XedLos Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 Im looking to get new tires for my 82 280ZX. The current tires are Falken 225/50R15 91V M+S. Anyone have any have any suggestions? Im also looking into maybe lifting the car a couple of inches since it has a body kit and it scrapes whenever i pull into a driveway. I have never really bought tires. I will not be changing the rims Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhm Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I'm using Sumitomos now ("http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Sumitomo&tireModel=HTR+200") and I like them. Seems to be a pretty decent street tire at a good price. I'm using them strictly for auto-x and occasional track events. What's your intended usage (i.e. track, street, combination, etc) and budget? Those factors will obviously influence the recommendations you get here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XedLos Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 I'm using Sumitomos now ("http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Sumitomo&tireModel=HTR+200") and I like them. Seems to be a pretty decent street tire at a good price. I'm using them strictly for auto-x and occasional track events. What's your intended usage (i.e. track, street, combination, etc) and budget? Those factors will obviously influence the recommendations you get here. Well the car is just a daily driver. I wont be doing any track things or racing. Im just looking for some tires that look nice. I guess my budget would be 200 or les Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burninator Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 I guess my budget would be 200 or les $200 per tire? Kidding... but seriously. $200 for 4 tires you can't be too picky. Good luck finding tires at that price in that size. Really, it's kind of an odd size so that doesn't help your situation. I tried looking for some sizes I thought would work and didn't turn much more up. Tire rack has some for like $62 but your gonna have to pay shipping and in that price range that's a good chunk of the tires total price. Try some local tire shops or (as much as I hate it) Walmart. I'd forget about trying to raise the ride height of your car by that much with bigger tires, it's not a truck. Although I'm not super familiar with the ZXs, I kinda doubt you have the space under the fender for a tire that big even if you could find one that would fit your rims. I guess I may not be being helpful to you, but I'm not sure what else to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XedLos Posted February 10, 2011 Author Share Posted February 10, 2011 What about getting duffrent tire size that still fit my rims. How would I go about finding what tires fit my rims Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 (edited) I have been using Toyo Proxes on my stock and V8 240Z cars for some time. All of my 240Z cars have been daily drivers in a sunny warm climate. I have not had a single problem with these tires. I bought a set from Les Schwab last year for about $130 each. Note: if you change your tire size it will throw your speedometer off. There are a number of tire size calculators on the web where you can simulate different wheel and tire combinations and determine the effects on your speedometer. You will need to know the gear ratio of your differntial which you can research here in the drivetrain forum. Look in the threads for differentials. Edited February 14, 2011 by Miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19762802+2 Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 If you want to lift your car you should do it another way then just buying larger tires, because if your tires are a different size then stock then your going to have issues with your speedometer being off, I would suggest using the Miata tire calculator to find the right size tires you will need. Also if your car is that low that your body kit is dragging like that maybe you need new shocks and springs/struts. Or you could trim your body kit so that it fits a bit better I guess, but thats up to you. Also I work at discount tire so I get a pretty nice discount but buying the cheapest set of tires (215/70/14's) would cost me $250, so you may need to raise your budget to get some decent tires or tires at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burninator Posted February 10, 2011 Share Posted February 10, 2011 (edited) What about getting duffrent tire size that still fit my rims. How would I go about finding what tires fit my rims I don't know your rim width, so I was just looking at sizes that were close, but the way to know for sure is to find a tire your interested in and look at it's specs. It will tell you recommended rim widths, and the over diameter of the tire. For example the tire that jhm suggested in your size fits 6-8" width rims and is 24" tall. In that particular tire if your rim is 7" wide you can go down to a 195 width tire. The 195/60-15 in that model is 24.3" tall, and would be close enough to fit. Edit: That is just guess on your rim width. If you don't know what that is, then find out. Also, note that just because something fits your rim doesn't mean it will fit on your car. When I say you probly can't raise your car 2" it's because you'd need to go with a 28" tall tire that will likely rub on something. If you do a search, you may be able to find maximum widths that fit your car, but the height will affect that too and it's unlikely that someone else is putting a tire that tall on their car so the same width may not fit with that diameter. You'd have to take the springs out of your car and with the suspension compressed all the way and the steering turned to full lock in both directions measure the clearance of all your tires. Edited February 10, 2011 by burninator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XedLos Posted February 11, 2011 Author Share Posted February 11, 2011 I was looking around and i believe the stock tires on my car had to be 205R14. I checked the speed of my car with and iphone GPS and i was seeing that my speedometer was 5mph ahead of what the gps was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burninator Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 I was looking around and i believe the stock tires on my car had to be 205R14. I checked the speed of my car with and iphone GPS and i was seeing that my speedometer was 5mph ahead of what the gps was. 205/??? R14... The width and rim size of the tire mean nothing about the diameter of the tire without knowing the aspect ratio. For what it's worth, tire rack lists the stock tire size as 195/70R14 which has an overall diameter of about 24.8" depending on the brand and model of tire. I'll walk you through the calc just this once: the second number is the aspect ratio meaning that the sidewall is that percentage of the width. So, a 195mm width tire with a 70 aspect ratio has a 195 * 0.70 = 136.5mm high sidewall, to convert to inches we divide that by 25.4 and get 5.37". Since that is only 1 sidewall the total tire height is 2 * sidewall height + rim diameter, 2 * 5.37 + 14 = 24.8" (rounded). It's very common, almost expected, for the speedometer of cars to be off from the factory. I believe legally they can be up to 10% high versus actual speed (as read by a gps). Yes, your tires are different from factory size and that will make a difference in how the speedo reads, but don't assume it was dead on from the factory. I'm not really sure what, if anything, your still trying to get from this thread. I'm trying to be helpful, but you need to post informed questions. Most of what I have told you is easily found by searching or just looking at some web sites that sell tires. Bottom line is: If you just want tires that will work, go down to the store and have the sales man put whatever tires he recommends in your budget on your car. If you are trying to be informed about tires before you walk into the store, do some research. If you want to pick your own tires out, do some research. Most importantly, if you have any other questions to post on here, do some research. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miles Posted February 11, 2011 Share Posted February 11, 2011 Here is the Miata tire size calculator: http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html You will need to input the original tire specifications. Followed by the desired tire size. At the bottom of the page it will tell you what your speedometer error is if the diameter of the tire is larger or smaller than the original tire diameter. If you want to keep your speedometer accurate then keep the stock tire diameter. If you want a larger diameter tire and keep you speedometer accurate then you would need to play around with changing the speedo drive gear ratio in the transmission. With the tire size calculator you can simulate how changing tire size variables (wheel diameter, aspect ratio etc.) relates to speedometer errors. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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