Did a long high speed tour with the Ferrari Club thru central Texas Hill Country last weekend. My tires are gone, like I'm on ice. Original sizes are 215/50/17 x 255/45/17. 215's are no longer available. Tire rack has 225/45/17 x 255/45/17 in Bridgestone S001 Run Flats. Has anyone tried these tires? Will they mount up on standard 348 rims?
My buddy has runflats on his c6 z06 vette and they are pretty good. I rode with him at a recent track day and they worked well. z06 vette is about the same weight as a 348/355 but with a ton more power. He was thinking they would be bad but was pleasantly surprised. The only issue on an older car is that you won't know if one is flat, pretty much all cars equipped with them have tire pressure monitoring systems so you'll know if one is going low. On a 348, you'd have to always check the pressure as otherwise you would never know one had a problem.
Continental Extreme Contact DW are available in stock sizes. They are very good tires, particularly in the wet. I ran them at a recent (same as the above z06) track day on my 355 and was very happy with them.
Good feed back guys. I'd really love to have a better tire but the only other choices are crap and more crap. I've even been thinking of selling them and installing 360 rims like I did on my 308QVGTB Euro because 18" S02's rock but the rear sticks out a bit for my taste from pics I've seen here on FChat and my car's ride height. However, I think its time to mount them up and do some measuring for myself and see if there are any mods I can make to get them back inside the wheel well. I don't know about the weight if it is significant that is a big issue for me.....unsprung weight. I can feel 1 psi difference in tires, so not worried about it going flat and not knowing..........sorry just years and years of track miles under my butt as well as test driving cars out of the shop. Ask my guys, they will tell you I can feel it. I check my tire pressures every time I drive it.....you should too ;-)
You might also check into 355 wheels or those for a 348 Challenge (though the latter are pricey). The 355 wheels look great on the car, fit perfectly and will give you a lot more tire options.
just found out the S001 run flats are 3 lbs LESS than RE760 SP However, going through the back door at Tire Rack, I just bought the last set of RE-11 in 225/45/17 and 255/40/17 both 25" tall. They have killer looking tread block and good wear rating it seems. Original OE Bridgestones the car was designed around had rolling circumference with static load of 24.4 and 24.8, so pretty damn close. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hear ya for sure.....but not a fan of the 355 wheels. I like the 360 wheels way better if I'm going to spend the money. Just floats my boat. I figured out how to put the rears of the 360 on a 308 long ago with some clever tricks where most folks at the time put only fronts on the rear. The thing loves 18" shoes on it, handles like its on rails. For now, going to keep the 348 stock......I still have my baby GTO looking euro QV and it gets special treatment like Moton Dbl adjustables which sure don't hurt the handling, etc. I love that car, only wish it maybe was incognito like my Grigio Metallic 348. I did install a 360 Becker Ferrari Mexico pro head and disc changer into the 348 so I'm not a total purist. D
Hi, I have 19 inch run flats on my BMW 3 series hard top convertible. Run flats are standard fitment here in the UK for my model but I must tell you that they are terrible when you hit a pot hole or part of a road that has a sudden piece of tarmac missing or even a sunken drain etc. It can feel as though youve hit another car and can be a terrible jolt. I worry about damaging the suspension or even the wheel alignment going out of sync. No problem on smooth roads. As mentioned by others above, you wont know if you have a flat tyre unless you have a tyre pressure monitoring system. I would certainly rather have the conventional non-run flats. I use Continental Contact Sport 3 on 17 inch 348 wheels on my Mondial 3.2 and are great tyres. I certainly dont get a slipped disc in my back if i hit a pot hole with those Cheers.
I'm confused. Tirerack lists 67 215/50r17's and and 173 225/45r17's. Why are you limited to run flats? Is it because that's all they have in a set? Did you check discounttiredirect? They often have better prices than tirerack.
They have 8 or so sets of tires in the factory sizes, more if you look up or down one size. They have the Dunlop Direzza Z2's in similar size to the re-11's and all reviews I've seen show they are superior, but the best deal is the Continentals mentioned above as they are on special right now.
Run flats are designed to work on wheels and cars built for them, regardless of what the Bridgestone press says. Most enthusiasts in the BMW club trade them out ASAP for conventional tires. You can buy used sets on eBay. I cannot see the reason to put run flats on our cars. I can see every reason to upgrade the wheels to 18" or better to access more tire options. The stock size is obsolete and tire package options are not good. I had a combination of Yokohamas once - different models to get the sizes - and Bridgestones - again different models. Made no sense.
Like peterdavid911 above I also use Continental Sport Contacts, but on a 348 in my case. Great tyre as far as I'm concerned. The roads in my parts aren't great but the contis have a rounder cross section than some tyres you can get. They seem to be less prone to tramlining than some 'sharper' cross-sectional tyres, I guess becasue the slightly rounder cross section helps them to ride the bumps a bit better at the tyre edges. Not sure if my reasoning is correct but the outcome certainly seems to be and while I'm sure there are better track tyres out there when you want maximum 'bite', the Conti Sport Contacts I've got are a good compromise for the road, particularly if they aren't great roads.
Yes, there are a bunch of tires but I'm just picky. Only install Bridgestone or Michelins usually on the cars we service if at all possible with some default to Pirelli.
