E30 Zone

Hi,

I am just wondering what popular (and available) types of tyres are for the sport?

My Continentals are worn and I also suffered an evil puncture to one of them (my spare turned out to be a Cooper, whatever that is!).

The Continentals were fine, not too grippy, which seems to suit the sport in the dry as it allows the car to move around predictably. The wet performance wasn't superb, but once again, not too bad. Therefore, I wouldn't be scared of going for these again but since I don't cover huge distance, the lure of something more performance orientated is quite tempting.

Any thoughts?

Michael

Uniroyal rain expert on mine, not as it ever goes out in the rain

Toyo Proxes T1-R seem to be a popular choice, I've just had a set put on my car.

It's only been two days so too soon to give a proper comment, although the old mismatched part worn's that were on my car since I got it (which were completely shredded/bald on the insides) felt grippyer. The Proxes make the car feel like its gliding over everything, I get scared going round corners at speed now.

let it hang out!!

Maxtek wrote:Toyo Proxes T1-R seem to be a popular choice, I've just had a set put on my car.

I have these all round on my touring. They're nice and grippy but I have a feeling the soft compound comes at a price, they seem to be wearing quite fast. I've read quite a lot of similar comments on here. Perhaps if you're not using the car that much this won't be such an issue.

Proxes seem get a marmite review most of the time..

kumho ecsta on mine, had 2 near new laying around and after lots of good comments on here i went with a full set, pick them up quite cheap and not had any issues at all and still look like new after a summer of use

Maxtek wrote: the old mismatched part worn's which were completely shredded/bald on the insides.........The Proxes make the car feel like its gliding over everything

Does it not occur to you that there may be some connection between these two statements? The first shows that your suspension set up is way out of spec., so your new tyres are probably running on their inner sidewalls/extreme edge of the tread, on a contact patch about the size of that of a bicycle tyre.
Don't blame the tyre for the inadequacies of your car!

Brianmoooore wrote:

Maxtek wrote: the old mismatched part worn's which were completely shredded/bald on the insides.........The Proxes make the car feel like its gliding over everything

Does it not occur to you that there may be some connection between these two statements? The first shows that your suspension set up is way out of spec., so your new tyres are probably running on their inner sidewalls/extreme edge of the tread, on a contact patch about the size of that of a bicycle tyre.
Don't blame the tyre for the inadequacies of your car!

could be slammed and 17" pina repzzzz innit bruv

Brianmoooore wrote:

Maxtek wrote: the old mismatched part worn's which were completely shredded/bald on the insides.........The Proxes make the car feel like its gliding over everything

Does it not occur to you that there may be some connection between these two statements? The first shows that your suspension set up is way out of spec., so your new tyres are probably running on their inner sidewalls/extreme edge of the tread, on a contact patch about the size of that of a bicycle tyre.
Don't blame the tyre for the inadequacies of your car!

No that didn't occur to me.

Regarding the excessive wear on the insides, I had a new set of wheels and tryes put on the car and then had them aligned.

New and old wheels are 15" BBS. (Old ones were so badly damaged I bought a refurbished set)

Perhaps you could point me in the right direction Brian?

Read, learn and enjoy.

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Suspension

G-Bear wrote:Read, learn and enjoy.

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Suspension

Well that's a very daunting link!

I'll have a read through it, although I don't know if its worth mentioning that my car just went through an MOT and Inspection 2, surely if there was anything severely wrong they would have said told me, they didn't mind telling me about a couple of other expensive things that I had to get fixed...

It's the 'Trouble shooting' paragraph at the bottom that'll be direct use to you. But there's no harm reading all of it.

Maxtek wrote:The Proxes make the car feel like its gliding over everything, I get scared going round corners at speed now.

I've just had a new pair of rears fitted - T1-R's replacing 1 year old T1-R's (bastard punctures!!!), and the new ones do seem a lot less 'grippy' than the old ones that came off - however, I suspect they just need a bit of enthusiastic use, to wear off whatever greasy coating is on them from new!!! All new tyres I've ever had have been slippy at first and I believe they are meant to warn you of such when you purchase/fit them!!!

I'm sure with a weeks abuse they'll be gripping like the old ones did!!!

I find them a good enough perfomance'ish tyre, though by no means the best in all weathers!!!

Similar tyre to the Kumho in terms of price is the Nexen N Eco. Suit my 318i cab on 14" very well, but not sure about using on a 325i Sport.

Which Continentals did you have? I was considering getting Continental Premium Contact 2 @ £90 from Mytyres or Yokohama S.Drive @ £102 from Black Circles. Anyone any experience of these two brands/models in 205/55/15?

pikanibbles wrote:Which Continentals did you have? I was considering getting Continental Premium Contact 2 @ £90 from Mytyres or Yokohama S.Drive @ £102 from Black Circles. Anyone any experience of these two brands/models in 205/55/15?

Continentals £80 each, including carriage from Oponeo.
Yokos £99 each.

Brianmoooore wrote:

pikanibbles wrote:Which Continentals did you have? I was considering getting Continental Premium Contact 2 @ £90 from Mytyres or Yokohama S.Drive @ £102 from Black Circles. Anyone any experience of these two brands/models in 205/55/15?

Continentals £80 each, including carriage from Oponeo.
Yokos £99 each.

Good find, I've never heard of that site before. Bookmarked. Thanks.

pikanibbles wrote:
Good find, I've never heard of that site before. Bookmarked. Thanks.

Used them several times now, and very satisfied with their service.
Not always the cheapest for all makes, but they usually are, especially as carriage is included
Tyres come from Poland, but only take a couple of says, and are tracked all the way.

On this subject, I take it the Pirelli p600s are no longer available, my white sport still has it original pirellis on it, and the spare is still unused, but I would rather fit pirellis again if they were still available, any help would be appreciated.

polsta wrote:kumho ecsta on mine, had 2 near new laying around and after lots of good comments on here i went with a full set, pick them up quite cheap and not had any issues at all and still look like new after a summer of use

+1

Used Kumho KU31s on the 325i cab. Performed very well in call conditions, including snow. Would recommend (though I think they've been discontinued).

pikanibbles wrote:Which Continentals did you have? I was considering getting Continental Premium Contact 2 @ £90 from Mytyres or Yokohama S.Drive @ £102 from Black Circles. Anyone any experience of these two brands/models in 205/55/15?

i used a set of conti prem 2's they are a decent tyre not as sporty as contisport contact 2 of course but sensational in the wet

reggid wrote:

pikanibbles wrote:Which Continentals did you have? I was considering getting Continental Premium Contact 2 @ £90 from Mytyres or Yokohama S.Drive @ £102 from Black Circles. Anyone any experience of these two brands/models in 205/55/15?

i used a set of conti prem 2's they are a decent tyre not as sporty as contisport contact 2 of course but sensational in the wet

I would prefer the Contisports but I can't seem to find them in 205/55/15. Do they exist?

pikanibbles wrote:

reggid wrote:

pikanibbles wrote:Which Continentals did you have? I was considering getting Continental Premium Contact 2 @ £90 from Mytyres or Yokohama S.Drive @ £102 from Black Circles. Anyone any experience of these two brands/models in 205/55/15?

i used a set of conti prem 2's they are a decent tyre not as sporty as contisport contact 2 of course but sensational in the wet

I would prefer the Contisports but I can't seem to find them in 205/55/15. Do they exist?

Continental did make a contisport in 205/55/15 but that is a very old tyre which was replaced with the sportcontact 2 but that was not available in 205/55/15.

The 2 is a great tyre for the E30 but the only size suitable for E30's that it's available in is 205/50/16 and 225/45/16 which is what Alpinas and M3's use.

Thanks for the reply. Hmm, 16's might be an option for the future.

Limited choice of tyres in 205x55x15 guise nowadays.

Continental, Vredestein Sportracs and Uniroyal Rainsport 3s are all good.

Kumho KU31 and Falken ZE914s (a lot better than the previous generation ZE912) are the best of the cheaper options. Avon are landfill.

Toyos were ok when they were cheap but they seem to have shot up in price recently. They wear too quickly for my wallet's liking!

darkchild wrote:Limited choice of tyres in 205x55x15 guise nowadays.

Its why a lot of people now run 205/50/15.

Size is not ideal but a much more favorable sidewall height and price.

darkchild wrote:Falken ZE914s (a lot better than the previous generation ZE912) are the best of the cheaper options.

Just changed from 912s to 914s. Not really driven them enough to make a comparison yet, but hopefully they'll wear better than the 912s, at least.
One good point is that the 914s have an asymmetric tread pattern, rather than the directional of the 912, so at least you can fit any wheel on any side of the car, as long as you manage to mount them on the rim the right way around*.

*Stuck the first one on at random, without noticing the change, and with the intention of fitting the other one the other way around, so as to get an axle pair. Only noticed they were asymmetric and not directional when I started fitting the second one, but fortunately I'd got the first one right by chance.