| Re: What tires to get? |
Subject: Re: What tires to get? by bogus on 2011/5/5 1:28:32 I have had great success with the prior Kumho's, however, the latest ones are not that great. Sticky, for sure, but not very long lived and rather noisy. One worry... the 17" sizes are being phased out by the tire makers. I suspect the 275/40/17 will be available for a while yet, but 315s will be damned near impossible to get. I got this tidbit from the Michelin tire engineer at the LBGP. Essentially, tire makers don't want their tires to age on the shelf. So they only make batches that sell and sell quickly. As cars equipped with smaller rims start to age out, the tire selection will get tighter and tighter, until we are like the poor folks with 16" rims and are limited to either 1 BFG or going to Coker for a repop. Trust me, you don't want to do Coker if you can avoid it. EXPENSIVE doesn't even come close at times. I will add, all tires marked Michelin that Coker sells are still made by Michelin, just in smaller bespoke batches. Volumes that someone like Coker can sell within the 1 year shelf life. For example, if I was j3studio, and doing the entire NCRS thing, I would get a set of 18" aftermarket rims with modern rubber for cruises and driving, and keep the original style gatorbacks, on the original sawblades, wrapped in plastic, pickled in tire dressing, hidden in a dark corner of the garage. The goal? Keep ozone away. I am going to be upgrading rims on bastet44's 87 when I get it back on the road, and because of this change in tire availablity, I am leaning towards 18" rims. Then again, I suspect 275/40/17s will be around for a while, the Corvette used them for eons, F-bodies, Mustangs and other performance cars, so 17" rims might be ok. There are over 500k cars on the road with that tire size, too big a market to ignore! Now, options might become limited, but they should be avalible. As for Toyo's, they are a very nice tire. I had a set and they were very nice. Rode great, handled nice, quiet and lasted 35k miles. Other than price, I would recommend them, however, for nearly the same $$, I can get Michelin. |
