Cool!. OK so those with 235, did the extra width help, hinder or make no difference to the feel of how the car drives?

Andrew

 

My personal preference on my next set would be to go back to 225/45s and preferably the OEM 040's. Track day studies, especially the Nats and thereafter, by MACCAA prove pretty convincingly that it is a damn good tyre mainly due to its compound.

Failing that, I'd go for 235's, simply because there is a lot more choice of tyre around. I presently have Yoko ES100 245/40's and I have to say while they are ok on the road and in the wet, they tramline more, and are not good on the track -- lots of squirm

 

I definitely feel that I've got better grip over the OEM rubber but I don't know if that's due to the 235 width, the different tyre (PS2) or even just a placebo because I want to justify the expense to myself.

Frankly, with the exception of stove hot drivers who really can assess the car's performance accurately, I reckon you'd be hard pressed to pick significant differences between quality tyres (like the PS2, OEM's and the GY's others have been discussing) in 90% of the driving we do. Can't speak for the Nankangs though.

I think the only sure thing is to compare laptimes but even that can be problematic in terms of consistency and do you really want to choose a tyre based only on track performance (slicks excepted)?

 

Sorry, should add that my 235's are fitted to 8.5 rims, so I believe (and I'm sure there's any number of experts out there to flame me on this) that I'm getting extra width (and therefore marginally more grip) but without the tyre squirm that may happen with 235's or 245's on the OEM rims.

It's a black art alright.

 

It could be a placebo effect. I certainly felt like I was getting more grip...until the laptimes told otherwise.

Hmmm....wonder how labrat's Fulda Excelero's (sp?) are going

 

I knw on my SP20 I went to the next size up (I think it was from 195 to 205's or was it 205 to 215) and it made a massive differnce. Difference of course is FWD.

I agree that its hard to compare brands. But what it sounds like is that there is minimal difference found between 225 and 235 on the 8 that is all I really wanted to know.

fwiw my first thoughts are that with a wider rim your ride would feel better as there would be less squirm. but thats my un educated, 5 second thoughts.

 

I used nangkang tyre before, they ok except that, I dont know if you encountered it yet, the steering bound to pull to one side, either left or right if you let go the steering wheel. At first I thought it's just a normal alignment thing but when I took it to my friend who do the alignment, he looked at my tyre and immediately laugh and said "nangkang?" . According to him, nangkang tyre always has a history of pulling one side the steering wheel if you let go. No matter how perfect you alignment, it still pulling to one side eventhough its a brand new tyre. So at the end I have to change to a new brand of tyre ( I used yokohama) and the problem solve.

 

I've got about 12k km on them now, and I'm still happy. They're great in the wet, very quiet, and at 260kPa, there's no squirm under normal road driving conditions and as far as I can tell, the handling is great. Of course, I can't comment about how they'd handle under track conditions, and it is most likely that slower times and squirm would be observed - after all, they are near the maximum for an 8" rim. From a purely aesthetic point of view, they give the car a very aggressive stance. Would I buy the Fulda's again? From the point of view of this strictly boulevard sports car driver, the answer is yes.

We went into this some time ago, but I'm sure the reason for the performance with the stock tyres is due to putting on 225's on an 8" rim. As the guy from Fulda's technical department, 225's are near the lower limit for 8", and I suspect this is a smart move by Mazda to get increased performance by stretching the tyre and giving less sidewall flex. Revolver has obviously had good advice in putting 235's on 8.5" rims, as this will give him a similar effect.

 

Exactly what I was trying to achieve.

I feel that I've ended up with the best of both worlds - the sharpness of turn in and balanced feel of the OEM set-up but with more grip and a better ride. That they're quieter and I'm told will wear longer are added bonuses.

I'm very happy with them.

 

This is a 'tramlining' effect which increases with width. I have the same with my 245 Yokos, so I wouldn't necessarily condemn the Nankangs
Thanks labrat...was very interested in progress on these, as they read well, and were nicely priced

 

Well put Nankangs on the rear today. They will come off tomorrow. DSC cuts in at the speed limit and the whole car just feels terrible.

 

did they balance the wheel properly before fitting?

 

yep included balance wonder if the probb is the original tyres still on front?

 

someone had similar problems before with diffenert tyres front and back too...

have you tried with DSC off?

 

Actually, this exact problem has been reported before. What's more, the report was earlier in this very thread -- see post 55 from RXP33D but I can't see what Tuan's solution was (I guess...new tyres )

 

difference in grip front and rear = easy

 

Well now I don't know what to do:
Today my worn out Bridgestones go back on the back while we figure it out.
Options as I see it are
Spend a $1000 and put new Bridgestones on the rear with the need for new fronts in 3 months, having concluded that the Nankangs are crap.
Put new Nankangs on the front and see if that fixes the DSC cutting in at walking pace.
Put a full set of yokahamas on for around $1400 all up.

Then I know I'm going to have an arguement with Beaurepairs at Virginia over the Nankangs which now have 60 km's on them.

Help

 

Help is easy.

I had 4 x Nankangs (235's) fitted, and I don't feel they are crap. $220 each. Bridgestone Tyre Center at Kallangur.

I think you just need to put two of the same Nankangs on the front as what you have on the back. Problem solvered.

I have prooved (via other methods) that speed differential between front and back cause DSC system faults.

Other than your DSC faults, why are they crap?

Cheers,
Hymee.

 

Hymee thats the only reason so far haven't been able to push it hard enough to find out. If the Nankangs work it should leave enough money for a decent exhaust!

 

Any idea what the tolerance is, Hymee? As it seems some staggered set-ups generate DSC faults, but others don't

 

Hmmm. I don't know if I should give away any trade secrets!

But put it this way - the front and rear wheel position sensors have a different number of teeth. And if you feed the signal from the rear to the front....

As for tolerence... Didn't Wildcard have a staggered setup? If that worked OK, then isn't at least within the tolerance range?

Cheers,
Hymee.