Afternoon all, this is my first post here so apologies if this question has been covered previously.

My folks are really enjoying their Fabia vRS, with one caveat. They find the ride a little hard on the country roads where they live (SW France) which are in a pretty mixed state of repair. They thought maybe new wheels and tyres might help.

Can anyone recommend a 15" wheel/tyre combo as a solution? I would have thought that upping the tyre profile would make a difference, making the ride a bit comfier.

Would traction be significantly affected?

Any of you gone down this road?

BTW my Dad absolutely hammers the thing around, so any noticeable decrease in driving dynamics would be undesireable.

Cheers in advance,

Simon

If you change your wheels to smaller ones you might upset your insurance company. Also will 15" wheels fit over the front discs??

15" wheels may not fit over the brakes, as already mentioned.

Not entirely sure if 15" wheels will fit over the 288mm brakes.

Might be worth going for a 16" tyre with a 50 profile instead. Make sure that it has the correct speed & load rating though.

to keep the rolling radius the same ( which of course you must!) to get a higher profile (and more comfort) you would have to use a narrower tyre... this would adversley affect handling... I wouldn't reccomend it.....

You could try the 15" wheels as fitted to the 2.0L Fabia. Both the 2.0L and vRS Fabia have the same size front brake discs at 288mm, lesser models are only 256mm, so the 15" wheels will fit a vRS; athough the 312mm conversion will probably be a no no!

You will then need 205/50 15 tyres with a diameter (rolling radius) of 587mm to get the closest match to the 205/45 16 with 590mm diameter as fitted to the vRS. The 195/50 15 fitted to the 2.0L will shorten the gearing too much.

I had 16" VRS alloys with 195/45 tyres fited to my 1.4 with modded suspension and got fed up with being bounced about over the potholes of North London/Herts so have just reverted to the standard 185/60 14s. The handling is not quite as sharp but the ride is more tolerable.

Don't mess round with tyres.

Fit Koni FSD's.

Koni FSDs are not designed/set for the vRS; only for the other Fabia models. I guess this is because of the ride height with the vRS bing lowered from standatrd.

Check out Koni's website to verify.

Not forgetting that the diesel engine on the vRS, is heavier than the petrol. This would result in the car sitting lower at the front than back, destroying the ride.

Many thanks everyone for the replies so far - what a great forum, exactly the advice we were looking for.

Cheers,

Simon