All of this tire talk made me finally check what I had, because I have been
very satisfied with them, and they look as close to "right" as a radial
can...
They are Michelin Radial X ZX 175 R 15s.
They are a high profile tire that fill the wheel well the way the original
roadspeeds did, and they seem plenty grippy for the sports touring that I do.
I was sorry to see that they don't still seem to be offered on the Coker site,
when I just did a quick check. -But similar Michelin tires seem to be running
about $180 a copy. --Not cheap.
When I bought these, my main concern was modern construction but original
appearing proportions.
IMHO, I have seen a lot of otherwise beautiful Healeys who's visual
proportions are compromised by installation of lower profile tires which leave
large somewhat goofy looking gaps between fender and tire. In the end though,
I think it amounts to a personal choice between performance and visual
appeal.
David W. Jones
'62 Mk II BT7 tricarb
Cumberland, RI USA
----- Original Message -----
From: Blue One Hundred
To: Eric (Rick) Wilkins
Cc: Healeys Mailing List
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: Tire recommendation
Rick -
You point about high performance tires is right on the money. There's more
stuff to worry about, in fact.
I used to run high performance Falken 205/60s on my BJ8 in the 80's before I
knew better.
The result?
Because the tires cornered so well and gripped the road like a bear in a
beehive, after only about 2 years on the tires both of my shock mounting
plates cracked and almost delaminated from the BJ8's chassis. I had to
replace these shock mount plates... not a cheap job, trust me!!
I've been running 185/70R15s since, mid grade touring tires (Rikens... I
guess I have to replace them soon). Spent the money on uprated suspension
parts instead... which gave me better handling anyway (than with the 205's)
and I stress out the suspension mounts a whole lot less now.
Regards,
Alan
'53 BN1 '64 BJ8
"Eric (Rick) Wilkins" <wilko2@cox.net> wrote:
Good that you brought that up.
Wearability and durability are tested and the tires are rated for such.
Wearability has very little to do with how well a tire will perform and
when it does it's in a reverse correlary. Softer tires stick better but
wear faster.
Actually most tires that perform "best" (best grip wet/dry, etc.) wear
very quickly and as such have a very low rating for wear. My daily
driver has $250.00 Dunlop SP9000's on it (Jaguar with 245/45/18) and
the $35.00 Kuhmos probably have a better wear rating.
Many Healeys are only driven a little bit each year. Hardly enough to
really get to the wornout stage before the tire is too old to be driven
safely.
About "top of the line" tires: why would most people buy them? Most
drivers will never know the difference anyway. You can rarely drive
them to the limits of what they are designed to do other than last a
long time (mileage wise). After time they are all bad anyway, worn or
not.
In my case I drive good tires with high speed ratings and lower/stiffer
(195/60) sidewalls on Minilites for fun, and while showing the car with
its factory disk wheels it wears the 165/SR15's. they aren't getting
that much use and they don'
t look like stock bias plies anyway so why spend more?
YMMV,
Rick
San Diego
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