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Title: What size tyres? Post by: droptop on July 15, 2010, 08:27:45 AM I would like to put 15" wheels under the spider, but am unsure of what size tyres to fit. I love wide tyres, but as I don't have power steering and have a smaller steering wheel fitted, I need to be sensible about it.
What was the original tyre size on a 1978 spider 2000? And while we're on the subject, or close to it anyway, my car seems to have a lot of clearence between the top of the tyre and the bottom of the arch in the front, but the car sits level and the back looks normal. Current tyre size is 185/60/14 on OE spider alloys I can't post a picture to illustrate what I mean as my camera won't go down to a low enough resolution to alow me to upload any photos. Title: Re: What size tyres? Post by: HFStuart on July 15, 2010, 09:08:19 PM 175/70 14 was standard with 185/65 14 offered in some markets.
A 185/60 15 is about right and about as wide as you should go unless you want arms like hercules and possible clearance issues. My spider used to sit high at the front - I found it had had saloon springs fitted. Sadly the only way to find out for sure is to take the struts off, strip them and measure the free length of the springs. BTW - Plenty of free image editing software about - bownload some and resize your images ! Title: Re: What size tyres? Post by: droptop on July 16, 2010, 09:45:37 AM That was the tyre size I was hoping for and as regards the springs, it can stay high until winter.
As always, my thanks for the help. Title: Re: What size tyres? Post by: Spyder79 on May 17, 2011, 05:06:23 PM I have just been given a set of 185 60 R14 tyres to go on to standard Lancia Beta wheels for a Spyder.
Is this the correct size or will it effect the speedo reading? if so which way? Would they be acceptable? My current wheels are retro fitted alloys and are 15" , hence the reason I would like to change. Many thanks Title: Re: What size tyres? Post by: 75coupe on May 18, 2011, 12:36:32 PM I had 185/60 x 14 tyres on my coupe on std Lancia rims. The overall diameter of the tyres is less than the 175/70 x 14 originals, so your speedo will read slightly faster than you are actually going, but not massively so. I have used 185/60 x 14, 195/60 x 14 (closer to std diameter), 195/55 x 15 (very close to std diameter and same as 185/65 x14 as used on VX) and now 205/50 x 15!
I didn't find the steering excessively heavy with any of these, or maybe I have Popeye arms!! (The car does not have power steering) I used to drive a MK2 RS2000 escort with quick rack etc and was much heavier to steer! At 70mph your speedo will read 67.4 mph Here are some tyre size comparisons: size diameter circumference Difference 195/60 R14 590 mm 1854 mm -1.83 % 205/60 R14 602 mm 1891 mm 0.17 % 185/65 R14 596 mm 1872 mm -0.75 % 195/65 R14 609 mm 1913 mm 1.42 % 175/70 R14 601 mm 1888 mm 0 % 185/70 R14 615 mm 1932 mm 2.33 % 205/50 R15 586 mm 1841 mm -2.43 % 195/55 R15 596 mm 1872 mm -0.85 % 205/55 R15 607 mm 1907 mm 0.98 % 175/60 R15 591 mm 1857 mm -1.6 % 185/60 R15 603 mm 1894 mm 0.4 % 195/60 R15 615 mm 1932 mm 2.4 % There are several tyre calculators on the net, here is one: http://www.alloywheels.com/tyrecalc.asp (http://www.alloywheels.com/tyrecalc.asp) Regards Ian |