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Tire Selection - Hopefully not the same old

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vping

vping

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So I need tires for the '74 I'm working on. Here is what I found out.

Friend of mine can get me 4 - Dunlop SP20 FE 185/70 R14 for $65 per tire installed tax included. My rims & stems and I'm out the door for $260.

I called Mavis and told them this and his response for the same tire is $240.24 out the door.

During the conversation I mentioned that I might want to go a little wider & not change the height. He recommends Kelley Chargers 195/65 R14 and I'm out the dor for $220 plus tax.

I have the SP 20's on the GT and have not driven on enough tires to say which is better. These seem fine on the GT and I really got them because the look real nice on the GT and had a decent rating online.

Has anyone had any experience with the Kelley tire and should I drop the "look" of the SP 20 and get a wider tire?

Will I even notice a difference in the handling of the Roadster with wider tires? Keep in mind I am building the '74 to be a daily driver with some performance upgrades along the way under the hood & in the suspension.
 
195/65R14 is a pretty big tire. You may have clearance issues. Consider 195.60R14 and you get a better selection of performance tires. Check out Bridgestone Turanza LS H. They are H-rated and quite stiff, as a sports car tire should be. I recently put a set on my BGT and they are great.

As a side note, I installed a set of Michelin Pilot Exalto and they were terrible! The grip and ride were fantastic but they were even more flexy than the Sumitomos they replaced. The car was quite unstable. The Bridgestones are a far better tire overall for less money.
 
I have a set of the SP20 tires in 165/15 on my original wheels, and more modern Dunlop Qualifiers 195/60/15 on wider wire wheels.
I find the SP20s are just about ok in dry weather, but very poor grip if you get caught in rain; the wider Qualifiers allow harder braking so you stop sooner, and more grip, but the car feels more twitchy and sensitive to road grooves and camber change.
Just got a new set of BFG Precept in 175/70/13 for the Spitfire, modest cost and seem to perform well, so perhaps look at them too.
Can't comment on Kelly, never had them myself.
Simon.
 
Steve do you happen to have a pic of the `Bridgestone Turanza LS H, and are you running 195.60R14 on your car?
 
Here are a couple angles showing the fit on 14x5" wheels, stock '67 ride height. The tires are 195/60R14 which are slightly smaller diameter than stock, but they fit and the sidewalls aren't too big. I prefer 195/60R15 but I want to keep the original GT-only disc wheels.
 

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No problem with hitting or rubbing?
 
None at all. I have 195/60R15 Michelin Pilots on 15x5.5" 72-spoke wires on my '65 MGB, also with no rubbing.
 
Sweet. Gonna call Mavis tomorrow and see what they can do for me. seems that the Bridgestones do have a better overall rating than the Dunlops.
 
Normally I prefer Michelin but they didn't have anything to offer in the size and performance level I wanted. I've always loved the look of Dunlops, but finding a good tire from them is difficult. To top it all off, I've always hated Bridgestones! But they are giving me most of the performance I wanted. Be warned, you can find a softer riding tire so if comfort is more important than handling then you might look elsewhere.
 
I’ve been a fan of Yokohama tires. They have an H4S in the 195/65, which has an overall diameter of 24”. I believe that is slightly less than a 185/70.
 
Now he's throwing this at me:

Dunlop HR4 195/60 R14 out the door for $303.05

Kelly GT Ultra 195/60 R14 out the door for $238.70

He said he can't find the Turanza and he has the H rated Potenza for #269.12 out the door.

What to do?
 
My vote is split the difference and go with the H rated Potenzas /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/driving.gif
 
I've heard good things about the Potenzas as well. I definitely prefer an H-rated tire over anything less, assuming it's the proper type of tire for my driving style and weather conditions.
 
My mistake on pricing.
G009 Bridgestone Potenza is A for Traction & H rated is $400 out the door.
Dunlop A2 Plus is AA for tracktion & H rated are $292 out the door.
Kelly GT Ultra are A & H rated at $250.

I think I might go with the Dunlop A2 Plus. It's within budget and a well rated tire.

Found an interesting website with all the good bits about tires in it.

https://www.safercar.gov/Tires/pages/TireLabelPassVeh.htm
 
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