308 tires 205/70 14 best replacement

I am looking for replacement tires for my 79 308 GTB the highest speed rating I can find is
Nankang CX668 they are "H" rated. Has anyone tried this tire and if not please send me a suggested tire if you have found one that is respectable.

I want to keep the stock rims so really want to stay with a 14"

I would prefere not to shell out the $500 per tire to buy the repo originals.

 

Coker list a Vredestein

 

I have the Vredestein's on my car. They're the "Sprint Classic". In the correct size and speed rating (205/70VR-14). I'm very pleased with them. Roughly half the cost of XWX's (I paid approx $260 Cdn/ea. from a Canadian supplier).

 

FULDA by Goodyear in Germany.......

They drop them over my house, from the Blimp...

 

I got some Sumimoto HTR 200's from Tirerack back in February. 205/70R14, H(130 mph) speed rates. $60 each. Tirerack no longer lists them but they are still on the Sumimoto site. Work good for me at a reasonable price. Here is the brochure:

http://www.sumitomotire.com/assets/products/performance/htr200_sm.pdf

 

I have one perfect, NEVER ON GROUND 1975 XWX Michelin on rim. Never out of spare well. For the obsessive restorer. Deal must include your good used 6 1/2 x 14, 5-star Campagnolo. Other surplus parts also due to repower.
John Ft. Lauderdale
954-732-1917

 

I got the Sumitomo's several years ago and they work fine. I don't drive the car over 130 so the "H" rating is NBD to me.

 

Did you get the Nankang CX668, I to am looking to fit them on, Im not going to be do 130 mile per hour, but I do want good grip, (in mostly dry)

 

La nostra offerta per 205/70 R14 V Pneumatici estivi - gommadiretto.it

you can have even the W index and the Michelin XWX

Compra pneumatici online – gommadiretto.it

ciao

 

They stopped making the sumo tire. The XWX tire is worth it. They look great on the car and drive great.

 

I'm using Vredestein Sprint Classic 205/70 R14 95V for my 308 and i can confirm it s a very good choice and the price is actually 275 €/piece !
Maxxis MA P1 205/70 R14 95V is another possibily for 148€/piece !! See: Pneus en ligne @ pneusonline.be: pneu pas cher - pneus auto, 4x4 et pneus discount

Cheers,
Frederic

 

Sumitomo own Falken who do an H rated 205/70 14 in Europe. About £55-60 per corner.

 

Hi- although I have a 328, I understood that the stock rims on the 308's were an unusual size, like 14.5" or so which means they only fitted the Michelin XWX tires, very, very expensive. Is that what's on your car, or are the rims a more normal actual 14" that take normal tires? Anyway if I had a 308 with the strange rims the very first thing I'd do would be to get a set of the later 16" rims- 7" front, 8" rear- as fitted to the 328 and so on, so normal, readily available,and reasonably priced tires could be fitted. There are lots of brands available in the right sizes for the car, far less expensive than the XWX tires, and better performing as well. ???

Cheers, Rich

 

The XWX is NOT WORTH $500.00 per tire! It is an old tire made to 70s vintage specs. Unless you plan to enter some type of Concours completion the Vredestein Spring Classic is a modern materials, V rated radial that works brilliantly in the rain. There are tire stores in Maryland that can get the tire in stock with a few days notice and they sometimes even run specials.
Frankly, if you live in the US a good brand named H rated tire should be just fine even for very spirited driving. Most 308 type cars really won't do 145 anymore (maybe a perfectly tune QV) and besides where are you going to do it?
With about a four mile run of straight road my freshly tuned and serviced gt4 was showing 134-136 on the GPS and there wasn't anything left, the car had "hit the wall".

 

When I bought my 308 it needed new tyres (it seemed to be on the original XWXs dating back to 1979 - the sidewalls were all cracked) - after much deliberating & discussion with UK specialists I bit the bullet & fitted new XWXs from Longstone & they transformed the car! I've fitted Vredesteins to many Alfas & I'm sure they would have been fine, but the advice I was given was 'originality is key'.... (& presumably the new XWXs are made in a modern compound?)
One other thought - I've always worried that fitting a lower speed rating tyre might just give an insurance company a get-out clause should the worst happen & a claim be made.....

 

Names of these stores? I could not find a dealer that carried them - at any price.

 

I asked exactly this on here but got my head severely bitten off for daring to query it. We still don't know & these low volume boots don't have to go through the same speed certifications.

I'd have thought your insurer would have no problem with an H rated tyre since it's well within legal road speeds and the capabilities of the car. Insurers are there to serve you on doubts like this, just call them & ask.

 

I ordered mine through Radial Tire Company on Brookville Rd in Silver Spring Maryland. Took them a couple of days to get all four in stock but went up there had the new Vredesteins mounted, bought a BCT as a spare, did a little sight seeing, visited family and had dinner in old local seafood place... Great trip! Used one of those trailer hitch mounted platforms to carry the tires so we didn't loose any interior space.

 

Interesting. I actually bought my current tires from Radial Tire. I guess I got someone that didn't want to work too hard that day. Regardless, I am OK with the non-V rated tires on the 14" rim. I have 16" I will put on after the suspension rebuild and get better tires.

 

JohnFtl - I have four older-style Ferrari Cromodoras, but the spare is a 5-star. It wasn't on my to-do list yet, but I'll be looking for the matching spare down the road. Is your XWX mounted on a 5-star (like-for-like swap) or the older Dino-style wheel?

 

Rich, you really need to reject your information sources - this is another time where your understanding is very wrong.

Early 308s were always 14" wheels, and the XWX was always a traditional 14" size. In around 1980, Ferrari started offering the new Michelin TRX tires, with a different bead profile that was incompatible with traditional tire beads. To ensure that nobody could fit regular tires on a TRX wheel (or a TRX tire on a traditional JJ bead wheel), Michelin produced the TRX tires in metric diameter sizes like 365mm and 390mm. The corresponding metric 365mm and 390mm wheels are what you seem to be referring to. Ferrari offered the TRX wheels/tires from around 1980 through 1983, and also offered regular 16" staggered wheels as an option - at that time, with Goodyear or Pirelli options on most of those 16" optional wheels).

 

Indeed true, and optional regular 16" were available from 77, listed in Parts Catalogue 145/77.
Metric fun started with injected cars.

H

 

I was looking at a set of XWX's ($400 @ Coker) Vredestein's ($275). I then looked at Tire Rack and found the Michelin Defender. It is only T rated (but seriously, how often do you take your 308 over 120 MPH?) for $404 for a st of 4! ($126 each installed at Tire Barn). They score very high on the Tire Rack tests for "spirited driving". Has anyone used them?

George

 

No matter how bad on the road they are they'd work for concours purposes.

 

That's actually not true, the XWX is updated and is manufactured with modern compounds. You can follow another tyre discussion here to see how it has been updated:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/308-328/471927-14inch-wheels-v-16inch-early-308-a.html