M3pilot, you nailed it.Quote:
I consider my car to be, first and foremost, a tool for spirited dry-weather driving and maybe an occasional autocross or track day. For me tires are a consumable and there's no point in compromising the drive just to have a tire that merely looks right. That said, I have a limit to what aesthetic compromises I will make - i.e. I have no interest in 17" wheels and 40-series tires on my early car.
I've seen lots of posts on this magnificent forum on how great the Avons are, both aesthetically AND to drive on. I 100% agree about the looks but do they work as tires just as well as the modern alternatives? I'm not looking for the cheapest solution - just the one that fits my purposes.
Many of us have in our minds a vision of how they want their car to look - the stance, the way tires fill the fender wells, the aggressive (or not) way it looks at rest vs moving down the road, etc. I'm no different... there is a "look" that really does it for me... but I'm not made of money, and my car is an ex-race car that is now used for vintage rallies, track days, and spirited driving.... it's not a show car... and to me handling is vastly more important than how it looks. At the end of the day, I'm not necessarily worried about the small differences in "bulge" between 205/60 vs. 185/70 or 195/65. Meaning, I know what the old tires look like, and appreciate the need to stay away from super modern, low-profile tires... but I also always value having tires that grip when you want them to, above tires that look period-correct.
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To me, this car ( 1193000009 ) has about the perfect stance and tire-size for a LWB chassis, and this is essentially the look I'm after. What I don't know are the actual sizes of both wheels and tires on the car. To my eye, it looks like there are 6R's with 195/65's on the front, and 7R's with 225/50's on the back ... but that's just a guess. Can anyone add some definition to this?
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