just been searching the forums on tyres. It's that time to change the fronts on the fabia vrs. I had 16000 miles out of the fronts. Not quite worn out yet but the front left showing a slight split right in the middle of the tread! My local dealer is very good and has Toyo TR1-R, yokohama A539's and Kumho KU31's at better prices than the existing continentals.

Only problem is the exisiting tyres are W rating and he has V rating. Both ratings are for higher speeds than a standard VRs will ever go so what is the opinion about using a V rating? he says V rating is enough.

also is it just me or do the conti's tramline badly? It's getting worse. Skoda checked my suspension and brakes and say they are ok bu under power and braking on roads with repairs the fabia grabs and tramlines badly. Any opinions? The conti's have a very linear pattern with no diagonal grooves.

regards

STEW

they are fitted with w so you need to keep w's on it. it can void your insurance if you fit lower rated tyres even if the car will never go that fast.

think of it this way they dont just fit them for the hell of it they fit them for reasons

w rated usually cost about 3-10 a tyre

interestingly just partly answered my own question. Insurance company came back to me with the answer on ratings. What does the manufacturer state in the manual???? W rating.

The insurance will be invalidated if I fit V rating.

V rating only good up to 149 mph

W rating good for 168 mph

driver good up to just over 65 !!!

so the point is that even though a standard vrs ain't going to do 149 mph let alone 168 you need the W rated tyre to stay insured.

if you have had new tyres recently go and have a look!!

mcbunny is absolutely correct. I work in an office of 20 blokes who are all in to cars and none of us knew this. OK we all knew that you need a rating capable of handling the speed ..........

have a look at the rating table at www.tyresave.co.uk.

so W rating it is. i suppose the price difference is only a few quid and I have to wait a few days for the tyre dealer to order them.

thanks for the info

Stew

It's not just the speed though other things come into play. Weight of the big lump up front, amount of torque etc.

If skoda say have it then I'd say they must have a reason to!

Hi to All

A W speed rating for these tyres seems unreasonable. Torque from the engine for the vRS is not exactly huge in the great scheme of things and would not warrant an W rating.

As for the mass of the engine, this would be covered by the 87 load index part of the rating. When ordering your tyres, you must also ensure the load rating is correct. Just as for speed rating, failure to fit the correct load rating can void your insurance as well. Again 87W is not a particularly high rating.

I suspect that someone in the Skoda office researched the tyres available at the time the manual was written and specced W as it was commonly available. I cannot see any valid reason why a car that can only do 130 should be specced with W rubber. I would be intersested to know why.

Chris

it could be that its better to be safe than sorry

any way w rated just means it can do 168 for 10 minutes so if you work backwards it will mean it can do 130 for ages but if it was only v then it most probably wouldnt last as long at 130 mind you we would hardly try this out and i imagine its only down to german over engineering

If you RR the car with no resistance it'll go off the clock, so the theoritical maximum speed of the wheels is that value; whilst they'll never see those speeds the tyres have to be capable of doing them, in the case of wheelspin or similar, to prevent lawsuits.

The speed rating for a tyre is based on, amongst other properties, the maximum loading forces/heat buildup that the construction can typically safely survive without breaking up/bursting/cathing fire etc..this is usually expressed in terms of the tyres maximum speed in mph to give a ballpark catagory to put the tyre into. However,since the tyre can be fitted onto any number of wheel rims/cars/ geometry etc. The car manufacturer has to take responsibility to test the maximum loading forces on, say a furby, and determine for example, the loading /heat build up when driving around a sweeping bend at 100mph, enthusiatic cornering at 30mph etc. These may exceed the loading limits of a tyre rated at 165mph straight line speed even if the car cannot go that fast, so the car manufacturer may have to specify a higher speed rated tyre even if its rating is much higher than the top end max mph of the car

If you RR the car with no resistance it'll go off the clock, so the theoritical maximum speed of the wheels is that value; whilst they'll never see those speeds the tyres have to be capable of doing them, in the case of wheelspin or similar, to prevent lawsuits.

hhmmmm, I've heard that without resistance, the theoretical max speed in 6th is 157 mph,(If you just do the maths with max revs, final drive ect) just that on the road, you'll not pull max revs in 6th unless the car is modded....... I'm fairly sure Skoda's quoted max speed is acheived in 5th gear........ maybe Skoda are just worried that down a big hill on a cold day with a hurricane behind you, you could pull max revs in 6th!