Tire Time for the Esprit

Except I need 235/60-15's for the back, not 225's.

Dr. Hess wrote: Incidentally, Matt, my car is exactly as Peter Stevens cobbled on more crap to Giorgetto Giugiaro's design.

Fixed that for you.

Finding good tires for an Esprit is a bitch. It's even worse for the S1, S2 folks who have to source 14" tires.

Dr. Hess wrote: Except I need 235/60-15's for the back, not 225's.

Crap I knew that, sorry.

I'm not entirely sure i HATE Fuzions... they just aren't my favorite. I like them far better than the Ziex 912s, though, i'll tell you that much.

I'd probably go with the Fuzions out of your choices after the additional information about climate and such. If the car would consistently see any foul weather, i'd go ASX. But it sounds like it's mainly a fair weather car for the most part, so do the Fuzions.

And yes, i DO hate everything. Sucks bad... because i'm having a HELL of a time finding a 245/45-16 tire now.

The Story is: Giugiaro was dissin' Stevens, saying "I designed the Esprit." Stevens responded "Well, I gave it a face lift."

I've read several reports of the ASX's chunking and otherwise not wearing well. I'm leaning Fuzions at the moment. This week is New Windshield for the Rolla Week. I'm thinking Tires next week.

To be honest I heard that Giugiaro was pleased with Stevens' update and his only criticism was that it wasn't the more radical departure from his original design that he had expected from Stevens.

I run R888s all summer on my Miata (and occassionally in the late fall/early spring) for both autox and track days. I get about 5000 kms out of a set (last year, that included almost 2000 track kms, plus at least 100 autox runs or more). That's pretty good wear overall. I've never had issues with freezing and chunking, although they wouldn't be my first choice in extreme temps.

Toyo also offers a generous sponsor program to Canadian customers (I get about 40 percent off list) -- do they have the same thing in the US?

Boxhead Tim noted huge tire wear on his R888s, but there are different compounds available around the globe. In Canada, we only get the GG compound, but in Europe they get a GGG compound which seems to be Hoosier-soft.

It may be moot now in view of the rear size issue, but I'll put down another vote for the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. I have those on my street Miata and on my wife's Mazda 6 Wagon and really like them.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter which tires you get. Because by the time you get to the end of your driveway, there will be a hole in that beautiful finned aluminium oil pan. LOL

Actually, the Esprit has more ground clearance than the Camry. At least, there are places on my driveway that bottom out the Camry that the Esprit goes over without touching. And that's also why I went with a 308 stainless floor pan for the Locost.

The Esprit is probably wide enough to stradle all the bumpy bits. By the way, love your taste in cars.

OK, I dropped the hammer on the Fuzions in 205/50-15 and 245/50-16 from tirerack.com. Should be here Thursday or Friday. That was a quick four bills and they ain't mounted yet. That's really pretty reasonable for a performance tire, I think, it's just that after paying taxes for the 47% of "Americans" that don't pay taxes yet demand "free" services (and "stuff"), another four bills hurts. Oh well. Only going to get worse from here on out. Spend it while you can still get tires for it instead of a loaf of bread.

ZOO wrote: Boxhead Tim noted huge tire wear on his R888s, but there are different compounds available around the globe. In Canada, we only get the GG compound, but in Europe they get a GGG compound which seems to be Hoosier-soft.

They were GGs - I don't think my regular suppliers over here would be able to supply GGGs off the shelf.

Wear on the Miata was fine, it was wear on the Integra-R that was abysmal. Several other people I talked to had similar issues with fairly powerful FWD cars - my guess (and that's just it, a guess) is that the additional effort of transmitting braking, steering and motive power through the same tires is a bit much for them.

Tires just showed up. That was quick. Wasn't expecting them for a couple days. And tonight is Aggie Muster, so I don't know if I'll have time to pull the wheels off to bring them in. Oh well. Have to wait a little. They look real nice.