference they made is amazing. like you, i used to wheelspin even when NOT trying. fitting the wheels and tyres is probably the biggest single thing ive done to my car to make it better. im sure a lot of people will speak up for the big name brands, but don't assume they are the ONLY good tyres out there.

check blackcircles.com or e-tyres.com, theres a few user reviews on one of the sites, and they'll come fit your new tyres at your house, and they're cheap.

[Royboy66]

932 wrote:

it spend most of the time on motroways so

you need to change your routes a bit!  more fun !! ;)

I got Yokohama Adrives on my GT6, not a spitty but  ;)

[willcolumbine]

The right tyres depend what sort of use your car gets!

When I used my car year round I used Pirelli 3000's which were pretty decent all round. Since I got a modern for the winter hack, I swapped to Yokohama A032R's which are absolutely awesome in the dry and when they've warmed up but in the wet they're a bit of a handfull and the wear rate is absolutely phenominally bad!

In my opinion cheap and nasty tyres shouldn't be anywhere near a rear wheel drive car. They're one of those things, like brake pads, that are worth spending a little bit extra on. I've had the rather unfortunate experience of driving a powerfull BMW with no traction control and cheap tyres and believe me, it wasn't pleasant on a rainy day.

Cheap tyres also don't seem to have the UV resistance that decent brands do - but that might just be my experience.

[Fizzy]

i should have also mentioned the tyres i used to have were tiny little falken 20 quid a corner jobbies - and they were pap.

[Alex]

I have michelins on my 1500 spit,only 165's but they just grip wet or dry.
Expensive tyre but very hard wearing considering the grip.

[cook1e]

I have Michelins as well on my GT6, 175/70 13's on 5.5 J Cosmic alloys. Seem like really good tyres and I got a set of 4 for £130 quid which seemed like a good deal for a premium tyre, that was a couple of years ago though.

Prior to that I always used to run Goodyear GTs, again 175 70 13's. I used to run my Spitfire 1500 on standrd size 155 13 Dunlop SPs (don't think these3 have been available for quite a few years!)  but I think you can just about step up to 165s on early 1500s (which had 4.5 J rims) and 175 on the later ones (which had 5J rims) without changing from standard rims.

[DaveKent]

hmm, cheaper tyres might be ok at first, but they do go "off" very quickly. they are quite often not very round and this is exaggerated as they become harder with age. stick with good brands, and don't be fooled by this "well, sir they're made by the same people" nonsense. generally you get what you pay for, although from my experience some of the the better makes have over 100% mark up at the tyre fitters, so try and find a trade outlet, and then take your new tyres somewhere to be fitted.   example of this, my uniroyal rain tyres , kwick fit etc price £95 plus vat each, bought the whole set of 5 from a friendly garage charging trade price from stapletons, cost me £200 for the set, then £25 fitting.  I run 185/60 13 yokohama A539 on my spit, fantastic in the dry, exciting but controllably predictable in the wet. again £200 for 5, fitted and balanced, but this time through Value Tyres.

[starman]

On my '78 Spitfire, I'm using 185/55-14 tyres (Federal SS595) on 14x6 Superlite wheels w/ +26mm offset.  On my '68 Spitfire, I'm using 185/60-13 tyres (Sumitomo HTR200) on 13x5.5 TR7 factory steel wheels w/ +23mm offset.  Both are good street tyres, and I've autocrossed the '78 on the current set, but of course you can get different, higher performance ones in these sizes.  I've driven the '78 over 8000 miles so far in 2009, and the '68 I've driven about 1500 miles so far in 2009.  I've run on various Yokohamas in the past on my '78 (A008RSII, A509, HS4s) and been fine.