328 tyre choice

I know you're new here, so let me suggest that you search the archives -- this has been covered a lot for 308s and 328s, as well as newer models. Lots of differing personal opinions.

I personally use Yokohomas on mine. Great performance for the dollar for street both dry and rain (and occasional track).

A common thing to do is also to "upsize" the tires on stock rims... put 245-45x16's on the rear, and put 225-50's on the fronts. I've done that too, and it handles much better than stock.

 

I like the P Zero Corsa's but they don't come in 16's. So I'm going to order some Yokohama A032R's in the bigger sizes Mike talks about. These are streetable track tires though. I also have B-Stone S-03 Pole Positions on the BMW and they are great street tires as well.

Dave

 

Mike,

Was the car heavier to steer when stopped after the upsize? I put larger tires on a 328 and didn't notice any difference, but I'm told it varies from car to car. The 308 gets new tires next week and I haven't decided which size to use.

 

I didn't notice any heaviness except if you're trying to turn the steering wheel without the car moving, or you're trying to turn at 5mph or less, but even then it's not much of a difference from stock. However, when driving the car aggressively through turns, like at the track, it is a NOTICEABLE improvement in handling. I did the upsizing on the rears first since I too had been concerned about heavy steering. I did the fronts about a year later, and it made as much -- or more -- of a handling improvement than the rears did... very noticeably able to take the car faster when pushing hard through turns.

 

I have Bridgestone S03's on my 89 GTB. They are quiet with a compliant ride and especially highly rated in wet conditions. I have also used them on the track quite a bit with no problems though some other brands may be better for that application. My rears are about done with 8K miles but that includes several track events. I would not bother with oversize. You will increase unsprung weight, steering effort and your wheel wells will get more chips.

Dave

 

With my 328 GTS I switched from Goodyear to new Michelin Pilot Sport, stock size.
They offer grip enough under dry conditions (wasn't driving in the rain).
You can hear a nice acoustic feedback (whining) in fast corners when you're reaching the limit. Noisy but sporty

go for them

cinque

 

I installed 245 rear and 225 fronts with bridgetones and i am completely unhappy.
1.Visually its no good.Looks like a fat donut on a small rim,totally throughs the proportion off.Looks older,more like a 308 or dino.
2. Even worse is the performance.Im not an expert but you can almost feel the tire pushing to either side of the wheel around the corners.The rear end wants to control the car and the front is just along for the ride.At high speeds the car was all over the place. I played with pressure from 44 back 42 fronts down to 34/32 and corrected the high speed and only slightly improved cornering.Completely unbalanced the car and is overworking the suspension.If you do this i would recomend buying properly matched wheels.
3.Keep in mind I have a 87 gts(5400mi) that just had the original nct's taken off,who would have thought it would be worse.
4.Leason learned,people with more knowledge than me designed this cars handling package to be almost perfectly balanced.Tires mean nothing without the entire car ready to handle it.

 

Maybe it's related as much as to the type of tire as the size. Dunno... There's a first time for everthing... you're the first person I've talked to or seen commenting here on FChat that didn't like the results of "upsizing" on a 308 or 328.

 

I'm suprised as well. I have never heard anyone not like the change. Did you have an alignment performed as well? It could very well be an alignment issue, and the wider tires would exacerbate the problem.

I upsized on my 308 and like it. It had a bit more effort in the parking lot, but under normal conditions, no problem. Perhaps it followed the ruts in the highway a bit more....that's all.

 

I picked up the car after the mounting with a friend and i let him drive it home and he had the same opinion as me.It does track fair now but all of the other problems are the same.The car was perfect before this.I looked and drove 5 before i bought this one 3 years ago.I have been around performance cars a while and it just not as good as it was before.Not a huge deal but in my opinion it was better balanced before.I would assume during the developement of this car the factory tried many dimensions and chose the best one.Does anyone agree its too much sidewall for the wheel.There seems to be no where for all that extra rubber to go.
I am going to swap out the backs and go back to the stock dimensions.It was a more predictable and enjoyable car before.I do think I made a minor mistake.

 

For those of you who have changed aspect ratio's on your 328's (205/55 --> 225/50 & 225/50 -->245/45) have you noticed any issues with speedometer accuracy?

kevin
Saratoga NY
'87-328GTS

 

If you go to a larger tire size you must decrease the aspect ratio in order to keep the tire diameter the same. Otherwise, your speedo will be off and the handling characteristics of the car will be detrimentally affected.

 

None, the diameters are very close.

 

All weather tires check out Pirelli PZero Nero M&S (there is a dry version).
Very good rating at www.tirerack.com. Have one on mine and very good so far.

 

We've just been thru this decision making process and we're going to replace the worn out Kumho 711s currently on the car with Bridgestone SO1s. Our tyre guy recommended SO1s over SO2s or SO3s because of the construction of the tyre, durability, heating characteristics, tread movement and the tread patterns. We're sticking with the stock tyre sizes for now because we figure that Ferrari have a much greater R&D budget than we have so they probably know more about the best tyre sizes than we do. I'm not saying upsizing tyres is wrong, but we'll just stick with stock sizes for now until we get more used to car.

With all new tyres you get "tread walk" (that unsettling squidgy feeling as the tyre carcass moves relative to the tread in contact with the road). Some of the comments about the behaviour of new tyres (particularly after upsizing) may be due to the change from an old, worn tyre with short tread blocks and little or no tread walk to a brand new tyre with tall tread blocks and lots of tread walk. Brand new tyres still have moulding nipples and mould release compound on them so they tend to be a bit slippery until they've scrubbed in a bit.

Steve