It's time to replace my wwwwell aged tires and I am having trouble finding the same size rubber again. Currently running with 205/60r14 on an '85 GSL-SE and I wish to keep the OEM stock rims. Does anyone have suggestions on a tire company that still produces a quality tire (preferably no Chinese rubber) in 14 inch? Would the 215/60r14 or 195/60r14 be an option as Tire Rack carries these sizes?

 

I searched all of the usual sites, to include Amazon and Walmart and there are zero options for anything other than cheap Chinese tires. I went as far as looking at cokertire.com and they offered nothing in that size. Absolutely baffling. I'm restoring an 84 GSL-SE and this is a bridge that I will have to cross at some point as well.

 

when i need tires, i just input the tire size i'm looking for into google. 215 may be ok on the rear but might scrub during turns or hard cornering.

205/60
https://www.google.com/search?q=205/...&bih=732&dpr=1

215/60
https://www.google.com/search?q=215/...&bih=732&dpr=1

195/60
https://www.google.com/search?q=195/...&bih=732&dpr=1

 

195 is a better fit on the wheel than a 205

 

Try

195/60R14 86H General Altimax RT43 BW

or

195/60R14 86T Hankook Kinergy ST BW

hope that helps

 

What's nice about that is that the 195 is only 10mm narrower and you will likely never know the difference by looking at the tire. Handling shouldn't be affected much at all either. I say that's a win!

 

I was in the same situation with my 85 GSL-SE last year and went with the 195/60 R14 General Altimax RT43. They handle and ride well.

 

This.

205 is wide for a 5.5" wheel. It is better suited a 7" wide wheel.

195 should actually perform bettter.

 

We have options now but I am seeing a trend among all my old cars of tires being NLA. Thank god 195's work because thats all that fits . Cheap china rubber is IMO dangerous . My pops bought some china express tires for 50$ each off amazon for our corola and that car felt like it was about to loose grip going 50 mph plus in a straight line . I was genuinley scared to drive that car above 45 mph.

 

I gave up. Went to 15" rims and tires that come out to the exact same overall dimensions. I have the GSL-SE OEM rims in the attic and may go ahead and have them restored - but honestly I don't expect we will be able to get 14" sport tires in the future. Nothing like my Yokohama S Drives.

 

Falken makes their RT615K and RT660 in 195/60-14 but those are a little extreme. It's either those or all-seasons, nothing like a summer sport tire in between.

 

I have been running the General Altimax for many years. They are light enough and soft enough to work well with the FB RX7.

 

Most new cars today are all coming with 18"-19" tires, so the same thing will happen to the 15" size tires that happened to the 14" tires in a few years. I went to 15" on my GSL-SE several years ago because everytime I searched for 14" tires all I really found were trailer tires at the time.

 

Not for a 60 series tire. 215/60 is fine on a 6", and I used to run 245/60s on 6" rims with little difficulty and they weren't particularly pinched.

 

Back in the day, 205 was the most rubber you could fit on a 5.5in wide wheel but it needed to be a 60 series to prevent rubbing. We used to run that size in autox back then. More contact patch is always better.

 

my friends and i had a miata race car, and due to the class rules we tried a bunch of different setups.
the short version is that 205/50/15 on a 15x8 was better than a 205/50/15 on a 15x7
and then 205/50/15 on a 15x9 was better than that

we did run a 225 but i'm not sure what wheel, either 15x7 or 15x8. it was the fastest, but only just

 

For a given TIRE SIZE, wider wheels are better.

For a given WHEEL SIZE, wider tires work better.

This is if you are chasing an extra tenth at autocross. If you are considering 60-series allseason anything, it makes effectively zero difference.

15" wheels drive horribly on 1st gens, IMO, and it's a shame that good 14" rubber is basically gone...