Well! I have finally found time in my busy schedule to go and fetch
Harvey the Mighty Midget (peep!) from its cold, dark barn. I intend to run in
one autocross (I hope) and then spend the remainder of the summer making it
pretty. Now, to the matter at hand: tires. The car needs a set. It is
running original-type "Rostyle" wheels that are either 13X4 or 13X4.5 (Anyone
know which it is? I can't remember.), and now has the following tires:
RF: Goodyear Viva II, 155/80R-13
LF: Michelin XZX, 145/80R-13
RR: Cooper Trendsetter 165/80R-13
LR: Goodyear Viva II, 155/80R-13
I probably don't need to say that handling dynamics are, um, very
interesting with these tires, especially given their penchant for holding air
for weeks on end and then suddenly dropping to 15 PSI without warning. So
when I clean up the rims, it gets new tires. This brings up two questions:
1. What is the widest tire I can safely run on this rim? It would be nice if
the rolling radius corresponded roughly to that of a 145/80 or 155/80, but a
little smaller/larger wouldn't hurt my feelings either.
2. does anyone have any favorite tires for street and autox in this size?
They don't need to be terribly durable, but good cornering, and not too
expensive.
I'll be getting proper-sized wheels at some point in my life, but
until that point happens, these wheels will have to do. Besides, I can't
autocross the car in E-Stock with wider wheels, right?
BTW, I think I have seen the limit of the tire/wheel width ratio
recently: a '58 MGA with stock wheels (4" wide) running 195/60 tires.
Needless to say, the poor tires didn't look real happy. Oh well.
Thanks in advance!
Michael T. Chaffee
mchaffee@sumter.cso.uiuc.edu
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