Would you want a spare tire in your FR-S?
 

Most of us seem concerned about the weight of this car, and we are always looking to shed anything in excess for the sake of performance. Would you want a spare tire in your FR-S, or would you prefer another alternative to save the extra lbs.? I believe some Porsches have a tire kit and some "goo", but will that suffice for the weight savings?

I'd be willing to bet almost any amount of money that this thread will somehow make it to page 30 and by then we'll be talking about why the AE86 is so awesome (vs others saying its so awful), why the FT86 won't be all it's cracked up to be, how much better this car would be with a turbo, what "lightweight" really means, Will Smith's daughters' terrible songs, and maybe armageddon.


Sell the car with a spare tire, if you don't like it, get rid of it and put a tire repair kit in it's place. My two cents.



I whip my hair back and forth I whip my hair back and forth I whip my hair back and forth I whip my hair back and forth

No thank you.
And say no to fix a flat!

Or maybe people can discuss the topic. :thumbsup:

I'll take a spare. I've had bad experiences with cars that totally shredded the tire to the point where a can of goo would have been laughably pointless. If I really need the weight savings, I can always leave the spare in the truck when I take it to the track.

I heard tire installers will piss on your grave and curse your unborn children if they have to deal with a goo-'fixed' tire/wheel.

I don't care whether it has a spare or not because I'm a lazy fuck that'll call roadside assistance every time. Change a wheel with my own two hands? No siree, if my insurance only charges me $1/month for free roadside assistance.

What I do not want however are runflats. So if it means avoiding those on this car I'll happily have a spare.

Yes, full size even would be the best (AE86 came with a full size, fyi).

You wanna shave weight by removing simplicities save that for the track, or unless you rrreally don't care about getting stuck if something happens.

The policy at the shop I worked at when I changed tires/oil was, if it has fix-a-flat in it, or anything similar, we can not repair the tire. Replace or gtfo.

i would like a spare. i also don't want runflats.

If I'm shaving weight, over the drive wheels is probably not the place I'd start first. And yeah don't use that fix a flat stuff... tire guys hate it and some charge extra to deal with it.

I have a car with no spare. Since getting it I've had about 1 sidewall puncture per year. I hope they at least give us a place for a spare if we want it.

I want this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZGPz80lB-s

I thought a spare tire was a standard issue but a quick google found that these cars don't come with a spare!

Smart Car
Toyota Sienna
BMW M-Series X-Series
Dodge Challenger
Honda Fit
Pontiac G8
Chevy Corvette

Personally if it came with a donut spare and a jack, I would be ok with that. I usually carry a set of tire plugs in my truck and used those several times in the trails.

I'd take a spare if I'm going to be driving for long distances away from my home. (15+miles). If its somewhere close that I'll be going most of the time I'd take it out.

Depends on where you're going tbh.

id keep the spare in the garage when i replace the wheels. I remember i had stock 16in wheels on my S14 and when i switched to 18s....then once i ran a flat on my car...having 18 inch wheels and a single full sized 16 looked bad with the car dipped to a single corner and the car was lowered..soo.....eventually because of this i destroyed that wheel bearing after a short limp back home...

if the spare is a 18 inch wheel ..and i replace the factory wheels with ..lets say 18 inch volks...then maybe i might keep it. Then take it out during track days.

Gotta have a spare. Run-flats handle like crap and way too expensive. Plus im a do-it-yourself kind of guy and I'm not scrapping that fix-a-flat crap of my rim before I put my new tire on. (yes I have a tire changer :P )

I'll gladly forgo a spare tire for a small plug-in air compressor and a patch kit.

I have a hunch that those dissing run-flats haven't driven on the current generation of them [i.e. Continential's ContiProContact SSR and Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D RoF]. They're quite livable, despite the inbred ignorant hatred towards them.

i have AAA so i dont care either way

I personally would forgo the spare and just have a can of fix a flat in the car for the weight reduction.

The genuine fix a flat stuff washes off with water. If you are scraping it or complaining about having a hard time with it then you are either just trying to jack up the price for a customer or are lazy. Grab a garden hose and it washes away. Really. No kidding.

OEM tire fix stuff may not be so easy to deal with though. Go for the good stuff.

+ Mini Cooper S
The regular Cooper has a spare but for the S, the turbo takes up the space the battery normally occupies, so the battery is relocated to the space the spare normally occupies. I think manufacturers use run-flats as an excuse to not provide a spare. I would want a spare (and no run-flats).

Run-flats will ruin the ride quality. I'll gladly take a donut spare and take it out when I want outright performance.

never had a spare in any of my cars in 12+ yrs of driving. have AAA and suprisingly never been had a flat on the road. even in my BMW i replaced the RFTs with non RFTs right away.

no spare please

bcaa here I come

The problem with Fix-a-Flat isn't the fact that it just washes away, but the fact that it gives the illusion of an actually fixed tire. People dump that stuff in and sometimes will drive for days or even weeks before taking the tire in.

That stuff does not inflate the tire enough to provide a proper fix. Most people usually end up destroying an otherwise fixable tire. It's called a heat ring it happens when an underinflated tire is drove on. It just destroys the sidewall. You can't fix that. Very rarely I saw people with fix-a-flat and a compressor do it properly. But that stuff is still nasty.

But others like Slime means it can't be fixed. It coats the inside of the tire so there's no way to attach a patch properly.

So if you're going to use fix-a-flat make sure to get a compressor, otherwise you'll just end up having to buy a Tire anyways.

As for if I want a Spare or not, I could go either way. It's going to be my weekend warrior car. So if something were to happen I could get a Tow and drive my DD around.

Can anyone estimate how much a donut/spare actually weighs? I read in R&T a few years back that every extra 100 lbs. or cargo will decrease your mileage by about 2%, so would omitting the spare really be worth the risk?

I would say about 40-45 lbs with a jack. Not that noticeable for daily driving IMO

I would want a spare.
Especially with how munted the roads are in Chch.
Lots of big pot holes waiting to be repaired. Then it rains and more pot holes apair.

Another one here for a Spare. I'll use a spare tyre over a can of expanding foam any day. If it happens I get another flat, then I've got the can for emergencies too. I'd also rather change a tyre myself rather than wait for my insurance company's roadside assistance to come and help me, which could take anywhere from 30 mins to an hour, depending on where I am.

Spare for me. This car will be a DD for the vast majority of owners. Dare I say over 90% as a guess. Those that want to track can easily take the spare out for race day.

Just curious, what does AAA do if you get a flat and don't have a spare?

GM, and Ford both have high efficiency versions of their compact cars which drop the spare. They also pick up some aerodynamics enhancements too, so it is hard to say what exactly gets them a few mpg.

tow the car to the nearest service station, i guess

next question!

no spare for me thank you!

IIRC, GM now always drops the spare. They charge you like $200 to put it back in. :bonk:

I'd prefer a full size spare.

+1
 

me too!! =)

+2. I'd rather not get stranded on the side of the highway.

i dont really have a choice, it is the law in AUS that a car must come with a spare tire.. there are SOME exceptions, where it is physically impossible and impractical to fit a tire, but MOST cars have to have it

Why a full size spare? Its going to be a pretty small car, I'd want a compact spare. They work perfectly fine for short distances and leave much more room for the trunk / rear suspension / gas tank than a full-width spare.