What tire?

I just picked up a new set of wheels for my 944. It's a set of staggered MSW mesh wheels 15X7 front and 15X8 rear.

Common thinking would dictate a 225/50 and a 245/50, right?

Where the Berkeley do I get 245 width 15 tires.

I would like streetable, but sporty-ish tires. I'd rather not spend 1000 dollars on tires for a 1500 dollar Porsche.

Maroon92 wrote: I would like streetable, but sporty-ish tires. I'd rather not spend 1000 dollars on tires for a 1500 dollar Porsche.

You mean you don't want R6s?

205/50 front 225/45 rear

Both easy to find grippy tires in

you can also run 235s easy on the back. on the front 235s will be the widest you can fit, so if 215/225 is harder to find somehow, you can run 225/235
and i'd say hankooks? or kumho ecsta asx?

lots of really good info here ( towards the end he gets into fitment ... tire size vs rim size )

http://www.sccaforums.com/forums/forumid/23/threadid/425216/scope/posts

The bottom line here is you cant just imagine the perfect tire size and have it actually exist.. there are very limited options for wide AND short 15s.

I think you can spend all kinds of time searching and end up coming back to what's already suggested.. 205/50 and 225/45. They're about the same height and will look right on those rim widths.

ProDarwin wrote: 205/50 front 225/45 rear Both easy to find grippy tires in

Yes and no. A number of brands offer sporty 205/50-15 tires, but only the Toyo R1R is available in 225/45-15 as well.

It'll still be about an inch shorter than the spec tire, but 24" tall tires are hard to come by. Being an E30 and a MINI owner, I am all too aware of this. Since buying my E30 almost two years ago, I've spent an inordinate amount of time researching tire options.

If I were in your shoes I'd be tempted to just get the Falken Ziex 912 in a 225/50. 8 inches is listed at the max rim width, but they'll be the right height (23.9in) and they also come in a few sizes that fit the 7in front wheels. Discount tire lists them at $82 for the 225/50 size and $77 for 205/50. I guess the rears will look a little taller than the fronts, but at least it isn't the other way around

BTW - I think I had these same tires on the MR2 when you drove it. They aren't going to set any autocross records, but their pretty good for dd duties.

Ian F wrote:

ProDarwin wrote: 205/50 front 225/45 rear Both easy to find grippy tires in

Yes and no. A number of brands offer sporty 205/50-15 tires, but only the Toyo R1R is available in 225/45-15 as well. It'll still be about an inch shorter than the spec tire, but 24" tall tires are hard to come by. Being an E30 and a MINI owner, I am all too aware of this. Since buying my E30 almost two years ago, I've spent an inordinate amount of time researching tire options.

I think you'll find that the R-S3 is available in 225 - 45 - 15

In reply to wbjones:

Pay attention.

But NOT in 205/50-15.

Candy-Gram for Mongo, Candy-Gram for Mongo... PM'ed ya, Brad.

Ian F wrote:

ProDarwin wrote: 205/50 front 225/45 rear Both easy to find grippy tires in

Yes and no. A number of brands offer sporty 205/50-15 tires, but only the Toyo R1R is available in 225/45-15 as well. It'll still be about an inch shorter than the spec tire, but 24" tall tires are hard to come by. Being an E30 and a MINI owner, I am all too aware of this. Since buying my E30 almost two years ago, I've spent an inordinate amount of time researching tire options.

True. I have had a number of Saturns, which come with a 24" tire as well. The easy button here is to just use a 23" tire. Saturns, E30s, Minis, ETC. don't need stagger :)

Which brings up the best answer for the OP: Sell wheels, purchase 15x8s, run a square 225/45 setup

Ian F wrote: In reply to wbjones: Pay attention. But NOT in 205/50-15.

my bad ... I missed the AS WELL

According to Tire Rack your stock tire size was 215/60R15 which are 25.2" diameter. That size would work just fine on both sets of wheels. Closest slightly wider alternatives are either 225/50R15 (23.9") or 225/60R15 (25.6").

225/50R15 Falken Ziex ZE-512/912 Kumho Ecsta AST

215/60R15 Falken Ziex ZE-512/912 Yokohama AVS ES100

225/60R15 Falken Ziex ZE-512/912 Kumho Ecsta ASX

None of these are particularly great tires. The ASX and the ZE-912s are probably the better choices. If you had 16" wheels there are quite a few great tire options in 225/50R16s (24.9" diameter).

if you run the same size (225) all around, the contact patch will still be changed from front to back because of how the tires fit on the wheels? the tires will be "stretched" onto the 8" wheel more, so the contact will be different, and it'll still show a little stagger.
am i wrong?

The wheels came with a pair of decent unmounted 205/50R15 Falken 512. Perhaps I will just get a pair of 225 for the rear...

I made the mistake of ordering a set of 205/60R15 ZE-512s for my 325i from Discount Tire while they had a $100 rebate going on. The cheap price didn't make up for the utter miserableness of those tires. They are the complete opposite of sporty--much mushier, vague, and uncontrolled than any winter or touring tires I've had. I've heard Consumer Reports likes them. I swapped them to my SC2 for awhile and they were still miserable on that car, so I sold them. They might be slightly better with shorter sidewalls, but I'd still highly recommend just getting rid of them.

The 512s are absolutely miserable for anything resembling sporty driving.

Could you just do 225/50/15 on the front and back?

I didn't mind the 512's in warm weather. In the snow they're terrifying.

belteshazzar wrote: I didn't mind the 512's in warm weather. In the snow they're terrifying.

this. I'm rolling on 512's right now in the kia, because I'm cheap, and I don't really mind them. they are kind of noisy, but nothing compared to the tires before.

The man lives in Ohio, there's no such thing as warm weather there!

Javelin wrote: The man lives in Ohio, there's no such thing as warm weather there!

It was in the 60s this weekend...

I don't suspect the 'ol '44 will be driven in snow, regardless.