My Octy vRS needs a couple of new tyres. When I bought it, it was running Dunlop Sport 3000A, when changed 2 tyres last year I fitted 2 Continental Sport Contact 2. It might be my imagination, but I am sure that it performed better with the Dunlops than the Conti. With the Conti, it seems to understeer more and tries to wheel spin more.

I am now looking to fit 2 new tyres, should I go Conti or Dunlop, or for the same money could I get a better tyre?

mine had conti's all round from the factory and IMO there are pap.

i have toyo proxes t1-r's all round now and the car handles much better than it did. there is a slight increase in road noise but there is loads less understeer and the grip has improved 50% at least.

look at the conti's and dunlops for that matter as an all rounder type of tyre. they are used by the manufacturer of the car because they give low road noise, fare grip and last quite a long time.

the toyos are slightly noisier, wont last as long but will give much better grip and are designed to be used on a fast road car which i think the octy vRS is.

p.s. i got them for £83 per corner although this wasn't fitted and balanced, i've got a mate in the trade who sorted that

www.mytyres.co.uk or .com (cant remember which) for the tyres to your door.

go to 225/45/17 all round, with good year eagle f1GSD3,cheaper rubber than standard tyres.

forgot to say the toyos i'm now running are also 225 /45 R17

the 205 /50 R17 tyre size is apparently not very common so is more expensive... imo the 225 /45 fits the wheel better anyway.

Jon....TaviaRS....has done a tyre review of the various types he's used...check out the review section.

Personally I have used Pirelli Rosso and Goodyear GSD3 F1.....very similar but the F1 are noiser due to the directional tread.

F1 are also a bit cheaper. Going to try either the Bridgestone S03 PP or the Toyo Proxes next.

Goodyear Eagle GSD3 F1s get my vote every time, having tried just about everything on the market apart from Pirelli P Zeros ! Should be possible to get them for about £100 per corner.

mytyres.co.uk great sight to visit...hanook sport k104 bought for £53.00

per corner plenty of choice and great service ,price includes delivery too..

I've just put p zeros on the front, bit slidey till they warm up, but then they offer better traction than the contis once theyre up to temperature, I'm well pleased so far....

Goose

www.tirerack.com do some good group tests, and most tyres tested are 225/45/17. Have a look here for the tyres you are interested in. http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testSearch.jsp

I've been looking at Dunlop SP Sport MAXX as a possible option to replace the standard Conti Sportcontact 1's I have on my car. Seem to get a good overall review. Strange though, I like the look of the SportContact II's - Am I sad??

go to 225/45/17 all round, with good year eagle f1GSD3,cheaper rubber than standard tyres.

:eek: What, really? Used to have 45s instead of 55s on my calibra ( :yeahdude:) but doesn't the extra width cause fitting problems?

was speaking to ma delivery man (tyre spot worker) and he was blabbin on about the bridgestone potenza's R05's being a good choice and supposedly even better than eagle f1's GSD3's...... he was also saying that the i think bridgestone SO3 pole positions were a top notch buy aswell.....strange enough he didnt rate the toyo's even the t1-r's and t1-s's which i thought was a tad strange... but cest la vie... next set of tyres im gonna be getting will be the potenza's

I've just replaced the conti's on my furby vRS with the goodyear f1's, gonna be doin alot of miles on sunday (200ish) and will post a review on the motorway section, with a view to compairing the conti's with the F1's......

note: bananaman, my tyre place dude didn't rate the Toyo's either! he just said don't buy em, they're crap! he also has the local police contract, and puts the F1's on the police suburu's.........

Different tyres suit different cars. I don't rate Toyos. Shall I do my normal and say get the Neros? Most who try them like them or the SportContact2s

Re the swap to 225/45, they fit, no issues - ran mine on them for 138,000 miles with no rubbing HTH

Autocar did a tyre test in late 2004 where the Goodyear F1 GSD3 and Bridgestone S-03 Pole Position were compared amongst others. The conclusion was that the F1 and S-03 where pretty much on par with each other, the F1 only winning by virtue of a slightly better coast-by noise score (bothered!). In summary, the F1 was better in the wet and the S-03 was better in the dry.

I recently bought a pair of Bridgestone S-03 for my car on the basis of the above test and that I preferred the tread pattern to the F1's. I had them fitted to the rear so I can't offer any comment on traction in wet or wear rate. I've done about 1500 miles and have no complaints over handling or ride.

Incidentally, I bought my tyres from www.event-tyres.co.uk. I compared the Event price with the likes of My Tyres and Black Circles and, when you add the cost of having them fitted locally the prices were virtually the same (I think