Hi Naishou,


Do you know if there's 205/55R16?



Paulo

 

I'll check the website:

Hmmm, 225/50R16 is available only in Type S but you can get a 225/45R16 in G, GS and S.

There is no 205/55 but there is a 205/50R16 in GS and R. You could run 225/45 on the rear and 205/50 on the front, which would give you very slightly lower gearing.

It's a tricky one if you stick with 16 inch rims. I would probably run the 225/45 for the track but on road maybe you'd be better with 225/50 rear and 205/50 front. That way your speedo and gearing would be fine, you'd just lose a tiny bit of ride height at the front but you might get better turn in. I don't think it would be that significant. You'd end up running different compounds front and rear if you choose the 225/50. I don't know if that's a problem.

An alternative is to get 17 inch rims, then for the rear you have a choice of 235/40, 245/40 or 255/40, all available in GS or S except the 245/40 which only comes in GS. The best choice would probably be the 255/40 in S compound, but they recommend a 9 inch wide rim. For the front you could have a 215/45 in S or R compound (7 inch wide rim).

Confusing, but I hope it helps.

Actually, I just remembered that Takashi Kazumori said he has 540s for his S2000. Maybe you can PM him and ask him what he uses. I'd like to know too if you can find out.

 

Just replaced my rear SO2s at a bit over 11,000 miles. The right rear tire had four or five bulges on the inside which were maybe 1/4" to 1/2" out from the regular tire surface. Still had a reasonable amount of tread on them, but I was worried about a high speed failure. I typically drive at 70 to 85 mph on Interstates here in Kentucky and I'd guess that as much as a quarter to a third of the miles I've racked up were Interstate miles. I've not raced the car, notdone any 7,000 rpm clutch drops, nor driven the car genuinely hard through corners. Lots of high speed and wide open acceleration, but not much else.

Replaced the SO2s on rear with BF Goodrich Comp TA KDW's of the same size as the originals.
They clearly do not have the dry grip of the SO2s. I never heard tire chirps w/ power shifts between 2nd & 3rd with the SO2s, but happens often with the KDWs. Similarly, almost never heard result of wheel spin on making a turn from a stop light. Frequent event now. Can't really say yet if these tires have better rain performance than the SO2s, which I thought were barely adequate, at best. At least that was so after I had a bit more than about 4k miles on them.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by naishou
[B]


Confusing, but I hope it helps.

Actually, I just remembered that Takashi Kazumori said he has 540s for his S2000.

 

With stock rims you should get 205/55/16 and 225/50/16... S02s!! I know this not the question that you asked, but, if you're a perfectionist, it's probably the only answer. You could try the A038 (tyre built by Yokohama for the Lotus R340) if you can find them.

The problem is that the traverse profile of the 225 S02 is basically square. So, the contact patch width is substantially larger than what you typically get on your average 225 tyre. You could compensate by selecting a wider tyre (say 245/45/16) but you run into two problems:

First is that the tyre diameter is not the same. The 245/45 is bigger than the 225/50, so ride height and performance is affected.

The second problem is that from a performance perspective the stock rims are not wide enough for 245 tyres. The tyres will bulge, resulting in less crisp turn it and wobbly steering.

So you need new rims... which in itself is also an issue fraught with challenges!

 

Luis,

I'm talking about the GoodYear's F1, not only because I like these tyres very much (they are very progressive in dry conditions and great in wet conditions. Far superior to the S02 PP, at least on my other cars), but because I found on the Japanese Honda website, an accessories page for the S2000 with the F1's as the only option to the S02oem.
Can you guess the recommended size??
Exactly the same as the stock ones.
What about that??!!


Paulo