Tire questions

I'm ready to get the Stag a little closer to the road and I need new tires. The car has 195/70 R14 on it at the moment. Searching tire rack has yielded some choices. The best of which seems to be the the Michelin Defender. The question is if this is really a good tire for spirited driving and the occasional autocross. In order to get more tires choices I could down size (60s instead of 70s) which opens up many more options including star specs. The other option is that I move up to 15 inch rims though I am not sure if I could fit the wider konigs that I like, I'm unsure of the correct center bore and offset. So options are..

1. Michelin Defender-are they good for spirited driving, autocross, etc..

2. Move down to 195/60 which opens up a new world of tire choices including star specs (only mention because I hear about them a lot)

3. Move up to larger wheels specifically Konig Rewinds (15x7 4-114.3) though I need advice as to whether they will fit my car.

4. Free space, tell me what tires I am over looking, or what options I haven't thought of.

The car is a 1973 Triumph Stag that will see mostly spirited weekend driving and the occasional autocross. Thanks Ryan.

Are you concerned about classing? I'm guessing not.

You could do much better than a Michelin Defender, it's an "all-season tire" which in racing language translates to "total junk." You might have fun (I've seen very light cars do decently at autocross on all-seasons) but you sure won't be competitive with any similar cars.

For track/autocross use you want a "summer performance tire" or something more specific and extreme than that. A Star Spec is several leagues better and you'd do very well to run on those.

Nope, I just want to run and have fun for now.

Yeah I can only seem to find all-seasons in that size unfortunately.

What about these?

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/findTireDetail.do?ra=searchTiresBySize.do&pc=18004&counter=1&ar=70&rd=14&sw=false&cs=195

Discount tire has 13 tires in the size you specified. Or, you could go for these:

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/findTireDetail.do?ra=searchTiresBySize.do&pc=28864&counter=2&ar=60&rd=14&sw=false&cs=205

They are a little wider and 1" overall shorter. The revs per mile are 850 vs 815 for the stock size. Your speedometer would be off a bit (it would be reading higher than actual)

If you can fit 225 60 14's, that would be about 1.5" wider than your current tires and have the same overall diameter.

Obviously, 215 60 14's would split the difference.
http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/findTireDetail.do?ra=searchTiresBySize.do&pc=38359&counter=3&ar=60&rd=14&sw=false&cs=215

Pricey, but sort of period correct and they would handle okay.

You do not want to spirited drive All seasons. They are not even in the same league as a good performance summer tire. I'd use the 195/60 Star specs 1000x before I'd buy the michelins in the OE size. I bet you would be able to go to a 205/50 or even 205/60 without issue either- There tends to be a good bit of wiggle room for tire sizes on the old iron.

Personally, I'd be leary of the 195/60 Star Specs for autocross. I say this because I have them on my E30. I spent a lot of time pointing the wrong way. Most of it is my lack of skill driving a RWD car (I ran 205/50-16 Star Specs on a MINI and did well), but some of it I think is the tire being too small for the weight of the car. The gearing may also be an issue for autocross. An E30 has a somewhat short 2nd gear to begin with and the shorter tire made that worse. The also made the speedometer show even higher than normal on the hwy - it's fun showing 70 mph and getting passed like you're standing still...

But if you want to try the 195/60-14 Star Specs anyway, mine will probably be for sale soon. Under 1000 miles and only a couple of autocross events. They've currently in my basement for the Winter.

I've enjoyed Yokohama S-Drive's in 15" flavor. I see they have a 14" size too:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Yokohama&tireModel=S.drive

Autocrossed them effectively, and could not get them to break traction at Deal's Gap / Tail of the Dragon. Reasonable $$ and much fun in the summer.

A couple of thoughts that are probably worth about as much as you're paying for them:

1) It depends what you consider the point of "spirited driving" and what makes it enjoyable for you personally...Is it measured more by how fast you're going, or how hard you're pushing the car? Sure summer only tires are going to corner appreciably be faster while feeling more stable and planted. I've had two very different Miatae. One was a 05 Mazdaspeed turbo on 17 inch wheels and low profile 140 treadwear 'street' tires, the other was an almost completely stock 92 base model 1.6L with 14 inch wheels that wore either the terrible performing (General Altimax HP) all-season tires that came on it or snow tires depending on the season. On the street the slow 92 provided most of the fun as the 05 most of the time, since I was able to explore limits of the car further in ways that were less illegal than the 05 which had much higher limits. When I autox'd the 92 it turned terrible times, but again was actually quite a lot of fun as was it was almost a little like driving on a slick track, although the adjustable replacement shocks did help control the body motions a bit there too. Using the extra grip of summer tires will also exaggerate body motions in cars with less suspension control due to the higher forces, which simultaneously can add to the sensation of speed in its own way but can also add to the desire for things like a stiffer suspension. So I certainly agree with the majority of comments that summer tires will be faster, and would also recommend getting them for a toy car that will not be driven in 'all seasons' when given the choice, but all-seasons can still be surprisingly entertaining if that's really all you're looking for and would also be the easiest and cheapest option.

2) The tires you have now are 195mm wide, which is over 7.5 inches. If you put 195mm wide tires on a 6.5 or 7 inch wide wheel, they would still be roughly the same at the widest point. While that's no guarantee of fittment, it's not like you would be making that drastic of a change either. Thus if you can further investigate wheel sizes and offsets capable of fitting your particular car, like the look a larger alloy wheel could provide, and can afford it, this would probably be the 'best' option. That being said, your current tires are just shy of 25 inches tall. That's taller than the most commonly available 15 inch sizes for true high performance tires as well. The 205/60-15 is probably the closest diameter, but has no summer tire availability either, and 195/65-15 only has a couple of poor choices. If maintaining near this tire diameter is desirable to you, and trying to stick to a similar width, the 205/55-16 will probably be an even better option for better performance summer tires. Of course if you have any plans to give the car a lower ride height, you may want to move to smaller diameter tires anyways, which would help open up some more 15 inch options.