I want to get a set of these tires but I hear that the 195 are stiffer and handle better. Is there really much of a different or are they pretty similiar. Can someone please explain. I want the one with better handling. Thanks!

 

try a search .lots of stuffon this last month

 

195- cheaper, smaller sidewall (stiffer), slightly improves acceleration by changing FD.

205-more expensive, bigger contact patch, bigger sidewall


I doubt you would really be able to tell any difference. Besides if 195's are still on sale you'll be saving about $50 a tire.

 

A wider tire doesn't give you a bigger contact patch. It gives you a wider contact patch. For example, an ITR weighs 2640 pounds. If you inflate all the tires to 33 psi (pounds per square inch), the size of the four contact patches will equal 2640/33 = 80 square inches. This will be true regardless of whether the tire treads are 205 mm wide or 195 mm wide. With 205, they are slightly wider (side to side) but narrower (front to back).

I agree.

The main reason people were getting the 195s was that they were on sale for a while for $76, vs $110 for the 205s. They've changed the sale price so that the 195s are now $88 each. At that price, with only $12/tire savings, it becomes more of a toss-up.

 

TireRack wouldn't sell me the 195/50 because they said the load rating was too low and it could blow out at speed. I was concerned about that so I didn't go with the S-03. I'd imagine on a hard corner you'd be putting quite a bit of weight on a given tire to want to stick with the recommended load capacity.

 

I have the same SO-3's on my Integra, and I've raced on tracks and mountains with them, and never had any problems. I wouldn't pay too much heed to what tire rack says. When I called, they didn't want to sell them to me, because they weren't the same size as what came on my car. I just told them it was a race only car and I wanted to lower my FD.

-Dustin