Hey guys,

I am in the market for some new tires for my '01 ITR. I picked it up at the end of last summer and only drove it 2000kms...and it still has the original tires on it from '01 so you can guess that it has low kms. Anyways I am in the market for some new tires but I know they dont make the RE10's anymore so I was thinking of getting RE11's but I wanted to hear everyones take on upping the size to a 205 tire rather 195.

If anyone has this setup on the stock rims let me know, or what do you guys use for a great summer performance tire, I doubt my ITR will ever see the track and it will never see rain drops so an extreme summer performance tire is still cool with me.

Any help is appreciated guys.

thanks!

Daniel

 

When I went from a 195 to 205 tire on my stock wheels, IU could not even tell the difference.

I can tell you though that you are going to love that tire chioce. Great tire.

 

Differences between 195/55-15 and 205/50-15 are insignificant. 205 will give you ever so slightly better traction when cornering on dry pavement, 195 will give you ever so slightly better traction when driving on wet pavement, 205 will throw off your gauges by the 1.6 percent difference in outer diameter, but all of those differences are imperceptible. Either size can be mounted on the stock 15x6 rims (and usually on any width rims from 15x5.5 to 15x7.5). There may be significant price and/or availability differences between the two sizes of tires, depending on what tire you get.

If you're looking for a really sticky street tire, any of these should make you happy:

Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec 195/55-15 or 205/50-15
Bridgestone Potenza RE-11 205/50-15
Yokohama Advan Neova AD08 205/50-15
Kumho Ecsta XS 205/50-15
Toyo Proxes R1R 195/55-15 or 205/50-15

The first four of these were in a side-by-side comparison test on the Tire Rack website at:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=118
The most significant difference was that the XS is not as good as the others on wet pavement. You can also see some insightful comparative comments from Andy Hollis in this topic.

The Star Spec and the XS are less expensive than the others. The Star Spec in 195/55-15 is a particularly good deal right now, thanks to the $50 rebate; they work out to $81.50/tire with free shipping from Discount Tire Direct, or $76.50/tire plus shipping from the Tire Rack.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys, i really appreciate it!

I'm really leaning towards the RE-11 205/50-15 can't wait for it to warm it and stay warm. Put on the first 5km in 2010 today since it was 10 degrees Celsius here today :D it made me miss heR even more now since I got a little taste of how awesome the car is again

 

I had 205/50/15 Bridgestones on my Type R when I bought it last year but they were worn so I recently went back to 195/55/15 Toyo T1-R's. The tread design looks excellent, but I feel like I've lost a little bit of ultimate dry weather traction like the earlier post stated. Also, the 205's just look better and fill up the wheel wells a little better so I'll go back to the 205/50/15 size after the Toyos wear out.

 

Currently I've been using the Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec 195/55-15 and there simply amazing compared to any other tire I've owned.

 

The Toyo Proxes T1R is not all that sticky. It's certainly not one of the supersticky "extreme performance" tires I listed above; Toyo sells the R1R in that category (don't confuse these two tires with each other, they're different tires despite the similar names). The T1R is a longer-lasting summer tire that would be considered an "ultra high performance summer tire" using the Tire Rack's terminology, tires like the Yokohama S.drive that last longer than the supersticky tires and usually cost less too. Different tires for different folks, depending on what's important to you.

 

215/45/16 is the best

 

RE11 for sure.

 

I had the Toyo T1-S' (before they switched to the T1-R) on my EM1. It was a VERY good tire and lasted forever. They had very good grip and broke loose in a very linear fashion, making them easy and safe to drive near the limit during off track excursions. Not a tire for track use (even the occasional auto-x), but for a street tire, they did rather well. They also ruled for wet traction. On that note, I have not tried the updated T1-R.

After those, I moved to the Hankook Ventus RS2. This is a frigging awesome street tire. I like these better than the Falken Azenis I now have on my R. For the money, the RS2's are very hard to beat. I say give them a try. Only issue is that they don't last too long.

 

215/45-16 is the best size for mounting on 15x6 stock wheels?

The T1S and T1R are NOT anywhere near as sticky as today's best "extreme performance" tires. Not even close.

And the RS2 - which also is not as sticky as today's best "extreme performance" tires (or even the Azenis), has been discontinued. It was replaced by the RS3, which is not available in 195/55-15 or 205/50-15.

Oops, my broke from overuse.

 

Where did I say they were? I simply stated that they were a good street tire that had a rather long life span.

I was not aware that Hankook had replaced this tire... again, though, I never said these were the stickiest tire available. But I digress... I recently bought some RS2s', however, for my MR2 (215s' front and 245s' rear respectively) from my local Discount Tire. If they are discontinued, they weren't very hard to source. Of course, on that note, I never tried to buy them in 195-55-15 or 205-50-15 sizes.

I am curious to know how the RS3s' fair. Have you used these?

 

You should look into some 205-50 Falken Azenis RT-615's. They are pretty good summer tires.

 

LMAO, that is deffinitly going in my signature for a while.

 

Pretty good, but several tires have been named in this thread that are better. Azenis wear really fast and are crappy in the rain.

 

The Azenis is not as sticky as the tires listed above. However, you can get them for a pretty good deal; Falken and Discount Tire have teamed up for an $80 rebate on them to clear out the inventory before the improved version (the RT-615K) is introduced soon. You also need to consider that the Azenis won't last as long as the others (typically 10-12K for the Azenis, 15-20K for the others).

 

if you want relaly good performance, and willing topay the money, then get the ones that nsxtasy said up there. If you're on some kind of budget, Azenis would do fine.