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Replacing the tires on your car as they wear out is a necessity of car ownership. What type of tires to put on a TR6 seems to be a common question among TR6 owners. This page is intended to provide some information, both statistical, and anecdotal, to help guide you in deciding what tires are right for you and your car.
Below is a recent account of this issue, recounted by Bob Lang:
First, I'm assuming that you have stock steel disc rims. If you have wires or Mags, you might have different choices.
Redlines: There are apparently three sources for red-lines. Michelin, Avon and Commander. They are are 185/80-15 tires. The Michelins requires tubes, I don't know about the others. Bottom line: Michelins are roughly $220 per corner. That's a lot. The Avons were pricey too, and the Commanders were around $100 each, but they are only "s" speed rated. You can find dealers for these listed in Hemmings.
Others: The 80 series tires are pretty much passe' if you're into driving. However, the 185/80-15 tire was used quite a bit by British cars. Thus, there are some equivalent tires available from any of the tire manufacturers. The only problem that I saw was that a lot of the offerings in the "correct" size are white-walls... too tacky IMHO for a TR6. (Of course, whitewalls can be mounted with the black side out.)
At any rate, I bought a set of Michelin XGT4 tires in the 215/70-15 size. These tires work out to be less than 1% larger overall diameter than the original. I have driven quite a bit on them already this year (over 1000 miles so far) and they are pretty nice. I paid roughly $91 each installed. And if I have a tire problem almost anywhere in the US, I can get one new tire from the any local Michelin dealer. That's a plus for me, because I drive a lot of long- distance runs with my car.
Now, I had a set of Pirelli P5 215VR70-15's on the Six last year, and those are really cool, but they cost >$160 per tire. The ones I had were used, theyworked for a season, but I would not recommend used tires. It costs too much to keep installing and balancing them.
I would stay away from the 205/70-15 or shorter profiles (like 60 series) unless you don't care about how accurate your speedometer is. If you're into autox you might want the 205/70 because they are roughly 2% smaller diameter. If you have TR250 4 inch wires, this is the biggest tire that they recommend.
Whatever you decide, good luck. -- rml
p.s. when you get the tires mounted, try to get them to use the MAG machine, not the regular unit. If they have to use the regular machine, have them mount from the inside of the rim, not the outside. If they try to mount the "normal" way, they might bend your rims!!!!
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