Are 185/60 14 R888s OK?

[reggiegasket]

I'm thinking of using my 14" wheels for track days. There are 185/60 14 R888s available on ebay which are cheap. I've used 195/60 14s before and they worked well an lowered the gearing a bit. I'm happy with using 185s, just wondering if anyone has any experience with these tyres and do they fit OK on the standard 14" BBS. My car is a standard 318iS, so I don't think I need 205s (yet). What is the normal size people use on their 15" BBS?

[billgatese30]

ThePBMW racers use 195/50/15 R888's when racing.

Either that or people tend to use 205/50/15's for the track, not sure for 14's though.

[reggiegasket]

Thanks; do the 195/50/15s go on the standard BBS 15s?

[billgatese30]

yes, without any real problems as far as I am led to believe, most, if not all of the PBMW guys use 15" BBS and the 195/50 r888 is a control tyre so it must be a fairly good fit.

[hoshy]

I used Silverstone semi-slicks on my iS on 14inch BBS and I was hammering much faster cars around cadwell - the lower gearing was noticible and the grip level meant you could drive circles around many faster cars which is great fun.

don't expect to do more than a few laps before you cook the breaks though - again around cadwell, I was on stock disks with Ferodo DS2500s and I managed about 5-6 laps before things got scary

195s will fit fine on the 15inch BBBs, yeap.

[reggiegasket]

Yes, that backs up my experience from bike track days. This year I've been using a CB500 for track days, which is really a commuter bike . I get blitzed on the straights, but with good tyres I can really attack the corners and embarress a few people. I changed the fluid and pads on the iS for racing stuff last year for a road ralley, so I'm hoping the brakes will last OK. I'm not a heavy braker anyway (too lazy). I'll try the 185/60 14s and see how I go. I'm hoping the quality of the rubber will be more important than the width of the tyre, at least at my novice level.

[hoshy]

I had some idea in my head that the Silverstone 185 R14s might not be so good as my wider 205 R15 road tyres but the first corner corrected that opinion

http://www.serviceandsport.com/ftztyrerr.htm was the tyre I used - there were two mk2 16v Golfs on the same day, both stripped and caged with coilovers etc - they were testing for some race series they were entering using R888s. I'm not sure whether the were on soft, med or hard though.

My chipped iS had crap spax suspension, and H&R arbs, DS2500 pads, along with full road trim/ interior etc and I had no problem violating them

[reggiegasket]

What sort of prices for the 14s?

[hoshy]

well - I paid 90 delivered for them part worn from some guy on here - I forget who to be hoenst. got a day and half use out of them really - would have had more if I'd driven better / had adjustable camber. I think they're a lot more expensive than R888s new though.

[rix313]

I might go for some and run 14's on the rear then to keep the gearing good.

[hoshy]

Yeah - it's great with the raised rev limit - I was running to 7k with the 4.1 diff and 14s. that was pre s/c but still, it loved

[Jon_Bmw]

60 profile.

[cragles]

I would get some 15" wheels and then speak to some of the pbmwc guys - quite a lot of them sell on their used tyres that are past the best for racing but still fine for trackdays and much better than road tyres too.

[hoshy]

60 profile.

But they're 185s and they'll (hopefully) be much stiffer on the sidewall.