Need help on a nearly impossible find
 

Hey Guys,

Well I'm getting my rims powdercoated and it's time to get a new set of summer tires for them.

The Easy:
Stock '+' Rims, looking for 185/70-13 tires in the "summer performance radial" or at worst "all season performance radial" categories.

The Near Impossible:
I need 'em in white-wall and I have to find a place between Ogdensburg NY and Massena NY (preferably in Ogdensburg) to order them.


Why?

Well for those who've seen my car, you know that I have a rather unique look thanks to the previous owner of my car with '+' rims painted black, but whitewall tires, which give it almost the illusion of larger rims. Especially on a smaller car. Somehow in the past my mum (who owned it for years) or myself managed to find some whitewall summer tires and keep the look going.

I like it, and until I find a set of '83LE rims (which are 14 or 15" IIRC, which I'll powdercoat black witha Polished Lip), I want to keep it up.

I pick up the rims in Ogdensburg in a few weeks (hopefully before the May Meet if all goes well), but I've had trouble sourcing the tires.

The picture seriously does not do the look justice... the rims have had much of the black paint chip off and the tires are at least 4 years old in this pic (they're from before I started my restoration, they had good tread so I used 'em for a seaon).

But hopefully you get the idea of where I'm trying to go

Any help?

Jon

And after attaching the image I realized that the thumbnail would make an *awesome* avatar pic, so I've officially changed my avatar pic for the first time since I joined this forum in May of '02.

Yay!

I hope people will still recognize me!

Jon

Jon if there ARE any 13" w/walls out there I would think they will be _seriously_ crappy performance-wise! We are talking Buick Sedan or Camry type-tires! You are forsaking a lot of sportscar tossability for your "art" ;)
Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

185/70 x 13" whitewalls are going to be hard to find I think, especially between Ogdensburg and Massena, but you should try Tire Rack and Discount Tires or other tire chains first, you might get lucky (maybe even Sears?).

You'd have a bettter chance with raised white letters, I think Goodyear is still making one, they are usually available in the performance formats and they look classy on a 1st generation RX-7:

http://memimage.cardomain.net/member...9/479957_4.jpg
More and higher res pics at: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/479957/2

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

Ray

http://rodandcustommagazine.com/feat...mage_large.jpg
Yes!

http://rodandcustommagazine.com/even..._paso_10_z.jpg
Yes!

https://us.st11.yimg.com/store1.yimg..._1888_54242008
...but white walled tires on a Japanese sportscar?

It's funny how tires, thier looks and opinions have changed over the years. It used to the blackwall tires were the 'cheap' tires, then came the 'sporty' ones with a red stripe, even two, insted of white. Muscle car got the raised white letter, rwl, treatment. Some of the super wide white walls, as pictired above, could be bought as an add on fake to add to cheap tires. during the 'White wal Wars', the more expensive the car, the bigger the white wall, and they were a status symbol.

Croaker (sp) Tire makes reproduction radial tires to match the old oem bias ply tires for restorations and purists.

sorry Jon, but I'd lose the whitewalls. It looks like you got a flat, and haven't had a chance to get the correct tires put back on yet. If nothing else repaint your wheels, or go with some raised white letter tires. I have to agree with everyone else and say that the $15 walmart white wall tires look a little goofy.

I'm powdercoating a set of + wheels for Jon, he hasn't seen the coat in person, just the pics I've sent him. The pics don't even come close to showing what they will look like in the bright sunlight.

Jon, I hate to say this, but the tire and wheel combo will look better with blackwalls and a glossy tire dressing. When you get these wheels out in the sun, have your sunglasses handy.

Hope you got your package today.

alot of normal tires havewhite walls on one side, but very few people mount em that way. I have seen them readily available at NTB and sears. That size tire isn't hard to find, if I can find a 155/75/13 at almost any store, you can get your girls. Good luck.

Either way you slice it you're not going to find good rubber for 13" rims. So until I get my 83LE rims, any old summer tire will do.



Notice how small the white strip is compared to the ones you posted.... I think that if the full "wall" of the tire was white, it'd look goofy.

Black on black on a silver car doesn't look the best. You need something in there to offset all the black. Polished lip does it, but on a 13, the wheels are too small for that.

I dunno....

Jon

Acording to Grassroots Motorsports a few months ago the Sumitomo 13" tires are excellent and inexpensive available from Tirerack. Best performance and value for street use....

If you really want to go with whitewalls ask if they can add the stripe. Some company's can with a machine that revolves the tire, gouges a grove then paints the stripe.

Go old school and find a set that have the red stripe, then you can pin stripe the car to match.

lol, that would work on a tornado grey :)

Alright, fine... I'll give it a try with regular tires :p:

I can't find the Sumitomo at Tire Rack in the stock 13"
Tire Rack List for Stock 13" Tires

what am I missing?

Jon

I found Sumitomo HT200s in many similar sizes, but I want to make sure I can get a size that will fit the rim and *not* change the tire circumference from stock (so that my speedo is accurate)

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Sizes....&model=HTR+200

Jon

Per the the FSM for tire sizes:

175/70HR 13
165 HR 13
T135/70D 13
205/60 VR 14

The 3rd one on the list is the spare, 4th is for the SE's

With all the old tires and wheels I have in the garage, there are a couple other sizes that will fit too. I would go with the 195's, which of course is out of stock. I don't remember if the 205's will fit or not, I have doubts they will, I don't have any that size in the collection.

When you get to the tire store, they will have a chart for each tire that shows revs/mile, that is the determining factor on how far off the speedo will be.

I was serious about the red pin stripe. When I bought the car that became the widebody, it was the dark gray with the brown tint and had a dealer installed red pin stripe. I have seen several different patterns of stripes, but not like this one. It was quite well done and still looked decent for a car that had 216k on the clock.

Now I'm confused. What was the actual size of the stock tires?

165/80-13 according to discounttiredirect.com
185/70-13 according to tirerack.com

And I can't find sumitomo's in either of these.

Jon

You beat me to it! the answer, I guess, is *both* are stock sizes.

Jon

http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

tirerack.com has htr200's in 205/60-13 which would make your spedo 1.3mph fast at 60 mph

I had silver SA and went with the 175's, IMO they looked great.

Well, being a reasonable man, I'm capable of changing any plans given enough reason!

Yesterday I had my mind set on whitewalls in the stock size.

And you guys have convinced me not only to drop the whitewall theme, but to get Sumitomo's and I've managed to convince myself to go with a non-stock size.

Using the tire calculator (I found one here: http://www.1010tires.com/TireSizeCalculator.asp before I saw the miata.net post) I've settled on the 175/70-13 Sumitomo HTR200s

When my speedometer is reading 100km, I'll actually be going 3% slower than that. No problem, I'd rather *think* I'm going faster than the cops clock me, rather than the other way around. And 3% is minimal anyway.

I'll get 'em from Tire Rack, since all the Canadian suppliers charge and arm and a leg, and I'll just ship them to Ogdensburg's UPS Store at the same time as my rims arrive from trochoid :)

Jon

good choice.

Just to throw a wrench in things, I would go wider, i.e. 195/60. It is after all, a sports car, put some meats under it.

But are you sure the 195/60s will fit properly on the '+' rims?
That's 5%.... that's beginning to be quite a bit.

The only other one that's just a 3% difference is the 205/60s, but that's getting *way* wider...

These aren't the wheels/tires I'm using on the final finished car, they're mainly for DD and occasional casual autocross. They're way better than what I'm running now, so I think I'll stick with the 170s

Jon

Gotta go with the 205's Jon. Carl is running 215s in that model and last I heard he was loving them... Just my 2cents. :)

Dude! I have no idea how a 6" wide tire and an 8" wide tire can both fit on the same rim but....

Looks like I've gotta go talk to Carl. I've got RB springs, so that's a half inch drop (not much, but something to keep in mind)... If they fit the rims properly and don't rub, I may be convinced ;)

Jon