MG-Cars.info

Welcome to our Site for MG, Triumph and Austin-Healey Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGF Technical - Avon

Re previouse thread on lambda and co2 emmisions.

B&G took car for what they described as a hard run this morning and checked emmisions which were perfect. It seems that mot centre had left car standing for ages before test.

Anyway all that I need now for MOT is a new front tyre.

Currently have Ventus (Japanes which no one has heard of) 195/50, is there any advantage over the standard 185/55?

They are quoting £50 each for Avon ZV1 195/50, I guess I should get new front set rather than just the one failed tyre.

What are the Avon like, could I get better cheaper, I currently have newish 205/50 NCT at rear.

T Graveling

I tried Avon ZV1s last year, they were so bad I took back to the tyre dealers and had them removed!
I recommend Bridgestones, RE720s are about the same price as the ZV1 and are significantly better.
By the way, I prefer 195/50 on the front, gives less understeer and better feeling.
Jason H
Jason H

Warning

Do not fit good front tyres whilst still with NCTs on the back - a recipe for disaster!

The other way round no problems!

Ted
Ted Newman

We've heard alot of conflicting opinions on the ZV1 - some who say (like Jason) that they're terrible, whilst others seem much happier with them.

More people have positive opinions of the ZZ1.

Why the divergence of the opinion with the ZV1 is not entirely clear, but one possibility is mixing the tyres with another brand on the other axle (you should, at the very minimum, replace the two tyres on the same axle at the same time).

As Ted says, if replacing NCT-3s, you are best advised to replace all of them. They are rubbish anyway, so you'll not regret the investment!
Rob Bell

Ted

Surely your not recommending poor tyres at the front are you.

Are the NCT that bad?

I could always get NCT for the front, that way the brands match and assuming that the rear wear faster, replace those with better tyres at a latter date.

What is fitted to the TF’s?
T Graveling

Can anyone recomend tyre preference and rough costs and even suppliers for 195 front tyres?

Which rating of tyre do I need, is it 'v'?
T Graveling

Not reccomending poor tyres on the front just better tyres on the rear.

The MGF is inclined to 'oversteer' as it is, and with grippy tyres up front and worn or NCTs on the rear you will be going around and around in circles!

Ted
Ted Newman

Trouble is the rear NCT are only a few months old and could not possibly stretch to replacing for some time.

I have spoken to e-tyres who recommended having the 185/55 up front, apparently NCT don't come in 195/50.

The alternatives he recommended if I wanted to keep to 195/50 was

Ventures £56.02
Apparently like an F1

Or

NCT-5 £55.81
Like NCT-3, however I thought that you couldn’t mix 3 & 5's

P.S. He said that I could not fit Bridgestone S02 up front as they are a different compound to all other tyres and must go on all 4.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
T Graveling

i have ZV1s all round and don’t seem to have any problem (whenever i have anything done to the car i always go straight out and ‘test’ the handling under hard braking, just to make sure nothing unexpected might happen in an emergency).

however, had i had more money to spend when i got the first 2 (front) i would have gone for the michelin pilots that i had previously. as it is, i got the ZV1s and then a few weeks later thought it wise to stick with them on the rear as well.

having looked at the performance tests etc it seems that there’s not really all that much in it when you look at the ‘branded general purpose tyres’ (unless you are thinking about fitting some eastern bloc remoulds of course). i suppose it depends on what importance you attach to particular features of a given tyre - eg. if you drive at 20mph in the wet you won’t need to worry about water disperal or aquaplaning too much.

t
tony

The problem I had with the ZV1s (fitted all round) were terrible handling at motorway type speeds, depite various ptressures tried, at the time I was not the only F owner to experience this with these tyres and Avon were very quick (to their credit) to accept these tyres back. I suspect that if F owners are no longer having a problem then the construction of these has been subltly altered.
Incidemtally I always use Avon ZV1s on my Rover and am extremely happy with them on the front wheel drive car.
As for not having SO2s on one axle only, I have tried SO2s rear with Goodyears front and did not experience any major problems, other than some serious understeer!
Jason H
Jason H

The only regulation is same format on the same axle although it is sensible to have the same all round and what I would rather do is put the existing rear NCTs on the front - yes I know they are 205s but apart from making the steering a little heavier and possibly 'tram line' a little more it can be done as the wheels are all the same size just the tyres are different.

Then you can put new grippy tyres on the back.

Ted
Ted Newman

<<The problem I had with the ZV1s (fitted all round) were terrible handling at motorway type speeds, depite various ptressures tried, at the time I was not the only F owner to experience this with these tyres and Avon were very quick (to their credit) to accept these tyres back.>>

jason,

can you elaborate on this please - sounds worrying. i haven’t yet tried them out at ‘motorway speeds’.

thanks

t
tony

I replaced my NCT-3's with the Avon ZV1's quite a while ago and I've been really pleased with their peformance, I live in the country so get to use them on the twisties on a daily basis plus I've done about 5000 motorway miles without problem, my one comment would be that the car is extremly sensitive to tyre pressure now, if it's out by more then a couple of psi then the handling gets really bad, however keep the pressure checked every month or so and they've been fine. I did make the change to 205's all round recently (still ZV1's) and have been even more impressed with that set up :-)
James King

Tony,
"jason, can you elaborate on this please" - Well as I said, car became almost uncontrollable, the car was weaving all over the road, requiring large amounts of steering inpout just to keep a straight line. A lot of different tyre pressures were tried, with little success. At the time I was not the only F owner to experience this with ZV1s, and Avon were very quick to accept the tyres back and giive a full refund. As soon as other brand tyres were put on the car handled fine.
This was almost 2 years ago, and since then the F problems with ZV1s seem to have gone away so I suspect it was either a "bad" batch of tyres or the construction has been slightly altered.
(Just in case Avon are reading this - I still use ZV1 on my Rover 220, highly recommended for this application!).
Regards,
Jason H
Jason H

I didn't know that all four wheels are the same, can I really put 205/50 on the front, and is there any benefit or disadvantage?

All the advice has been to have good tyres at the front rather than the other way round.

I am slightly confused however regarding the NCT-3, I remember Top gear and all the magazines raving about the MGF's handling, grip and safety. I also believe these were developed and made specifically for the MGF.

Add to this that all tyre people (I must have spoken to a dozen) either refuse or strongly recommend against having anything but NCT-3. Yet everyone on this BBS don't like NCT-3 and seem to recommend anything else as better.

I am drawn towards having new 195/50 NCT-3 because I can get change out of £100 for a pair fitted.

Would I have any problems with insurance if I have anything but the standard set up, Rover seem to have issued this statement to all tyre suppliers.
T Graveling

Tyres are consumerable items and as long as you replace them with the same (or better) standard then your insurers can not argue. The standard is taken from the tyre rating which is stamped on the side of the tyre and I seem to remember that NCT-3s are 'V' rated SO-2s are 'Z' so far superior.

There was a problem in the early days with tyre shops only wanting to fir NCT-3 tyres but since then MGR have fitted all sorts of tyres as 'Factory Fitted' items so those 'silly' tyre people should not say things like that any more.

The MGF is a rear wheel drive car and being mid engined it is very finely balanced and as a consequence if the rear end starts to break away you will have a difficult job bringing it back in so our advice here on the BBS (and god only knows how many miles/hours ecperience that adds up to) is to make sure that you have the grippiest tyres possible on the rear AND THE NCT-3s ARE NOT THE BEST - better thab some but not the best.

At the end of the day we can only give you the benefit of our joint experiences YOU have to decide what to do.

Ted
Ted Newman

>>I am slightly confused however regarding the NCT-3, I remember Top gear and all the magazines raving about the MGF's handling, grip and safety. I also believe these were developed and made specifically for the MGF.<<

The MGF performs well with NCT-3s. Fact is, that it does even better with better tyres (and MGR have acknowledged this, and have since fitted Goodyear F1 tyres to 16" rims, and Continentals to the TF on 15" rims).
NCT-3s certainly were not developed specifically for the F - they are a generic 'warm/hot' hatch tyre, although there is a specific 'model' of NCT-3 developed for the F.

>>Add to this that all tyre people (I must have spoken to a dozen) either refuse or strongly recommend against having anything but NCT-3. <<

This is partly because of MGR covering its corporate posterior with the 'only fit NCT-3s to MGFs!' statement, and because certain tyres and MGFs do not mix. Remoulds, for example, would be an absolute no-no! However, there are plenty of far superior tyres that have been fitted to the MGF - and this was the reason behind the BBS tyre survey (summarised on http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/tyres.htm - I wonder if it is time for a repeat chaps?)

>>I am drawn towards having new 195/50 NCT-3 because I can get change out of £100 for a pair fitted.<<

Shop around, and you'll probably find that Bridgestone RE720s can be had for similar money - try Micheldever tyres...

>>Would I have any problems with insurance if I have anything but the standard set up, Rover seem to have issued this statement to all tyre suppliers.<<

Nope, for the same reasons that Ted mentions; would your insurance company be interested in whether you fitted Champion rather than Bosch spark plugs? Might be an idea to check with your insurance company if you really wish to put this concern to rest.
Rob Bell

The basic issue with the MGF is that it is more sensitive to changes in characteristics with a change of tyre than other cars are. Hence the manufacturers default position to stand behind just one make and model of tyre, the NCT3. (Note NCT5 is the current Goodyear production NCT tyre and this has different characteristics to the 3)

With the end of production of NCT3 and the drying up of old stocks the default position has had to be eased in line with the use of Continental tyres on TFs with 15" rims. It is also interesting to see reference to Yokohama tyres in the current accessory brochure, but haven't seen (or asked) which.

Rog

Roger Parker

my opinion on the NTC3: they are not bad at all in the dry, they have good reserves of grip BUT:
if they let go (which they only do at high cornering speeds), they do it damn fast and you have to be quick to recover. that's in the dry, in the wet, they are not that good, to say it in a diplomatic way.
i now have pirelli p6000. they are totally different, they let go earlier and in a very controllable manner, especially in the wet. you won't have that high speeds as with the NTC, but you feel much more confortable. on the ring, i was happy not to have the NTC, as i did some driving errors they wouldn't have forgiven!!!!!


regards,
alex

alex

GOODYEAR NCT5s.

Back in August, fitted a set of 195/50/15s to my MG Montego turbo and was NOT impressed with them at first. After about 200 miles, and very recently some wet road experience now ( did not rain in September), I'm pleased with them.

John
John McFeely

Well I now have a new set of Goodyear 195 Ventus (Ithink thats what they are called) up front and the handling and grip is better than the worn NCT-3's I had.

Of course I agreed over the phone with garage that I would have NCT-5's, only noticed an hour latter while having MOT that they fitted Ventus. Quick phone call confirmed that they didn't have any in stock.

Everything is fine now, but a phone call to confirm change of spec would have been nice, what if I didn't want Ventus?
T Graveling

Consider TOYO Proxes (Japanese - 12th largest world manufacturer). Good directional tread. £44 per tyre inc VAT, balancing, valve. Good value, does the job
GJ

<but you feel much more confortable. on the ring,> LOL
Mike
mike

>>Consider TOYO Proxes (Japanese - 12th largest world manufacturer).<<

Wow - they manufacturer whole worlds??? ;o) ;o) ;o)

Sorry - I'll get me coat....
Rob Bell

This thread was discussed between 17/10/2002 and 23/10/2002

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archives. Join the live MG MGF Technical BBS now