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MG MGF Technical - Tyres

I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but what do people recommend as replacement tyres for their F's?
I've been looking around for replacement tyres that will improve grip, especially in the wet (those backend slides are starting to worry me). Any suggestions of tyres and/or suppliers? An idea of cost would be useful too.

thanks,

Darren.
Darren Sykes

Darren is your car on 15" or 16" wheels?

Rover i believe recommend only Goodyear replacements for the MGF.

However, if you are on 15" the consensus on the BBS seems to be Bridgestone SO2 tyres (now replaced by SO3) with 205s on the back and 195s on the front. I have these and they are a good improvement over the standard Goodyears. Excellent grip wet and dry (especially wet), good ride, not noisy. I think mine cost about £320 12 months ago, they may be available cheaper.

If you have 16" wheels then the SO2s were not made in a suitable replacement size for your wheels, however the SO3s may be, you'll have to check or someone else on here can advise. If you can't get Bridgestones the standard Goodyear F1s are highly rated. However, you may consider fitting 195 F1s to the front as the new Trophy model (better steering feel than on the 215 standard fit front tyres so i read).

(I'd be interested to know if anyone has yet fitted 195 F1s onto the front of a 16" wheeled standard car and if there are indeed any handling advantages on a car with standard ride height. Certainly this is something i'm thinking about doing if i buy myself some 16" alloys when the latest SO2s wear out.)
Paul

Sorry - forgot to mention, I've currently got 15" wheels with Pirelli 6000's all round. I've heard the s03's are good, but people have also mentioned Yokohama (sp?) and Pirelli 7000's?

Darren.
Darren Sykes

Darren, someone posted on here a few days ago that the P7000s are superb. So, your contenders are:
Goodyear F1s (I have these and they are great - 185 front, 205 rear 15")
Bridgestone SO2 (SO3 - I've heard a few mixed reports, some good, some saying they aren't as good as the SO2s)
Pirelli P7000s.

Personally, I would see what the prices of them are and use that to choose, there's really bugger all difference between them, IYAM.

Steve.
Steve Childs

Toyo Proxy's are always being praised for being excellent and cheap. worth considering.

as for 16" and no suitable size for S02s/3s. you can't get the size to match F1s as original, but the 205s more than do the job
Matt

I've just had goodyear f1's fitted all round - what an improvement! Even without being run-in they're so much gripper than my tired (pandon the pun) p6000's. I'd recommend these to anyone, though in combination with the K&N and lots of country roads my fuel consumption's going to suffer!

Darren
Darren Sykes

I have 16". trophy wheels, all have f1's with 195 on them. handle very nicely.

I have been told that I should get 205 on the back but they look a lot nicer!
Ashley

I have 16" 215x40 all round and it does tram-line a bit. Don't know whether having 205 or 195 on the front would help this.

However, they stick to the road like shyte to a blanket!! ;-) and look fantastic, especially after a bit of tyre dressing....


Chris (who really must clean his car this weekend!)
Chris George

Hi,
I have 215/40/16 Goodyear F1's fitted all round seem great to me but I have only ever driven my car with these (Std Equipment as supplied) I have quite often found on other cars that I have owned that the tyre pressures stated in the book don't always give the best wear performance has anyone found a problem with the book pressures with these tyres fitted.

Thanks Paul
Paul

Chris - i ran 205s al round and noticed the tramlining (15"), on the old NCT3s incidentally, but when I switched to F1s I changed the front to 195. Definitely sorts the tramlining out.

And Darren, I agree - the F1s are brilliant, although I can only compare to the NCT3s. Bizzarely they are wearing better too.
Julian

You guys may have an opinion on this, as I said above I have F1s all round, they are all 195, I can sometimes feel that they car seems to drif a bit, could this be because I have small tyres on the back.

Spoke to Andy, SF, he seems to think so and that guyt does know his stuff!
Ashley

>> I can sometimes feel that they car seems to drif a bit <<

Depends what you are doing at the time. If you have your right foot flat on the floor then yes, it probably is because they are 195s. Just change them whenever you have the spare cash - at least you'll then have some spare tyres for when the fronts wear down :)

Steve.
Steve Childs

S02 potenza's are available for 16inch rims and I have run the same on my F for 2 years 205/45X16 all round. They are great!
Lloyd

This thread was discussed between 22/07/2001 and 30/07/2001

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGF Technical BBS is active now.