Who's running What??

[Humble]

From what I've found on the beetle is that you can expect longer life from tires because of it's light weight. Even sticky compounds that would otherwise wear very quickly, the bug is relatively easy on them, assuming you have done a 4 wheel alignment and you're not running crazy camber.

[chug_A_bug]

Hey Humble
I Too would Love a Set of R compound tire I may not drive as hard as you through that Mtn roads but are Streets are rough here
and I think I would just burn them up Soo fast and I really wouldn't want to put 15" on I just love the look of a 17" and looked at pricing for them for one Hoosier
like $290 "OUCH"
soo that's not going to be happing anytime Soon lol

Chris.

[evilC]

Chris, It's almost worth importing them from Europe ( a bit of reverse trading for a change): For example http://www.camskill.co.uk/products.p...17,_225/45_R17
I assume the $290 are USD?

Clive

[gonebuggy]

133 pounds is about 234 Canadian dollars.

[Steve C]

Hi

On my daily/sons 1303 where running 205/45x17 Toyo Teos on the front and 215/45x17s Toyo Proxies on rear, where doing a training & track day on Sunday, these aren't track tyres so I may be buying new tyres on Monday. They handle street driving very well with no vices, the car has been on the road a few years, the front tyres look like new, were on the 3rd set of rears.

On my other 1303 I was thinking of running Falken RT615s http://www.falken.com.au/tyres/passenger-RT615.html

A friend has been using Federal tyres and has been getting good results http://www.federaltyres.com.au/motorsport

I don't mind spending money on good quality tyres, after all bugs are so easy on tyres, I would hate to have an off where a better tyre may have helped.

Steve

[chug_A_bug]

Hey Steve...
So I two was looking at the Falken RT615s and for a Set it would have cost me about $850 Cad so about the same US..
but I have Never Been to Keen on Falkens, and I thought that I may wear them out abit faster then I wanted lol

Chris.

[Steve C]

Hi

We ran on the weekend with street Toyos, they did OK and are still in one peice, see my other post http://www.germanlook.net/forums/showthread.php?t=10295

We will get some better tyres down soon. One of the factors that will limit my choice is the "look", they have to look right, that means getting the size and profile that looks right, this may seem a secondary consideration but its important to me. We need to run 205/45x17s and 215/45x17s for the "look".

Steve

[toddygates]

has anyone used FALKEN ZE912?

[Steve C]

Hi

I ended up buying a set of Federal 595R-S, I could only get them in 215x45 in 17s, the look of the same size tyre all round is growing on me. I would have preferred a 205/45 for the front but they don't make one, they will be making a 215/40 x 17 in the future, they would give the car a better stager look.

I'm extremely pleased with them, I've done one track day with them and lots of street driving, they cope well on the street and are not getting chopped up at all, they are OK in the wet, I need to fiddle with tyre pressures as they are not getting hot enough.

Steve

[chug_A_bug]

So I ended up getting a Set of Kumho XS
F 225/45R17
R 235/45R17

[Steve C]

Hi

I was able to find my dream wheels on Ebay, 3 piece 18 inch Simmons OMs, these are for my other 1303. They are 8s & 10s now, but our local registration authorities have strict laws for fitting wider wheels, so I will get them narrowed back to 7.5s & 8s.

These wheels were off a Porsche Cup car, and I was lucky to get them at a reasonable price, $1550 AU, The same brand wheels for a Ford or Holden (local GM) are bringing big money, around $3000 AU as Simmons have now stopped making wheels.

Steve

[Wally]

Nice wheels indeed! If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have said those are BBS wheels... ;-)
What do they weigh?

[volkdent]

Really hot wheels Steve, great buy!

Jason

[Steve C]

Hi

Thanks guys..

I don't think the way that they look like BBs wheels is a coincidence lol.

The 8s weigh 10.57 kg & the 10s weigh 11.93 kg on my Ebay scales.

I have a good friend who is the only authorised Simmons wheel repairer in Australia and is 2 suburbs away from me, so swapping the rims over wont be a headache and I will have the centres repainted silver most likely.

The 10s with inner rims swapped to make them 8s will work out perfectly on the rear with wider Aero fenders/wings/mudguards and alloy 944 arms. The 8s going back to 7.5 on the front is going to need an inner and outer rim swap, they sit in too far now, so I can go to a slightly wider outer rim and narrower inner rims, this will leave me with the outside of the wheels front & back looking the same.

I will still need to push the front wheels out a bit, I already have 911/996 front bakes from my old car, these were set-up using cut down Beetle rotors and the Porsche rotor bolting to the back of the cut-down Beetle rotor, so they gave no track increase, I will look into getting some 944 or 911 alloy hubs which will give me a track increase.

Tyre choice is going to be critical to have the correct "look", I've seen cars with 15s, 16s, 17s & 18s that just miss out on the "look" through poor tyre width & profile choice.

Steve