My 06 octy VRS came shod with Conti Sport Contact 2's. I am now down to one decent tyre, a Sport Contact 3 on the rear.

I have just phoned around my local dealers, £121 for a sport 2 and £128 for a sport 3.

That's £384 for three tyres if I take the Sport Contact three option. I have ruled out Black Circle and My Tyres now as dealers are starting to match internet prices.

Should I stick with the 3's ( Contact 2's are hard to get now, as they are discontinued ) Or should I stick three cheaper tyres on the other wheels. On an earlier thread I read that the Vredstiens are pretty good and much cheaper. Maybe I could change all four foe the same price as 3 Conti's. That way I would end up with even tread ware.

On a side note has anyone noticed that The conti sport 3 does not have the same amount of road contact as the old 2? It appears thinner as the radiuses are far more rounded on the sidewalls.

Advice appreciated.

Whatever you do keep the same make/model of tyre all round i.e ALL Conit 3s or ALL Ultrac Sessantas; do not mix and match.

Cheers Mr bahnstormer vrs! It's going to set me back a hundred squid a corner for the Vreds. I'll go with them.

Why shouldn't you mix and match bahnstormer? So long as the size/load rating and speed rating are the same you are fine.

Vred are good but they are creeping up towards conti prices now.

Why shouldn't you mix and match bahnstormer? So long as the size/load rating and speed rating are the same you are fine.

Vred are good but they are creeping up towards conti prices now.

OK, yes providing you match size/load & speed ratings legally you are fine

BUT

different tyres have different characteristics and grip levels, with grip levels differing again in the dry and wet.

If you have all four tyres of the same make/model you will always have a balanced car with each tyre having the same grip levels (tread depth and pressures excepted). This will give you the best and safest performance for your car.

If you mix and match, grip levels will vary on each corner of the car with potentially disastrous results in an emergency situation.

To give an example; I once had a 1.2 Vauxhall Nova (not the most powerful of cars) onto which I had some lower profile Firestone tyres all 4 the same and new. The grip levels they gave were not particularly high and I had great fun with balanced four wheel drifts on wet roundabouts. Having worn out the front tyres I bought some Pirelli P3s that had better grip.

The result was that the car became unbalanced as the front tyres gripped better than the rear and I would get copious amounts of oversteer as opposed to a neutral four wheel drift. QED?

You will often buy tyres according to your needs, desires and budget and whether you buy expensive e.g. Michelin or Continental OR mid range e.g Vredestein or budget e.g Falken the most important point is to make sure you have all four tyres the same.

Why shouldn't you mix and match bahnstormer? So long as the size/load rating and speed rating are the same you are fine.

Vred are good but they are creeping up towards conti prices now.

Bahnstormer is spot on with his advice. On my old MX-5, tyre choice was critical, as was having the same tyre at each corner of the car. But the MX-5 is notoriously fussy because it's light.

I personally think that if you drive moderately and with caution, you can get away with changing in pairs, i.e. keep the same tyre on each axle. But even then, I'd only say this is advisable if you are eventually aiming to have the same tyre on each wheel, i.e. I'd only do it as an interim solution if (say) gradually changing from one tyre type to another. I wouldn't want to do it full-time though.

DISCLAIMER: This is just an impression I've gained from experience and reading. I'm no expert

But if you drive enthusiastically, which given the car you have, you probably do, I'd advise following bahnstormer's advice to the letter. Same tyres all round!

Its been discussed before, but if you end up having differing makes of tyre on the front and back of your car, having the 'best' tyres on the back makes the car less likely to oversteer and spin (speaking from experience).

Understeer is easier to cope with, and less likely to catch you out.

The problem is with differing makes of tyres the ones with the most tread are not necessarily the best.

Good advice, I couldn't believe it when I put some Dunlop sports tyres on the front my old Golf tdi.The rears were a budget make that were on the car when I bought it.The car was lethal in the wet, oversteering massively. I soon put some Dunlops on the back.

The front tyres on my vRs [sC Bluefin] were getting down to 2mm and starting to let go on roundabouts in even damp conditions. I did some research as I was not happy with the original fit Conti Sport Contact 2 anyway. I used Tyre reviews - tyre reviews, ratings and road tests for all car, bike and trackday performance tyres to compare tyres brands and types - eventually decided on Uniroyal Rainsport 2 at just £99 per tyre fitted from a local independant tyre depot - Conti Sport Contact 2 or 3's would have cost me at least £140 per tyre!

The Uniroyals were going to be fitted at front but tyre fitter said that the increased wet weather grip of the Uniroyal would give me rear end break away with half worn Conti 2's on the back - not a good thing with FWD! Had them swopped round so Contis on front and Uniroyals on back. I will now to wait for the Conti's to wear down and be replaced by more Uniroyals before I can really comment on how good they are!

Hope this helps!

dont dissmiss some of the more budget tyres I put a pair of nexen's on the front of my vrs tdi and to be honest they grip better than contact 2 and are not wearing at the same alarming rate either

Factory fit Contis are often quite different to the ones you buy off the shelf. I had SportContact2 factory fit on my Astra, and they were awful. Really bad. I've driven on a similar car which had aftermarket SportContact2 of identical type, size, etc. and they were much, much better.

Uniroyal are a Continental brand, and to be honest I'd buy them before I'd buy "real" Contis.

having read this thread my initial thoughts were "what a load of cr4p" - as long as the tyres are the same size it's not going to make that much difference. Then last night on my way home from work, mid way through a fairly fast right hand corner the front nearside wheel seemed to tuck in and gave me a bit of a scare. I initially put it down to a slippery bit on the road or something, but this morning I went out and tried a few fast right hand bends and it did the same on all. I recently changed by rear tyres for el cheapo ones and think it could be something to do with that. Hope not, because if they are, I'm stuck with them for a good few thousand miles yet...

We'll see once I've checked the tyre pressures, bushes, tracking etc etc...

id be interested in your findings jonny, i cant really say ive notice much difference between the ones that were on my car to the falkens that they replaced. was wondering how a cheaper tyre will fair and if it lasts as long?

id be interested in your findings jonny, i cant really say ive notice much difference between the ones that were on my car to the falkens that they replaced. was wondering how a cheaper tyre will fair and if it lasts as long?

front nearside tyre had 24psi and the front offside 19psi.

Pumped them both back up to 30 and the car is spot on again. And according to the tyre garage, cheaper tyres tend to last a little longer than the more expensive ones because they are made of a harder rubber compound...

ah right, might just pop into my local one and see what he recommends then:thumbup:

having read this thread my initial thoughts were "what a load of cr4p" - as long as the tyres are the same size it's not going to make that much difference.

It differs from car to car (the effect is always there, but the extent differs), MX-5s are notoriously fussy, probably because of their low weight. When I had an MX-5, it was common advice to keep the same tyre on each wheel.

It also makes more of a difference the closer to the tyre's limits you are operating, I would have thought.

Also, it would probably vary depending on the specific tyre mix you have. If you mix tyre pair A at the front with tyre pair B at the rear, you may be ok, but put tyre pair C at the rear and you might have issues? This is speculation on my part, but it seems sensible to me that if you mix tyre types, the actual mix will be an issue?

i have falkens 452's on the front and the bridgestone things that come on the skoda on the rear.

dumb question, whats the recommended PSI for the stock conti sports 2s 18'' fitted on MY08 vRS?

Is is printed on the wheels or on a label anywhere?

got a 500 mile round trip tommorow, want to get everything sorted before I set off.

2.35 to 2.44 is what i generally use.

as regards to differing tyres on the front and back, surely it doesnt make that much difference as the front wheels have the weight of the engine over them so there is never going to be 50:50 weight distribution in the car anyway? thus differing levels of grip front to rear even if you compensate with higher pressures in the front

IMHO things only get weird if you have different tyres on the same axle, or some really cr*p tyres fitted somewhere.

There is an effect, but it's not huge on the octy IMHO.

dumb question, whats the recommended PSI for the stock conti sports 2s 18'' fitted on MY08 vRS?

Is is printed on the wheels or on a label anywhere?

got a 500 mile round trip tomorrow, want to get everything sorted before I set off.

There should be a sticker on the inside of the fuel filler cap with all the pressures.

OE recommendation is 2.0/2.1bar front/rear for TDI vRS and 2.1/2.1bar front/rear for TFSI vRS (normal load) with higher if fully loaded.

However, there are many vRS drivers who find around 2.3/2.35bar front and rear c.34psi, a better level. Personally I use 2.3bar all round in the winter and on Saturday, with spring appraoching, tweaked them up to 2.35bar all round. This level gives taughter handling without any particular penalty of ride quality and will also be good for fuel consumption.

Also, I overheard the tyre fitter having a "discussion" with his boss about a deal he had offered me (replacing the faile puncture repair with a new tyre for free) because the tyre he fitted actually only cost them £23. The boss said "NO WAY... those tyres START at £55 pplus fitting retail"

What a markup!!!!!!

There should be a sticker on the inside of the fuel filler cap with all the pressures.

OE recommendation is 2.0/2.1bar front/rear for TDI vRS and 2.1/2.1bar front/rear for TFSI vRS (normal load) with higher if fully loaded.

However, there are many vRS drivers who find around 2.3/2.35bar front and rear c.34psi, a better level. Personally I use 2.3bar all round in the winter and on Saturday, with spring appraoching, tweaked them up to 2.35bar all round. This level gives taughter handling without any particular penalty of ride quality and will also be good for fuel consumption.

If your pressure gauge is accurate to 0.05 bar I'll be amazed , never mind the fact that it probably isn't calibrated and I'm guessing you've carried it around in the car, so the calibration would no longer be valid even if it was calibrated.

as regards to differing tyres on the front and back, surely it doesnt make that much difference as the front wheels have the weight of the engine over them so there is never going to be 50:50 weight distribution in the car anyway? thus differing levels of grip front to rear even if you compensate with higher pressures in the front

On my car the tyre pressures are all the same, which suggests it might actually have 50:50 weight distribution... Not that it means much to me, although it makes checking my tyres easier