New tyres- what size to go for?

[JoshWard]

Hi all, The tyres on my Marina are past it so I'm going to get some new ones but was wondering if it was worth going up in size?

I am using standard wheels on a MK1 1.8, would 165x70x13 be right?

Best regards,
Josh.

[Martec]

Yes, the early TC has 4"J wheels fitted with 165 70 13 tyres.

Brian

[JubileeNut]

Thats what I have fitted and they are fine unless you plan on doing corning at speed

[Martec]

It didn't stop me!!!!

[JoshWard]

Thankyou

Speed? What's that?

[JubileeNut]

I must admit the corning at speed 20 years ago, it was not the tyres that caused the problem as they were all off the ground
It was the nut behind the wheel
But I am not planing to go to fast, the military road at 80 MPH was to fast this year :shock:

[Philip]

Whats the highest profile you can go up to? Just thinking of trying to get a better top end cruising speed.

[JubileeNut]

when I got my car it had 80% profiles on it but they were only 145 wide.
But going to larger profiles will mess up the speedo if you ratio is not right!

[Kilroy]

I think 175/70 x 13 are the widest tyres that will fit properly to standard rims.
They look good and work well.
My preferred size short of 205/69 x 13 on 7" rims...

Kilroy

[Martec]

I use Continental 175/70/13 tyres on later TC 4.5J rims which hold on quite well.

What is really needed to corner well is negative camber at the front,plus front and rear anti-roll bars.

[MARINAMAN480]

i got 175 70 r 13 on the front and 185 70 r 13 mud and snow tyres on the rear of my coupe,these are on minilites

and 155 80 r 13 on my saloon all round on steels

[mk2 golfer]

when I worked at A.T.S, many many moons ago :roll: , we said that if you keep the same size rim, i.e 13" then you basically go up 2 and down 1 to keep the same rolling radius and not knock the speedo out, so for example for a 145/13 same radius tyre is up 2 so thats 165, and down 1 so thats from 80 aspect ratio to 70 so it would be 165/70/13, next would be 185/60/13, if you have 155/13, it would be 175/70/13, then 195/60/13, i'm sure someone out there in Marinaville will correct me if they think i'm wrong

[JubileeNut]

There are on line calculators for tyre sizes. Just google search

[locost_bryan]

There are on line calculators for tyre sizes. Just google search

iirc Chris has one on his MarinaCoupe site. 155/80x13 > 175/70x13 > 205/60x13 all give same speedo reading. The limiting factor for Josh will be rim width.

[Chicken Hawk]

I think 175/70 x 13 are the widest tyres that will fit properly to standard rims.
They look good and work well.
My preferred size short of 205/69 x 13 on 7" rims...

Kilroy

I was told a few years ago that if you put 205/60x13 tyres on the front,they catch and rub on lock on the bottom of the wing. Have you had any problems running that size all round? Iv been running them on the back with no problems but using 185/60x13 on front