Chart of available tires

jwmelvin · 30 August 2013

Tire selection seems to be constantly discussed. I have a '97 and put together this chart on Google Drive of all the available tires for three different wheel sizes. Hopefully it helps someone else who is looking for tire options. I posted an inquiry regarding my intended strategy here on prime but seem to have missed the mark as I got no replies.

A couple of things to note: all info is from tirerack.com unless a certain tire is available only from discounttiredirect.com, in which case the info comes from there. I went with generally accepted tire sizes other than for the winter tires, where that doesn't work so I bumped up the aspect ratios. While this may cause rubbing under certain conditions, I don't see the alternative if one really wants winter tires (I'm personally undecided between that and all-seasons). I have included 205 front w/ 255 rear even though that may be suboptimal; sometimes it is the only available combo for a particular tire (like NT-01's).

I welcome any feedback and I'm happy to add 15/16 tires if someone compiles the info for me.

Best,
Jason

JD Cross · 30 August 2013

Lovely work, thanks.
May I assume these are all Z rated tires?

jwmelvin · 30 August 2013

JD Cross said:
May I assume these are all Z rated tires?

Most are Z-rated. Since you asked, I have now added the speed rating to all the tires. The winter tires have lower ratings, as does one of the all-seasons and one of the summer tires.

nsxtasy · 30 August 2013

jwmelvin said:
I posted an inquiry regarding my intended strategy here on prime but seem to have missed the mark as I got no replies.

Sorry, I would have answered but for whatever reason I must have overlooked your inquiry. I just posted a reply there. Hope it's helpful.

jwmelvin said:
Most are Z-rated. Since you asked, I have now added the speed rating to all the tires. The winter tires have lower ratings, as does one of the all-seasons and one of the summer tires.

The NSX was originally supplied with Z-rated tires, good for sustained speeds in excess of 149 mph. So it doesn't really matter as long as you're getting tires with speed ratings of Z, V (149), W (168), or Y (186). I would not recommend any lower speed ratings than those four ratings for summer tires. All-seasons and winter tires might not be available with those ratings, so if you put those on your NSX, just don't drive at sustained speeds in excess of their speed ratings.

jwmelvin · 30 August 2013

nsxtasy said:
Sorry, I would have answered but for whatever reason I must have overlooked your inquiry. I just posted a reply there. Hope it's helpful.

Very helpful, thank you.

nsxtasy said:
So it doesn't really matter as long as you're getting tires with speed ratings of Z, V (149), W (168), or Y (186). I would not recommend any lower speed ratings than those four ratings for summer tires. All-seasons and winter tires might not be available with those ratings, so if you put those on your NSX, just don't drive at sustained speeds in excess of their speed ratings.

I didn't figure it was too important so that's why I didn't originally include it. It seems like tracking the car is the only thing that would call a tire's speed rating into question, at least for the tires that will even fit on an NSX. But hopefully someone finds it useful.

Best,
Jason

vivanshah · 1 September 2013

thanks, very useful overview!

ralph cerbone · 2 September 2013

you missed the Hankook ventus RS3 , excellant tire

nsxtasy · 7 September 2013

ralph cerbone said:
you missed the Hankook ventus RS3 , excellant tire

It's not available in any size to fit the NSX front.

bngl3rt · 26 March 2014

nsxtasy said:
It's not available in any size to fit the NSX front.

Looks like the version 2 will be available in 205/45R16:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireS...=20&pagenum=1&pagemark=1&manufacturer=Hankook

- - - Updated - - -

Here is the product page for the R-S3 V2:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Hankook&tireModel=Ventus+R-S3+%28Version+2%29

I see 205-45-16 and 245-40-17. It appears we are in business! Excited to try out this tire for the summer track season, have heard great things.

jwmelvin · 26 March 2014

Sweet, thanks for the update. I have added them to the chart. I also added a couple of other tires/sizes. I was planning to go with the Dunlop ZII for my OEM wheels, in 225 front and 255 rear, but this is another good option. I know 225 may rub at full lock so this would avoid that.

jmarksnsx · 30 March 2014

Great info. Thanks.

blue_myriddn · 23 April 2014

very useful chart, thanks!

FF Drifter · 23 April 2014

Great chart; apparently there ARE winter tires in my size!

jwmelvin · 23 April 2014

For winter tires, I had to use the oversized sidewall but it worked out fine; very minimal full-lock rub with 205/50-16 & 245/44-17.

I find the "sizes" sheet in the linked workbook extremely useful for exploring different tire-size combinations. There is also a "wheels" tab for computing offsets. You probably have to make a copy of my workbook into your own Google account in order to adjust vales, but that is easy to do. Note that tire and wheels sizes must be entered in the format I have used in order for the computation cells to parse them correctly.

jwmelvin · 5 November 2014

I moved my spreadsheet to a new document to take advantage of some of Google's newer features. So please use this going forward. It now includes an alignment calculator (for toe mm-deg conversions) and also has a wheel offset calculator and tire clearance and TCS-ratio calculator. Hope it helps.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...69VkgjBTQ3nYpD-zKhiYwC-4nc/edit#gid=913148580

FF Drifter · 5 November 2014

jwmelvin, have you tried the 215/45-17 for front winter tires? I am concerned about rubbing at that size.

jwmelvin · 5 November 2014

FF Drifter said:
have you tried the 215/45-17 for front winter tires? I am concerned about rubbing at that size.

On my last car, I had 205/50-16, which had minimal rubbing at full lock. It wasn't a problem, but it did seem to be at the edge of acceptable. That size is down 5.75 mm on radial clearance, whereas the 215/45-17 would be down 12.7 mm on radial clearance. I suspect that will make a significant difference, probably rubbing the fan shrouds.

Are you running 17/18? I'm excited to put on the Vredestein 215/40-17 & 265/35-18 that I bought thanks to nsxtasy. I read really good things about them. But looking at Vredestein's website the rear does not appear available. Vulcan Tire may still be able to get them though; the fronts are in stock and the rear says mid-November availability. If you are 17/17, then they have the 255/40-17.

Or are you looking for studless snow/ice tires rather than winter performance tires?

It may make sense to have this discussion in the Winter Tire thread: http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/166685-Winter-Tire-Selection

FF Drifter · 5 November 2014

I'm on 17/18 as well; those Vredestein do look pretty compelling...

JoseJA1979 · 7 November 2014

I can vouch for Vredestein's...they are an excellent bang for the buck tire

Chart of available tires

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