Tires

[Jerry Eads]

Yup, this has sure been covered.  BUT, most of us, including the crotchety
old codgers (I think I get to count myself as one of them at 59) love to
bore others with our opinions.
  I broke from the pack.  The recommendations I DID follow were (1) stay
with a tire diameter same as stock lest you effectively change your gear
ratio - bigger is slower, and (2) stay within a 35-40mm offset.
  I understood that most folks who own these cars own them first because
they're cheap. Not all of us can go out and buy German phallic symbols
costing twice the price of my first house to feed our egos. I'm in that
boat. But DAMN they're fun cars.
  Almost EVERYBODY finds a set of 15's off the '95 cars. They're nice, but
they're also 6", as I remember, and a tad heavy.  The rest with a bit more $
go buy a cheap rim like everybody else, and every SE-R or NX you see has the
same 4-5 rims.  Some of the rims folks mention are really good stuff, but
others tend to be, well, inexpensive and hence are prone to break.The other
thing everybody else does is buy cheap soft rubber tires that are goners in
10k miles.  They spend $200 every 10k miles.  The math is not all that hard
to figure out that you COULD spend $600 on a set that lasted 30k miles - - -
  Thankfully, I have a few bucks to play, so I went here: I went outside the
SE-R knowledge base box and started talking to all sorts of folks, including
racers (I crew for a Lola on weekends during SCCA season), wheel dealers and
tire dealers.  Having wrenched for a living and owned my own shop in a past
life, I learned a long time ago I learn a lot from people who have already
made a lot of mistakes.  Most of the folks (not all) here and on other SE-R
sites have had one or two tires on one wheel.  They (just like me) have only
made a few mistakes in this arena.  A much longer story short, I landed on
16x7" 37mm offset OZ Superleggeras with 205/40 Bridgestone Potenza RE950s.
Why?  Many people from many walks said the OZ wheels (a) were VERY tough,
(b) were relatively light (they are).  (c) SE-R guys don't use 'em, so I get
to be different.  I wanted a fairly sticky but DAMNED good rain tire that
would go 30-40k. Why not 17"? Can't make a low enuff profile tire to stay
with stock diameter. It'd be too stiff anyway.  I MIGHT have done 15's, but
B'stone doesn't make the right size.  And I wanted less sidewall flex for
sharper turn-in.  So far, at maybe 5-6k miles, seems like a pretty good
choice.  Have not auto-x'd yet on them, but while they're a bit skittish
when cold, they hold on well enough (which is to say, very well) and they
talk to you VERY nicely when they're starting to come loose. They way the
car is set up (Hypercos, AGXs, Progress bars f/r and the usual f&rstb's) she
actually will give me a bit of final oversteer at speed, altho on auto-x
type hairpins it would still plow.
  More than anybody wanted, but it's Sunday aft and I'm trying to get out of
going to the gym - -
Ciao.
Jer