Thanks Alan, Bill and Jack for the tire info. Uh, thanks
toTireRack.com too. :)
Original tires (that I had on the car, boy were they shot...)
werePirelli 205VR15 Cinturato HS and Pirelli 205 15 tires.
Jack is running VR205-65 15"
Bill is running 225-70HR 15" BF Goodrich Comp TAs.
TireRack recommended P225/70 HR15 HTR 200 Sumitomos(
On the 205-65s Jack cautioned that "The disadvantage to these tiresis the
fact that you end up lower to the ground and must be extremelyaware of dips and
curbs!"
I ended up going with the 225/70x15 Sumitomo because they matchedBill's Comp TA
size, and because they only cost $50 each! (I don'tplan on doing any Vegas-Reno
high-speed runs in the near future...)
TireRack has a neato "Drop Ship" deal where they ship the tires to atire
installer who has already agreed to work with them. This costme $32 in freight,
and unbelievably the tires arrived in 2 days (outof
I live in
He recommended I get all new tubes and not mess with the existingones. He
suggested Kahn & Keville, the local Goodyear dealer, andthey had them for
only $15/each (Coker wanted $25 each, however readon,
maybe I should have gone with them). The tube number is TP1415M.
The problem with these tubes, as Sal pointed out before hand, is thatthe stem
hole in my Boranni wheels is @.7" which is much larger thanthe new tube's
stem dia. The solution is a small plastic spacer orwasher that fits on the stem
to take up the slack and fill the hole.
It's possible that the tube from Coker Tires (www.coker.com) doesn'tneed this
spacer, I'm not sure, they would know. Their recommendedtube is their number
TR-13 (225/235R14/15 RADIAL) for $25.95. I wasin a hurry so I
went with the Goodyear.
However, since the Goodyear didn't have the spacer I needed to trackit down,
and found it at British Wire Wheel in
All of this went to Waterfront Automobili and Sheldon mounted andbalanced the
tires (beautifully, I might add, thank you Sheldon!) for$35/ea. He saved the
little pieces that fit on and around the oldvalve stems and gave them to me in
a baggie.
Sal was very nice about the whole thing and since it took a couple ofhours we
sat around and talked about the Ferrari 330 GTS and 365 GT2+2 that were being
serviced there. The 330 was getting a rebuiltmotor, which as of this writing is
topping $30k.
As for the actual Sumitomo tires on the 400GT -- hey, did I tell youthey were
only $50/ea? :'D
Obviously, they are an improvement on the road, what with theirmodern
technology and all. They really don't look bad either. Theyhave
the same general profile as the original tires, but a bitbeefier (wider).
Hardly noticable, they don't look out of place.Except the tread pattern is
obviously "modern" and I'm not thrilledwith the look of the tread
where it wraps around to the side. Almostlooks trucklike when the sun hits it
just right.The option, of course, was to go with vastly more expensive tires toget
the original look. Everybody (including Coker) says they can begot
for @$400/each, but I'll let somebody else write that article. Ihave a long way to go before I start doing the concours thing.
I'm really happy with the new tires and the way everything workedout. I'll tell
you about my suspension adventures when I'm done withthem -- I'm close.
Fred
PS:Sal Garcia, Waterfront Automobili,
Jim Judd, British Wire Wheel, 444 Airport Blvd., Suite 114,Watsonville, Ca
95076, 800-732-9866, email:sales@britishwirewheel.com
BTW, Jim recommends