It's a shame in my opinion there aren't more tires to choose from in 13". Seems like there could be a market for a company to produce small volumes of decent tires in smaller sizes if they could keep overhead down.

Anyone ever tried something like a Toyo RA1 on a street car? That'd last like what 5,000 miles? Maybe it would work for a spirited weekend warrior.

*sigh* I love 13" wheels on vintage cars.

 

Thats why I went to 15" and run 205/50x15 Dumloip Dirrezza Star Spec 2 now.
Great tire as well.

Those federals look like a pretty nice tire, a bit pricey for a 13" tire IMHO.

The holy grail for 13" tires would be a sticky 205/60 tire with RWL so you can stay
with that old school look:

 

I tried that, it was worse. I've tried from 27-40. I'm at 32 now. The sidewalls just have the thickness of a party balloon.

 

There is definitely a market, but its small. Searching for these sizes yields other enthusiasts with the same problem, old British roadsters, BMW 2002s, Datsun 510s, etc. However I think most opt for tires like the R888 and RA1 because they only drive the cars occasionally in fair weather. It'll take them years to log 5,000 miles.

 

hcaulfield57

Anyone ever tried something like a Toyo RA1 on a street car? That'd last like what 5,000 miles? Maybe it would work for a spirited weekend warrior.

Yeah, I daily drove on RA1 for 3 years or so on my TII before I moved on to NT01.

I got more miles out of the RA1 than the 200 treadwear street tires I was trying to use before them because they weren't always spinning.

I was getting between 10-15,000 miles on RA1 depending on how much racing I was doing versus how many road trips.

RA1 are probably the most streetable of the DOT-Rs, they are pretty much just like the new Bridgestone RE71-R street tires in terms of performance, cost and tire life.

R888 are similar with stiffer sidewalls and bigger tread blocks, but because of this construction they are really really loud on the street and a tad twitchier in the cold. I just finished off a set of R888 on my RX-8.

There is a learning curve to street driving DOT-Rs and most UHP street tires, they have heroic grip when warm, but try to kill you on cold pavement (below ~45F).

 

Thanks hcaulfield57, I'll check them out.



.

 

Thanks for the input, I'll have to keep that under consideration when I end up getting another set of tires, hopefully not for awhile though!

Do post back if you end up getting at set, I'd like to know what you think about these.

 

Just bought a set of Federal 595's 205/60 13 from the local US Legends car dealer yesterday, $95 a piece, can't wait to get them on and start tearing up the Vegas streets!

 

You guys have it good. Where I'm from (Philippines) we don't have any local choices and I had to import...pay taxes and shipping. To get my Toyo Proxes 205/60-13s it costs me more than double what you guys have to pay. I plan to daily drive my FB once the resto is done and I'll be using the 14s the car came with for that. The Toyos will be only used for "formal" occasions.

 

Well I've been driving on the Federal 595's for awhile now, a few observations: As far as tread wear goes they're fantastic. Still plenty of tread left and I've put probably 3-4k miles on them. I'd have to look up the exact number to be sure. Dry grip is good, and honestly wet grip feels even better. There's been a few days when I've driven on icy roads even with no problems. However, I feel I've significantly lost some steering precision, and I feel I'm getting quite a bit of sidewall flex on the stock 5.5" '+' wheels. The car has too much grip in my opinion and is far less throttle steerable than it should be. My EG hatch on 175 width tires is so much more throttle steerable. I think next time I get tires for the car, I'll stick with the 185 width. Feel is much more important to me than outright grip.

 

Tirerack is carrying the Vredensteins now. I used run these back in the day on another car for autox and
they were excellent tires. They are a bit pricey but come in 205/60x13 as well.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...omCompare1=yes

 

Ouch, talk about expensive! But I've seen a lot of people like those tires that own vintage cars.

 

This is why I went back to 185/70 when I was running 13" tires. The 205/60s hurt steering feel too much. (So did adding negative camber, i went back to the stock .5 degrees positive after one test drive)

Heck, my much modified RX-7 has 185/65-15 tires on the front

 

Glad it's not just in my imagination. I had been trying to figure out why my steering was so strange for awhile, and finally came to the conclusion it was the tires. The increased effort in steering is marginal, but I don't think the lack of steering precision is worth the larger width.

 

Even with power steering my 205s are noticeably heavy. I've got the struts positioned for max camber. However, it feels great on the track and I don't lock up the brakes under emergency braking so it's a toss up.

 

Anyone have some suggestions for some stock size tires? Pretty much hate the current tires. Sluggish turn in, numb steering, wander, etc. I don't know much about tires, but I think theres just too much sidewall flex on the stock wheels. I can noticeably jiggle the car back and forth with my hands while parked. Car looks like it's sitting on jello.

 

Wandering and numb steering is caused by tires that are wide. You want a long, narrow contact patch for lively steering feel and good self correcting.

Notice that the cars generally considered to have the best steering in the world had 185/70-15 tires (older Mercedes SL/SEL) or even 165R15 (Porsche 911)...

 

I'm just now discovering this, it took driving a different car (with skinnier) tires in the Winter to figure this out though. I'll post back with some impressions once I find something new.

On lists of cars, I've seen online, with excellent steering feel I also always see cars like Fiat X1/9 (165/70-13) and classic Mini (145/80-10).

 

So far only tires I've found in the standard size are Cooper Trendsetter SE and Kumho Solus TA11. There's a number of tires in 175/70-13, but trying for the stock size now.

EDIT: I suppose I could even go crazy and try something like a Toyo R888, they come in 185/60-13. This car isn't my daily driver anymore so maybe. Suppose they would last through the Summer maybe. I just hate the idea of moving past the stock wheels. They look great, have a classic appropriate look and are light.

 

If you are leaning toward those Kuhmos, I would suggest the Achilles Platinum instead. Stiffer sidewall and H (130mph) instead of T(118mph) rating when comparing to the Kuhmo. A good all season tire that likely mimics the amount of grip you had from OEM tires.

Of course the Federal 595 or aforementioned Toyo will provide boat loads more grip when it's warm and dry.

 

Yeah, its true the 205 witdh will make the steering a bit harder at slow speeds and does affect handling but if
you are seriously tossing the car around, the extra grip really comes in handy. Like in autox or other
spirited driving.

 

Where can you find the Achilles? I couldn't find a source, but maybe I wasn't looking hard enough...

I think it's probably true that not all 205's are created equally. I feel that these tires must have a really soft sidewall, because their really numb unless you're cornering a lot. I end up turning the steering wheel too much because even though I can feel the steering linkage turning, the tires seem to lag slightly behind the steering components. I liked the tires a lot when I first got them, but it feels like they've degraded or something. To me I'd rather have less grip and more predictable handling. The high grip and unpredictable handling I have currently feels unsafe to me. Like I alluded to above, my EG hatch (daily-driver / project car) seems to have much more progressive handling - even though it has zero grip and insane body roll.

 

https://simpletire.com/achilles-185-...ad187013-tires

 

Thanks for the link, didn't know about that site.

I'm doing some research now. I'm not sure if I want to go with another "no-name" tire brand again. Reviews on the Achilles tires seem to be along the lines of: "tried these tires, they were cheap, great tires for the money" or "don't cheap out on tires, these will fail and kill you". I'm very unimpressed with my Federals, they don't feel safe at all. I don't know if it's the brand or if they're just too wide. Again Federal supposedly runs wide.

I'd have bought the Toyo R888's by now if I knew they would last. I'd accept 5-7k miles (that's over a year with my driving), but if they wear out in 1k miles, forget it. From googling, looks like some person claims they've lasted them 18k miles on a Porsche 930. I find this pretty unlikely as that's a very heavy car with tons of torque. It's a shame only the "no-name" brands sell tires in reasonable sizes anymore (that aren't DOT-R).

Kind of leaning towards the Kumho's for the reasons above, just hoping they don't become scary with my stiffer suspension setup.

EDIT: Okay, well I feel kind of like a tool now. I decided for kicks I'd change the tire pressure to the stock pressure. I measured what it had it at: 34f/36r. Firstly I don't know what I was thinking with the front/rear stagger, but I lowered it to 28f/28r (hot so ~27 cold). This removed all the play, wander and actually gave me some feedback and a more progressive steering feel. In other words it feels like a normal car. I'm going to have to drive it some more to come to a conclusion. I still think I might benefit from lower grip, skinnier tires, but I'll have to think about it. Sorry guys, anyone who's read my posts probably knows I'm a bit of a complainer.

 

Nah - good for you to 'fess up with the air pressure find. We all learn something when folks have a prob then discover a solution!
Hope it solves the issue.

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska