Ok the car has done 23,500 miles now and the tyres although they have been rotated and due for replacement.

As a spirited drive home last night told me..................... :shock:

So to all of you out there, which is best.....yes that old chestnut.

Now am i right these are the options

205/50 (contisport fitted at present)

205/45

225/45

with the 205/45 being slightly cheaper :?:

The car has the standard 17 inch wheels fitted

Any suggestions please, and anybody recommend someone in the Reigate area

Karl,

Try Bromley tyres for a price, they vary as many depending on make. Have to call him as his online script is under development.

They will mail you your tyres for a local fitter to fit, normally about 5gbp per corner. Look up mytyres.net for other prices and a list of local fitters. OF course once you have your local list, you should try them.

I have found over the last few years that the big tyre centres are not at all cheap, despite there appearance of it.

IIRC the conti sport2 in 205/50R27's were around the 100-120 marker from Bromley. Certianly his Toyo's were 100.

Don't forget changing your profile will effect your speedo. Denis has added a few calculator links

Hope that helps,

Karl,

changing to 45 profile will only have a small affect on the speedo (I think it was about 0.4%).

Check out the tyre bible (there is a link). You can go wider if you like; again I think the max was 225.

Just from trawling the web it was actually cheaper :shock: to stay with the standard size. (approx.

IIRC the conti sport2 in 205/50R27's [/quote:02f6dbb225]

27s????? :shock: I know RSs have large wheels but that is extracting the urine!!

:mrgreen:

Back to the question:

I run 225/45 [b:02f6dbb225]17[/b:02f6dbb225] ( ) on mine and have run a variety of tyres, so here is a brief run down:

Conti SportContact 2: A nice allround tyre, not bad in the dry, if a bit squeally. Very good in the wet with nice progressive breakaway and very good traction. Seems to go off a bit once below 4mm of tread. I put that down to it being German and their min tread depth is 3.5mm IIRC. Good ride quality and not that noisy. 91W is the better of the 2 load ratings available in this size (think the other is W).

P Zero Nero: :mrgreen: Seems to be as rare as rocking horse droppings! Excellent in the dry and very good in the wet. Very, very stiff sidewalls that give awesome turn in. Grip right down to the canvas (witness Alconbury in the wet!). The downside to this excellent tyre is that it is noisy and is quite harsh over road "rash".

Yokohama AVS: Not that impressed with this tyre, but it was cheap. Lasts incredibly well, predictable limits and fairly progressive, but the limits aren't as high as the others. Needs to get warm to perform, so at this time of year not the ideal tyre.

Conti SportContact (had this in 205/50 17): I liked this tyre, lasted well and was very, very similar to the SportContact2, but not quite as good in the wet. Better ride quality, probably due to the profile.

Toyo Proxes: Not a great fan of this tyre (I know, I know, other swear by them, but I don't like them). In my opinion their level of grip and traction is not as high as the Contis and the Neros and this is reflected in their price. Nice predictable handling though.

Does that help?

Toyo Proxes: Not a great fan of this tyre (I know, I know, other swear by them, but I don't like them). In my opinion their level of grip and traction is not as high as the Contis and the Neros and this is reflected in their price. Nice predictable handling though. [/quote:235a9291f6]

Oh come on, how can you have an opinion on a tyre you have never had fitted? :evil:

For 4wd cars, I spoke to many owners that swear by them, and I think they are great on mine. I don't know if they suit 2wd cars as much, but would highly recommend them to the 4x4 owners.

[img:3171461db7]http://www.stopstart.freeserve.co.uk/smilie/rant.gif[/img:3171461db7]

Fair point Ian, you are quite correct on the Toyos, I have never had them on my car, however I have driven them on yours, I have also driven with them on a Subaru STi 5, on a 968 convertible, on a pug 206 GTi and on a Clio Williams, so I feel that I can comment on them. I didn't give specific feedback on them as the cars I have tried them on varied in both power and handling characteristics. What I did feel with them on all the cars that I have driven with them on is that the overall grip level is not as high as with the other tyres I have had fitted and [b:3171461db7]I[/b:3171461db7] felt that they were not the most communicative tyre that I have driven with. I would say they are on a par with the Yokohamas I have on at the moment. As I said in my original post, it is my opinion, and I felt it was one I could give. I still stand by that.

Another alternative is the Good Year Eagle F1, think it is the GSD3, which everyone raves about. If you go by what magazines say, it won the Evo tyre test when fitted to a Focus STI, then its the one to have.

What I should have said, and I normally do when posting about tyres on other BBSs, is:

[b:3171461db7]This is all in my opinion and is based on MY experiences with these tyres[/b:3171461db7]

[img:3171461db7]http://www.stopstart.freeserve.co.uk/smilie/sulkoff.gif[/img:3171461db7]

Thanks for all the replies :lol:

Currently shopping around for the best deal

So Jon where do you get youres for

So these were cars that you had not driven on other tyres Jon? So what you felt was the car or the tyres or the pressures? I (personally) would not form an opinion on tyres until covering many thousand miles, and had something to compare them against.

Personal opinion, we'll agree to disagree