[Mk2] [Generic] Bridgestone RE070 or other 225/45/17. Has anybody made them fit??

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flex
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Jul 26, 2016 12:51 pm

Re: [Mk2] [Generic] Bridgestone RE070 or other 225/45/17. Has anybody made them fit??

Post by flex »

In an ideal world I would go for the same compound all round.

The pilot sport 3s are a good tyre in all conditions, not really cut out proper track work, but good enough for autosolos. They are also actually not all that wide a tread compared to some designs.

I use the car for autosolos, which is a weird discipline in terms of what you are looking for from tyres. We has some pretty hostile surfaces to run on so I tend to keep an eye on ebay for good quality part worns (no more than a few years old). Its mostly first gear with a bit of second, so balance required is quite different to that require for faster track/sprint/hillclimbs. I find the mr2 hard work compared to an mx5 but a lot of fun!

I only have 8" 17s for rears so 235 is really the maximum (wider is too bulgy and the outer edge gets even more chewed).

I did some autosolos on 15s at 205/225 split but i found i had more understeer. The were only nexen 641s on the front which are not too great.

With the 215 45 16 fronts, i have had more bite to the point where the front will rotate basically as fast as i can turn the wheel on tighter corners at low speed.

I have gone from 225 45 to 235 40 17 on the rear and haven't had a chance to test, but really just hoping for a little more traction.

I do have a set or Nankang NS2rs for trackdays (set came from ebay as a pair of mitsubishi evo 4 16s with 205 45 16 and evo5 17s with 235 40 17). I have only done one trackday, but the impression i got was that it was a understeery car on the limit at steady throttle. That said, i have nothing to really compare with.

To be honest the 215 45 16 tyre selection is a bit limited if you wish to stay in 1A tyres. Theres a lot of touring tyres, but not many high perfomance summers that aren't in list 1B. to me it seemed like a good compromise of a tyre that wasn't too skinny (and vunerable to rocks and potholes), used lighter 16" wheels yet had a reasonable width to it.
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