I'm hoping the assembled wisdom here can give me suggestions for some new
tires. The car is a Lotus Europa, and I've been running 205/60-13 Comp T/As
on the stock (alloy) wheels. The problem is that the stock rims are only
5.5" wide, the minimum allowed for the tires (and a bitch to mount, I'm
told) and the combination of light car, wide tires and narrow rims means
that I have to run about 19/24 psi front/rear to get even wear across the
tread. At those pressures, there's too much understeer on braking and
oversteer under power for my taste. Pushing the pressure up improves
the response greatly, but it lowers the ultimate grip and sharpens the
breakaway, not too surprising since then only the center of the tread is
earning its keep.
The real answer is wider rims, I know, but I don't want to flare the fenders
to fit them (and I'd need to; the 205's barely squeek by as it is).
Plan B is to search for tires designed for a light car, that don't
need 800 lbs per corner to keep their shoulders on the road. That's why
I'm here; anyone know of any such tires? You Lotus 7 owners out there must
have run into this problem. Any suggestions on tire brands to look at?
Well, "conventional wisdom" [whereever I got that from] holds that 205`s
are too big for the Europa, certainly for the front!
I ran Yokohama A001Rs, and they are nicely suited for a light car. I ran
16-18psi front, and I recall 24-28 rear. Originally I had 175/70 front,
but switched to 185/60 'cuz the Yok's were too large (diameter), caused
a bit of rub at full-lock...; 185/60x14 rear. I wanted to step up to
195/60x14 rear... I had custom-machined Panasports 6x14 wheels on the
rear (stock Panasport 5.5x13 front) with, as I recall, about 3-5mm more
(less? whatever) offset to keep the wheel centerline about the same as
the stock 5.5x13's [that was about 5 years ago, don't remember the exact
measurements, just that the centerline was moved "outwards" about 2mm
overall]. The car wasn't really balanced with 185/185 fr/rr, so I think
the 195 or 205 on rear would be much better, but didn`t think the 205`s
would squeeze in...
Anyways, the Yok A001R's are GREAT Lotus tires (*SUCK* in rain though,
IMPO), soft tread (softer/lower-temp than A008R's, from what I remember
reading). This was a few years ago, so I'm not sure of the latest and
greatest compounds...I suppose, if you're a real nut case, you could try
Hoosiers...
-RDH
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