New Tyres

I need new tires for my Speedster, on original Turbo rims.

My local tire pusher recommends Continental SportContact 5 with 185- or 195/45 R17 (I guess they should still be realistic to fit on the rims despite the lower sides) on the front and the original 225/45 R17, as he personally don't like the original Bridgestone Potenzas (which also are discontinued, -the fronts are still available though, but probably with old rubber).

I aim for best grip in wet condition (commuter car in Denmark), so I wonder if a wider front tire should still be ok with the 40% weight on them, or if they will be prone to understeer, especially while wet?

Any thoughts on the Contisport 5 as a first option, or would I be better off with, say, Eagle F1 or others?

Thanks!

Søren

The standard size for the fronts is 175/55/R17 but as you stated, only Bridgestone produce these size tyres. If your car has standard set up, some might say that the car is engineered for that size tyre and therefore that tyre is the correct one to use.

When I bought my old VX (back in 2011),  It had 175/55/R17 Bridgestone's on the front and 225/45/R17 Hankook's on the rear, did the Highland Hoon (in the wet!) and they were excellent.

When I then changed my rims for 7J on the fronts, I went for 195/45/R17 Goodyear Eagle F1's on the front and 225/45/R17 on the rear.

In my experience, the standard set up was better for handling (understeer) as the 195 tyres needed to be slightly stretched to fit on the 7J rim, and I didn't want to push my luck with a 205 tyre.

From my experience, I'd say stick with the original tyre size, but there are plenty on here who run differing set ups.

achilles do 175/55/17r cheap too.