Ray -
Selecting tires for your car is a matter of personal taste.
For me, the cars were styled around the Roadspeed ply tires, but that
doesn't mean I think bigger is necessarily better looking. The thing with
the old RS5s is they are tall, but very narrow. Modern radials aren't as
tall, but have a fatter tread. This means looks-wise, a modern tire with a
slightly smaller diameter looks about right to me, because the treads are
usually fatter. So if you go for a 175/80 and esp 185/80, personally I
think the tires look too baloonish on the car... but others will differ with
me here. 185/80s might scrape your wheel wells.
For your 72 spoke chromes, you'll have a 5" inch rim, this means the 165s
will be a little too small for your car (they work better on the original
4.5" rims), 175 80s should be pretty good, or you can go with 185/70s which
is the most common for a 15x5" rim.
I run the 185/70R15 Vredesteins on my Healey, and they are excellent tires.
But recently Longstone brought back the Pirelli CN36 in 185/70R15 ... at a
pretty good price - I would buy the Pirellis if I hadn't just purchased the
Vredesteins:
http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/search.php?searchMethod=term&searchTerm=590+X+15
As you can see on the page, the Pirelli is the closest in diameter to the
old RS5s, and also has the fattest tread of all options. Note they also have
a 180/80 by michelin (at twice the price!), but still either the Pirelli or
the Vredestein would be the choice for me. The Pirelli is the one on the
far left in this picture(I really like this tire!):
http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/image/healey%20options.jpg
http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/Austin-Healey.php
Pirelli - great tires, great road holding... a little expensive but well
worth it.
By the way, I have ordered from Longstone before, their shipping rates are
VERY reasonable, considering they are in the UK. I don't know how they ship
so cheap!
Cheers,
Alan
'52 A90
'53 BN1
'64 BJ8
On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 7:51 AM, Ray Carbone <racarbon@optonline.net> wrote:
> Hi Alan,
>
> Forgot to mention, I am running 72 spoke Chromes. Thanks for the question.
>
>
>
> All the best,
>
>
>
> Ray
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