Dunlop SP9000 - Discontinued?

[Bibs]

Can you get Michelin Pilot Sport 2 in the right size? Best tyres I've ever used

[redshift]

Just put PS3's on mine.

Reckoned to be even better than the PS2....

[Bibs]

Wow! I'll have to get some

[bingoking]

Pete

Where did you source these and did you manage to get front and rear tyres?

[redshift]

Rear tyres came from the local tyre fitters and the fronts were done by Lotus in Toulouse about 3 weeks ago.

The tyre fit place just happens to be run by my neighbour's brother, so prices are not bad.

[B1 RMA]

I've been having a look around for tyres as well and notice that Toyo T1r's are available that match front and rear. Has anyone fitted these to their Esprit? I have a very positive opinion of these tyres as I had them on my RX7 which weighed about 1380 Kilo's and produced around 400 bhp and in some ways had a similar weight distribution to the Esprit. I used the car fairly extensively on track and never had a problem in the dry but did not really get the chance to use them on track in the wet, but on the road in the wet they weren't too bad although as with the Esprit on wet roads I did tend to be a bit overcautious.

Edited May 1, 2011 by B1 RMA

[hammerhead]

I too am searching for new tires for my recently acquired Esprit since I am still running the original Michelin MMMX3. There aren't many choices for a matched set in the stock sizes but I have found Toyo T1R, Nitto NT05, Falken FK452, Bridgestone RE050A, Sumitomo HTR ZII, and Continental ContiSportContact 3. Just how important is it to have a matched set? I am also considering Michelin PS2 for the front and PS3 for the rear as the tread pattern is quite similar.

[B1 RMA]

I am going to have a look into this because according to the service history on my car the Dunlops were fitted all round in 2006. Following my little spin at Castle Coombe in the parade lap it made me think as the tyres just let go with no warning, admittedly the track was greasey and it was more than likely driver error (tyre pressures etc were correct0 and I have lost count of the number of times I've been around that circuit without incident. So working on the basis that it was better for this to happen on the track rather than the road I'm thinking I may change them for the Toyo T1r's logically I'd have thought the same pattern front and back was the way to go so again the Toyo's will be my preffered choice.

[B1 RMA]

Just a quick update it would appear that the Toyo T1R's have been dicontinued, I have been looking at some of the Yokohama tyres and they do make a 285/35/18 for the rears but for the front the nearest is a 245/40/17 as opposed to the 235 section as standard. I spoke to a couple of guys who were running these tyres at Japfest last week-end and were taking their cars on track and they both rated the tyre very highly, its an Advan sport something or other so I'll check and get the details. The question is would there be any adverse effects if the front tyre went up 10mm in section because I know you can increase the width a little without ruining the handling.

[steve930]

As i understand it the profile of a tyre is a percentage of the width, so increasing the width will also increase the diameter marginly. You may lose some of the responsiveness/feel through the steering wheel as a result.

FWIW i used to use falkens on my 911 turbo & was quite impressed with them. Although they are considered a lesser quality than the big names, i would wonder if as tyre technology keeps moving forward whether a new falken may be just as good/efficient as a set of older dunlops etc etc if you see what i'm getting at???

[FastZilla]

Went with the Michelin PS2 in 295/35ZR-18 ® & 245/40ZR-17 (F). Great tires - no clearance issues.

The new Mechelin Pilot Super Sports are all the rave presently since the PS2 is, for the most part, discontinued. They were not out at the time I bought mine - much better than the D9000's - also 8 years newer at the time....

Pilot Super Sports are available but only in the stock sizes (no + sizes) - 285/35ZR-18 & 245/40ZR-17

Edited May 21, 2012 by FastZilla

[Günter]

@Eddie: stock on V8 Esprit is 235/40R17 front..

[FastZilla]

my mistake - the 245/17 is the was the standard Ford Mustang GT tire for almost 10 years.... Guess that's why there are so many options.

[B1 RMA]

After a lot of searching and asking questions of suppliers I have now ordered some of the new Toyo T1 sport tyres. The local company who are supplying them do a lot of trackdays themselves and strongly reccomend the new patterned Toyo, and they are available in the correct size for the V8 and the pattern matches front and rear, probably just me but I don't like the idea of different patterns.

[steve930]

After a lot of searching and asking questions of suppliers I have now ordered some of the new Toyo T1 sport tyres. The local company who are supplying them do a lot of trackdays themselves and strongly reccomend the new patterned Toyo, and they are available in the correct size for the V8 and the pattern matches front and rear, probably just me but I don't like the idea of different patterns.

what are the prices for these?

[B1 RMA]

My local tyre place which is linked to Mytyres are doing the whole lot for £658 which I thought was quite good. I am convinced the ageing Dunlop 9000's are not up to the job, I took a passenger to a car meeting this week and the car just felt hard and a spirited drive through the twisty bits with an Elise in front on the way back highlighted something not quite right, couldn't put my finger on it but checked the pressures in the morning and they were fine, plus after spinning it at Castle Coombe although the track was damp I felt they just broke away and lost grip way too easily.

By the way the local Pistonheads are meeting not far from you at the moment at Copythorne would you like the details?

Edited June 1, 2012 by B1 RMA

[B1 RMA]

One other small issue brought up by the tyre fitter is that the protruding lug that holds the fixing 'screw' for the centre caps on OZ Saturns obstructs the modern wheel balancing machine, so you can not get the wheels balanced on most modern machines. So its off to Vibration Free again to have them balanced on the car something that all owners with OZ Saturns will have to consider. I have been told that some tyre fitters have the older nut held balancing machine but there are no such machines in Hampshire.

[V8 FOU]

Ahh, I had that problem with the "nut". Made up a spacer for my balancer and job done! To the nearest gramme too.....

[B1 RMA]

Ahh, I had that problem with the "nut". Made up a spacer for my balancer and job done! To the nearest gramme too.....

Good idea but when I first had my car I had what could only be described as a strange vibration/modulation at higher speeds and I 've spoken to a couple of other V8 owners who have the same problem. I think it may be that like a certain expensive car there may be the odd disc inbalance with Esprits which are causing this because once mine was done i.e. balanced on the car it dissapeared.

[lotusespritse]

Went with the Michelin PS2 in 295/35ZR-18 ® & 245/40ZR-17 (F). Great tires - no clearance issues.

The new Mechelin Pilot Super Sports are all the rave presently since the PS2 is, for the most part, discontinued. They were not out at the time I bought mine - much better than the D9000's - also 8 years newer at the time....

Pilot Super Sports are available but only in the stock sizes (no + sizes) - 285/35ZR-18 & 245/40ZR-17

Do you have any pictures posted of these size tires on your V8? That seems like the way to go to me, but I'd like to see how they extra size looks on the rims and the wheel wells.

[lotusespritse]

245/40-17 is not the stock size over here. It's 235/40-17. I went with Falkens here in the US because they have the full stock sizes (one of the few here), and are priced reasonably ($700 for a set). The Michelin's are $500 for one rear tire...

The fronts definitely don't need to be any bigger, so I certainly wouldn't want to go to 245/40. The 235/40 already fills the front wheel well much more than the rears at stock size of 285/35-18.

I would have liked to go to a 295 rear, but only Michelin could match the size. I need the cash for other projects.

[Günter]

to make this more clear:

235/40R17 is all around the world the factory dimension for the Lotus V8 on front.. on a 17inch, x8.5 offset 19mm

**

But you can (if specially registered for) run also on 225/45R17 ..this is one cheap mass production tyre all around the world, as it is named for BMW 5 series, Mercedes C-class and all sorts of medium sedans from several manufacturers. Fits on a 17inch x7.5 with 20mm offset. Those rims are available for French and Italian cars of medium size -you can try it with 5mm spacer each side, or even 10mm each

Factory dimenson *rear* is 285/35R18 on a 18inch x10inch, with 17mm offset -for the V8 .. and 295/35R18 on the same rim for the S350 V8 versions.

..optional, if specially registered (special certification for example here n Germany on mine..), is the typical Porsche size 265/40R18 (even as the diameter is slightly larger, so you have to ask your technican for adjustment on speedo/odometer..) -fitted on a 9.5 x18, with several offsets, depends on the spacer size you want to use ..as the bolt pattern on the available rims in this size is mostly not in 5x108mm circle, so you could use one of the adaptor plates from 5x110mm to 5x108mm, or even wheel screws with self adjustable cones on the shaft

######

as a special note: both alternative sizes are available with winter-profile specifiation ..in case of

Edited August 21, 2012 by Günter