FAO MARK

[KingStromba]

What will 195 50 15's on the front and 185 55 15's on my car do to the handling?

[Mark_Ritchspeed]

Just give the front a slightly sharper turn-in. Balance wont be massively affected, but will drift a bit better on the rear end. :D

[KingStromba]

Ok what about 195's on front and back?

How affect balance over 185's?

[Mark_Ritchspeed]

195's front and back will give an extremely good balance (depending on tyre), but I like the rear to be more easily unsettled.

[KingStromba]

Can you say 195's are better all round on the car than 185's?

Could you do faster lap times? Better balance?

[Mark_Ritchspeed]

You would deffo lap faster with 195's all round, but the more grip and stiffer sidewalls does mean you generally lose a little bit of adjustability on the limit.

[KingStromba]

So 185 are better tyres for larger margin of error, slower lap times, but more user friendly?

195's are better grip, faster lap time, but on the limit will be more critical?

[Mark_Ritchspeed]

Pretty much. In general the more grip a tyre gains, the less adjustabilty it has.

Mine is considerably less adjustable on the limit than a standard car and a quite a bit snappier, but ultimately a bit quicker.

[KingStromba]

So do i buy two new 185s for the front to match the two at the back?

195's all round?

or 195s front, 185's rear?

[Mark_Ritchspeed]

I personally would go for 195/50's all round in Goodyear F1 flavour. An extremely good tyre for the Willy.

The last rally where I won my class :wink: I used F1's all day in the dry where everyone else was on slicks.

[Enid]

Unless your gonna drive like a bat out of hell everywhere or are a bit skint, you may as well stick with 185's and enjoy a slightly better ride.

[KingStromba]

Why are the F1's so good on the willy?

I really want you to try the PE2's to give a view of them

[Mark_Ritchspeed]

Although I admit I have nver tried the PE2's, I do know when it gets to the point its hard to improve on a tyre. Thats why I keep buying either Eagle F1's or Toyo T1R's as I know they work very well in all conditions and are good value.

Put simply I havent found a car yet where the F1's dont feel awesome.

[summeh]

Stromba, why don't you buy a set of both and report back :)

[KingStromba]

ok, but mark is more qualified to report back

[Rudders16v]

Rob, im in exactly the same position. I've got 185/55/15's all round at the moment but the fronts now need replacing so im looking at going for 195/50's on the front and keeping the rears as they are until they wear down. Only thing is, the rears have only done about 2k miles so im going to be running odd tyres for a good few months, was thinking about putting the 185/55 Yoko's which are on the back onto the front, and then putting the new 195/50's on the rear, just to wear the Yoko's down quicker so that i can get all to 195/50's......... Or you could alwyas have my 185/55's to replace your 2 worn ones and buy me 2 195/50's :)

[KingStromba]

What 185's you got on the rear shaun?

[Rudders16v]

They're some Yokohama's, think they're A539 but not 100% sure. Previous owner put them on about December, but they'd only done a few hundread miles when i bought the car, so they've done no more than 2.5k and always been on the rear

[KingStromba]

You want 185's or you want 195's?

[Rudders16v]

Im thinking about changing to 195/50's just as they're cheaper, and it'd drop the car very very slightly. Also been thinking about 195/45's to though

[KingStromba]

hmmm


I really need to drive a car on 195's

[J o n]

I've had both 185/55 and 195/50. 185/55 are better IMO, drifts a bit more and feel lighter. The 195's have a bit too much grip at times

[KingStromba]

What you got the 195's on jesus? The valver?

[Rudders16v]

So do the 195's make the steering much heavier? AS my p/s pump sounds like its nearing the end of its life, so don't really want to make it work to hard just yet

[KingStromba]

All pumps make noise Shaun. Mines on 140,000 now and still works, so youll prob be ok for a while.


Think the concensus is the 185 is a less critical tyre, and a tyre that gives you a large plateau on the limit with which to play.

The 195 tyre gives you a smaller plateau on the limit, but that limit may be slightly higher up the mountain.

A 195 tyre will probably make the car behave more like the 172 cup. Lots of grip then it will more suddenly let go.

Having thought about this, one of the things the reviewers liked about the williams when it came out was the plateau being large. No knife edge handling. I think im going to stick with 185's.

[Rudders16v]

I'd like to keep the 185's just to keep it 'original', but since i've had it back to standard springs, the ride seems very bouncy, just think a 195 might give a bit more of a harsher ride like im used to, especially with a 195/45 rather than 50. Anyway, got a fortnight before i need to order them as they can wait til i get back from holiday

[J o n]

I had the 195/50 on the car when I bought it, brand new Yoko's... which only lasted 6-8k , then got another set, Yoko again and now on 185/55 and imo it handles better, less grip but steering response seems a lot better and the front end has not broken away and I'm not shy on corners that's for sure...