Tire advice
 

I'm looking for suggestions for new tires /tire size on my brz with stock suspension.

My wheels:

Xxr527 8.25/17 +35

I looked through half the pages of the xxr thread and it's really hard to judge by pictures and it seems that most people in that thread run 18" wheels.

I'm looking for dedicated summer tires for non track use that will:

Allow for more grip than stock, but doesn't have to be overkill.
The same or better mpg estimates.
No stretch
Rating of 30,000 mile thread life
Road noise similar to stock michelins, or quieter if possible.

I mounted one wheel on the stock michelins and it was waaaay to much stretch for my liking.

So with that said, I'm looking for a 235, maybe 245 with a 40 or 45 sidewall.
My budget is $150 per tire with some wiggle room of completely necessary.

Maybe general sidewall/tire width information if anyone cares to explain, such as the results of increasing one size but decreasing another


Thanks

Your list of requirements will be tough on a couple points: going wider and more grip typically reduces fuel economy. Road noise is also often up on a tire with more grip.

225/45 is an awful nice place to be for the daily grind but I don't know how that would be on 8.25 for you. 235/40 is still good - 235/45 might be getting tall, I think the trend is to a 235/40 - but that's almost equally smaller. It's a tough width - there really aren't even many options that fit, most of them short on fuel economy and treadwear. 245/40 is great, but that's a lot of tire if fuel economy is important.

Tires that perform better than "Grand Touring Summer" in which you find the Michelin Primacy HP don't typically have treadwear warranties. That said, the UTQG rating may be a vague indicator - but could still leave you quite short of 30k. I used to feel lucky to get 3000 miles on a set of 200AA summer tires (previous car)

C

ultimately, no stretch of the tire is most important. To give an example, the stock wheels with stock tires were fine to me.

Fuel economy, I tend to get 30mpg, and would like to stay with 1-2mpg within that range.

I wish i could go 225/45, that would be ideal, I just don't know about the stretch.

I definitely can't go with a tire that will get less than 10,000 miles.

I was looking at michelin super sports for the most part at 235/45

I'm going to be in the same boat here pretty soon. Have a set of 17x8.25 +35 XXR 527. Planning on running stockies on the new wheels until they wear out because I'm cheap. :( Lol dtrop is there any reason in particular why you didn't like the stretch running stock tires on the new wheels? Just looked bad? Or looked unsafe?!

Also how are you planning on taking care of the wheel gap? Can't decide between eibach pro kit or sport lines.

I am also interested. Just bought me a set of xxr 527's 18x8.75 +35 and i'm entirely torn between the stretch for 225's, how unavailable 235's seem to be, and the overkill with the 245's on stock power. Only reason i wouldnt go with the 225's would be because i would like my new wheels not to be scratched up.

235/45 should be ok. I'm running 225/45's (on a 17x7.75" wide rim) - the tires still look small. Another size up can't be that huge a difference I wouldn't think.

Pilot Super Sports are what I went with. They say they're a 30k mile tire but from talking to people, I have my doubts. Maybe depending on your driving style. I'm very impressed by the tires. I only drive my BRZ ~3k mikes/yr, so for me the mileage rating wasn't a huge concern.

There's a $70 rebate going on now for Michelin tires if you buy soon.

PSS is a great tire - I'll be finding a pair for next summer, probably put them on 17x7.5's in 225/45/17.

I'll be wrapping 245 or 255's on the 17x9's, but that'll be an AutoX tire.

On a 17x8 235/40 is the recommended size. -0.8% vs +2.8% for a 235/45 vs stock. Unfortunately, 235 seems a miserable size to shop for.

245/40 Michelin Pilot Super Sports world fit the bill perfectly and are on special at Tirerack for $168 each plus a $70 gift card. The 245/40 will also have the same overall height as the stock 215/45 so your speedometer will remain accurate. I ran these on my 135i and they are very civilized with lots of wet and dry grip. They are also quiet and have a 30,000 mile tread life warranty. There's a ton of reviews on Tirerack for more thorough research.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....SSXL&tab=Sizes

The stock tires on my xxr stretched too much where I felt like it could be unsafe, and it looked awful. Right now, I don't care about wheel gap.

Going from a 215 to a 245, how much less MPG should I see? I know that's extremely hard to calculate in any circumstance.

Primacy tires are supposed to be good for about 2mpg increase - so you'll lose that plus another 2mpg or so figure, so expect 3-4mpg loss. But maybe someone who put larger tires on can give real world numbers.

well that's disappointing :( but I guess that's life.

245/40/17 MPSS. Perfect size. I'm still getting 30+ mpg.

Cool. So I'm still leaning towards the mss, how about other tire brands.

If mss is my best option, what about something a little cheaper?

Sumitomo HTRZIII. More grip than stock, but quieter and more comfortable than most "Extreme Performance" category tires (RS3, NT05, Rival, etc.) I've got a set for street use. When I swap back from my track tires, I'm always surprised how quiet and soft these are in comparison. They are also dirt cheap, around $80-90/tire. They don't have the best track durability (chunking, greasy with heat), but in normal street driving, I think you could easily get 25k miles out of them. I haven't noticed a difference in fuel economy with these.

A 225/45/17 Mich PSS will be fine for that size wheel. They run very wide. The tread with on that tire is 8.2" wide.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

^Click on specs^

A 225/45/17 Mich PSS will be fine in that size wheel. They run very wide. The tread with on that tire 8.2".

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

according to that, 225/45 can accommodate up to a 8.5" wheel. Does that mean after 8.5 it starts stretching?

unless you want the look of a fatter tire, i would suggest the 225/45. its cheaper and will have more than enough grip. i run a 205 rs3 on a 16x7" and have more grip than most would imagine. some guys stateside have put down some smoking fast times on 225s.

I want a tire size that doesn't stretch, that is most important.

Well the PSS in a 225 on an 8.25" wide wheel will sit square and wont have any stretch at all. On a 8.5" wheel it might have a tiny bit of stretch but it wouldn't be very noticeable.

I run a 245/40 MPSS on a 17x9 wheel and its only slightly stretched, on a 8.25 i'd try to find a 235 but you could run a 225 wide tire. You won't be able to find a tire that gets you better MPG than the stock primacies because they're Low rolling resistance tires. they're already engineered to give you better MPG than most tires. I used to average over 30mpg on the primacy, i'm down to around 27-28 on the wider super sports.

Well if you look it up, a 245/40/17 PSS is only a 8.5" wide tire. Thats why you have a slight stretch.

The 225/45/17 is 8.2" wide and will have no stretch on a 8.25" wide wheel.

He could go 235, but that will be more money and probably more tire than he needs.

I appreciate all the responses, they have been very helpful and it seems like 225/45 will be okay.

Are mss overkill for daily driving? I would like to think I drive aggressively during spring/summer /fall but I won't be tracking the car.

Not at all. I have had them on my other car for quite a few years now (which I daily drove before I bought my FRS) and they are quiet, comfortable, supply a lot of grip, and the tread wear has been great for me.

I will be getting them for my new set of wheels for my FRS next year too in that same size.

absolutely not, you want that amazing dry and wet grip for daily use and while they're good enough for the track, they aren't a track tire :)