Evening all. Im about to change all 4 tyres on the VRS. Currently I have a mixture of Infinity tyres on the rear and Victra (?) on the front. Both naff makes of tyre but were on the car when I bought it. I can get hold of Toyo Proxes T1R for £400 for 4 fitted inc vat or Kumho KH31 for £300 for 4. Cant seem to find Ku31's anymore though. There is also Falken tyres available cheaply but not sure that these are any better than what I have already. Can anybody shed any light on which make to go for? Also, my next door neighbour has T1R's in a 205-45-r17 on his Cooper S and they were about half the price of the 205-50-17's that the VRS needs. Whats the downside to fitting a slightly lower profile tyre to our cars?

Dan

I have a set of 205/55/16's on my 2002 1.8T Octavia 4X4. I find them excellent...only other ones I had were Goodyear Eagle F1's. the Toyos seem better?!!

i fitted 215/45/17s to my vrs when i had the standard wheels on.

Any noticeable difference?

Any noticeable difference?

more grip as there's more tyre in contact with the road. and better road holding i found

how much would you like to spend

pirelli p zero neros i found awesome £££

Falken fk452s get amazing reviews everywhere

Hankook s1 evos have very good write ups too

ive started a few tyre things and its been found and seems the funky kumho ku31 is discon'd just straggler stock floating about

Toyo t1r always get smiles ;);)

The most popular size is 225/45/17 if youre going for a different size. Many makes at that size & bettter value.

http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.php?plid=m54b0s16p0

Edited 16 October, 201015 yr by Liverpool-Lad

I have Falken 452's & they're very good. If you fit 45 profile 17" tyres your speedo will be slightly out.

Edited 16 October, 201015 yr by pauldazzle

I just had 4 off 205 55 16 falken 452s delivered from camskill. Just need to get them fitted before the wet weather hits!

I recently fitted 4 Toyo T1R's as the ones fitted when i bought it were all mix matched.The toyos are a good middle of the road tyre, alot of my friends have had them fitted and been more than happy with them. The size is 225/45/17,yes you do get slightly less bump absorbtion but you do get better turn in when pushing on, ive found them to be very sure footed in the wet and the dry. i paid £320 for just the tyres which was considerably cheaper than the OE ones i priced.

I've have checked my speedo, the difference isnt that much at all with the different profile.

Edited 17 October, 201015 yr by K7 VRS

Noone like the Goodyear Eagle F1's then? I bought a whole set for my Escort GTi I had a few years back and thought they were awwwweeeeesome tyres

Noone like the Goodyear Eagle F1's then? I bought a whole set for my Escort GTi I had a few years back and thought they were awwwweeeeesome tyres

I had them fitted on all my Subaru's, great tyres in the wet and the dry, only reason i went with Toyos was price.

Noone like the Goodyear Eagle F1's then? I bought a whole set for my Escort GTi I had a few years back and thought they were awwwweeeeesome tyres

I have them and they are good tyres. Never had a problem with them yet.

I have Falken 452's & they're very good. If you fit 45 profile 17" tyres your speedo will be slightly out.

The speedo will underead by 0.4% ie 60mph=59.8 mph if you fit 22x45x17 instead of 205x50x17's so nothing to worry about.

I personally like the Barum Bravuris 2 tyres. Good performance for a very reasonable price...last one I had fitted was £65 all in. Funnily enough when I was at National Tyres yesterday it was listed as premium economy, ultra high performance. Got a great review from (IIRC) Auto Express.

thanks for the comments. think im gonna go with kumho kh31 or falken fk452 as per the recommendations from you guys. cheers!

Falkens are excellent road tyres, although not wonderful in snow as they're a summer tyre.

Putting a lower profile tyre on will make turn in more responsive for the same width, will be minimal on the 225/45 from 205/50 as the sidewall height difference is minimal. You will have exactly the same amount of rubber on the road if the pressures are the same and the car weight doesn't change. The contact patch will change shape so the car may tram line more.

If you don't believe me on the amount of rubber you are in denial about the laws of physics.

would the lower profile mean a harder ride?

I would recommend Falken fk452s everyday of the week. Top quality and very reasonable cost.

Yes lower profile would mean firmer ride. The profile number on a tyre is a percentage of the tyre width. So in this case as the Tyres would be wider the lower profile would have a negligible effect as 50% of 205mm is almost the same as 45% of 225mm. If the tyre width was the same then ride would be firmer. This of course assumes that the side wall are both the same stiffness, can't help on that front, that is down to the tyres chosen for the car as different manufacturers will use different stiffnesses, also depends on the tyres intended use (I.e. A trackday tyre will have stiffer sidewalls than a normal road tyre of the same size).

well no-one has said that the wanlis are any different the p1`s!!!! time for a test me thinks!!!

If I hit a lampost then obviously I will not be here to tell the tale!!!