GTA Front Tyres

I just thought people may be interested in my experience today with front tyres.

I have 16 inch front rims and they were wearing Toyo Proxies 215/45, with those tyres I was unhappy with feel, speed of turn in and tramlining. I have just swapped them for the same tyre but a 195/45. The difference is marked, turn in is faster, feel is way better and tramlining nearly gone.

Understeer remains about the same. So for me at least, it seems like wider is not the answer at the front. I am sure feel is to do with the reduced side wall height a whole 9mm, tramlining I am sure is to do with the width of the tyre, it seems that 20mm makes a big difference.

The car was a bit nervous and twitchy, it now feels much the same as it did on the original wheels which is a marked improvement.

That's great practical feedback for owners, and I'm sure really useful. It will also reduce your power sapping losses

Martin

[stephendell]

195/45/16 is much closer to the original size / RR.

215/45/16 is even bigger than 205/40/17 which is the largest recommended and could cause all sorts of issues especially combined with a different offset or width.

Actually it looks like the fronts were 215/40 so not quite a high a sidewall.

I've got 225/40/16's -on Toyo Proxes the steering is light but grip and feedback not so good. It feels like the sidewall is too flexible.

Previously I was on Goodyear F1's and these felt much more direct but the steering was definitely heavier....

I guess it all also depends on pressures- what are you running?

[BIG_MVS]

What's with all the weird and wonderful tyre sizes boys?

205 45 16's are what you should be running on the fronts with 16's

In my case the 215's were suggested on here, I went to see my geo specialist and his view was that they were too wide and recommended i do down to 195's which is of course the width of the standard front tyres.

My geo guy is pretty good, he uses string and chalk but always gets the car spot on. (he used to be an F1 mechanic and had responsibility for the front half of Alonso's championship winning Renault.)

[BIG_MVS]

I told you via PM to use 205 45 16 BTW Standard front width's are 195 for the 15 inch wheels. 205 45 16 is the standard for the Le Mans and 610 running 16" rims.

Anyway where are the pics of the new rims, lets have a look at em

215/40 16s on mine.

0.42 % deviation from the original 195/50 15s in theory. Reality varies a bit but I've used that size ever since I switched to the Azevs.

Turn-in and stability was always much better than standard but the only thing I've noticed is that since I fitted the adjustable GAZ suspension I need to tweak the ride height to get it closer to standard. If you go too low then the steering weights up a lot on lock.