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MG MGF Technical - Tyres for mgf

Hello,

I need to change tyres on my MGF BRG and I have read on ultimatemg that goodyear gsd3 are not recommanded on this car. Is this still true? I need to change all 4 tyres, does it change anything?

Can somebody tell me wich tyre is at the moment the best choice for my MGF?

Just one thing, I am still french and I have still an unperfect english!!! lol
Titou

Titou,
It's fine, it is a lot better then our french believe me, you just carry on writing.

Tyres are a matter of choice, how much do you want to pay ? Do you want racetrack performance / Do you want more wear ? Wet weather grip ? The list can go on.

It is your choice at the end of the day.

Using previous threads the favourites seem to be Bridgestones or Toyos, great performance, not great on mileage, or do you call it kilometreage ? Slightly more expensive of course, you get what you pay for.

Also recommended were Avon ZV3's reasonable cost, good wear rate and good grip. I went for these last month but took Avon ZZ1's instead, for £45.00 each. They are rotational and have a sidewall protector to prevent damage to the rims, they look great and seem to do the job very well, still too early to really test them, I'll have 1000km's on them by the end of next weekend so I will have more of an opinion.

I have used 205/50x15 all round with no problems.

I'm sure others will give their views as to their favourites so take your pick.

Adrian
Adrian Clifford

Thank you for your answer...

I have heard talking about bridgestone, these tyres seem to be very good but a little bit expansive. But I will look for avon I don't know this tyre but in a French forum one of my friend has tell me thas Cat owner use this tyre because they have a longer life than toyos.
Titou

Titou,
I have been told that as well, Bridgestones seem to be the best, they must be a softer compound, so they wear out much quicker. If you want track performance they are for you, it seems.

If you can have a look at the ZZ1's before you consider, I think they are good, but it is your choice.

If you can't get them in France are you coming to England for any events this year ?

Adrian
Adrian Clifford

Ran ZV1's from Avon and now on ZV3's got about 12000-13000 miles on the ZV1's on the back with no scary experiences and I am not soft on my car. The ZV3's seem to be a bit softer so that can only be better. Having riden bikes all my life I believe in sacrificing durability for road holding any time. My F is a great car and I also don't want it sliding into the brick walls dotted around the British counrtryside.
Nkosi_Ecosse

Titou, if you can, replace all four tyres at the same time - which is the same advice for Avons as it is for any tyre on the MGF/TF.

Why? Unfortunately, handling imbalance seems quite common when mixing tyres - and this seems to afflict Goodyear F1 GS-D3 and Avon tyres perhaps a little more than most (see the archives) - but I don't think there is anything fundamentally wrong with these tyres.

I have Goodyear F1 GS-D3s all round on my car, replacing the earlier GS-D1s - and I have to say that from my perspective, the 'D3 is the better tyre for the kind of thrashing around that I do.

Hope that helps - and happy tyre hunting!
Rob Bell

Thank you everybody for your help in my "tyre hunting"!

Avon seems to be very difficult to find in France.

Rob, I have a problem with my english... What means "The d3 is the better tyre for the kind of trashing around that I do"? I don't know the meaning of "trashing", trash is the thing I have to put on my street every week because my girlfreind doesn't want to do this, no? (lol) So that means that tyres are poor?
Titou

Titou, my apologies, I typed that wrong: should have read 'thrashing' not 'trasthing'. Basically 'thrashing' in this context means driving the car hard and enthusiastically. My MGF is taken on to the track pretty frequently, both on track days and for competition (Hill climbs and Sprints - read more here: http://www.mgcars.org.uk/mgccsc/ )

Hope that helps to clarify!
Rob Bell

Titou,
trashing around simply means driving fast, usually on a race track, but not always.
Therefore the need for good grip on the tyres, better than "normal" driving.

Hope that translates OK.

If you can't get Avon's in France are you coming to England, it is the tenth anniversary of MGF's this year and there are many events to come and see. Get your tyres supplied and fitted here, with the low prices on ferries, it could be a good idea to combine a weekend with other MG enthusiasts and buy your new tyres at the same time.

If you choose another tyre what price can you get them for ? put it on the thread and see if anybody has experience of them, that may help you with your choice.

Adrian
Adrian Clifford

I have had a good news today, my mechanic has found gsd2. So I will fit them on my F as I have still 2 gsd2 at the rear.

Thank you all for your answers.

I am sorry Adrian, but I can't come in England this year, since a few months I am the happy owner of an old farm which need to be repair, and I spend my time to do this job. What sorts of events are programating for the F anniversary?

Rob, are you the creator of utlimatemg? I have found "MGs on track" and I have to say that is a great idea. I will participate to my first trackday in a month with friends on mx5, smarts and MR but I will be the only MG.
Titou

I have to admit im a big fan of Goodyear F1's
Nick Lewis

Titou,

When I got my F last year it had 16" GSD2s on all four corners, and it was fine.
When I changed the rear tyres to GSD3s, the front (ie steering) became wayward and unpredictable, as if the back was somehow 'getting impatient' with the front. This effect has been commented on before, but I will just add my voice to the others.
Just last week I put GSD3s on the front, to match the rears and wow! Like having my old car back, and then some!

So IMHO GSD2 all round = good
GSD3 all round = fantastic!
Mix of GSD2 & 3 = uncomfortable

Those are my thoughts, for what they're worth!
David

BTW the MGF 10th anniversary site is here, with latest news:
http://www.mgcars.org.uk/runnymede-mgoc/mgpitfiles/sef/milestones/10th%20front.htm
D E Alexander

>> Rob, are you the creator of utlimatemg? I have found "MGs on track" and I have to say that is a great idea. I will participate to my first trackday in a month with friends on mx5, smarts and MR but I will be the only MG. <<

Yes, that sprawling monster is mine! LOL MGoT is gaining a lot of momentum - and is certainly great fun! Is there much of a track day community in France Titou?
Rob Bell

Great job Rob!!! Ultimatemg is for a long time in my "favorites" and when I have fitted my vader kit this "sprawling monster" was my assistant.

At my knowledge, there isn't a lot of track day community in France. Some car clubs propose such events but nothing specially for MG. Maybe the MGCF propose this but as I am not a member I don't know. I will participating to my first track day with a swiss mx5 club which accept orthers roadsters like MG, MR and smart for example in order to lower track location price.
Titou

That's interesting - what tracks do they go to? I wonder if we could get a European collaboration going?
Rob Bell

I don't have a lot experience in tracks but Pouilly en Auxois (near Dijon), Pau Arnos, circuit du Laquais (near Lyon), Croix en Ternois, Grand Sambuc (south of france) and Nogarro seem to be tracks where clubs going frequently.

I believe that you know Maxime, you can ask him, he has more experience than me on tracks.
Titou

Rob how do you see this european collaboration?
Titou

Hi,

I'm sorry I don't read all the posting .. ooops shame on me.
But my name appears so I reply.

There is a club witch specialized in track day. They called themself : One Eleven

You wonder that it's full of liz car ;)

but there is others.

http://www.1-11.org/

here is a an extract for there track days :

Samedi 12 février : Pouilly en Auxois

Dimanche 13 Mars : Pau Arnos

Dimanche 27 Mars : Spa Francorchamps

Dimanche 17 avril : Charade

Samedi 7 mai : Val de Vienne

Dimanche 29 mai : Mas du Clos

Samedi 18 juin : Fay de Bretagne
Dimanche 19 Juin : Lohéac

Dimanche 17 juillet : Folembray

Jeudi 4 août : Le Mans

Dimanche 4 septembre : Lurcy Levis

Samedi 8 octobre : Folembray

Samedi 29 octobre : Fay de Bretagne
Dimanche 30 octobre : Lohéac

Courant novembre : Dijon Presnois

Dimanche 4 décembre : Anneau du Rhin

maxime
mabonnet

Hmm - some fun looking tracks in that list Maxime! :o)

Titou, my initial thoughts would be mutual support: we'll support and attend events that are organised in Mainland Europe, and by reciprocation, we'd gladly extend an invitation to all European groups to our events (which, as it goes without saying, if you've got an MG and want to come along to any event, it doesn't matter if you've travelled from Mars, you're welcome to join us).

I guess that with the distances involved that numbers would be relatively small, but for famous tracks like Le Mans and Spa Francorchamps, there's a good chance we could rustle up some numbers! :o)
Rob Bell

Titou,
As you have seen, the 10th anniversary at Gaydon is a must, come along make the effort.

Some of us are visiting Europe this year : Kempenrit and the Dutch 50th anniversary at De Eemhof in Zeewolde.

Try to mmet up for a chat !

Adrian
Adrian Clifford

Adrian, I have seen the 10th anniversary is a must, but I am not sure that I can participate. I promise you to do an effort if I can.

Rob, if I have good unterstand you want to create a link between european clubs for tracks days, but only for MG owners or for all roadsters? In 1 11 for example, there isn't MG and I am not sure that an exclusive MG track day club does exist in france.
Titou

I just can't believe that GSD2's on the front and GSD3's on the rear, signifcantly and adversly, affects handling. What you're saying is that the GSD3's on the rear perform differently depending upon the tyres fitted to the front. Whilst i might accept that with something ridiculous like bike tyres on the front, I find it hard to believe with two "marginally" different tyres made by the same manufacturer. How the hell does the tyre know whats on the front. Do they have chat, late at night?

It's sounds like another one of these pub "did you know.." factoid. You know - "..27 varieties of urine in a bowl peanuts" or "...Burgess Hill is the third biggest city in Europe".

Getting back to the tyres - we've changed the rears on a TF160 to GSD3, but with 5mm still left on the fronts I'd be b*ggered to fork out for new tyres unnecessarily.

We'll see!
Captain Sceptical

It isn't a urban legend captain, just look on ultimatemg.
Titou

Back to Avons - I was at a wet track day at Knockhill on almost new front ZV1, rear ZV3 and my pal in his TVR Griffith couldn't catch me (probably says more about TVRs in the wet than my tyres or skill!) Managed a final lap in about 74/75 seconds which is just about OK for a regular 1.8i :-)
M Cunningham 1

captain Sceptical - it was enough of a problem for MGR and GY to proscibe the GSD3 for the F while the problem was investigated. I'm not sure that the situation has been resolved yet - tyre dealers still seem to shy away from that combination.
JohnP

Just returned from Lambusters, in the hail and wet, I tested my new Avon ZZ1's, 205/50's front only (for the time being)...superb they never let go once, they have such a deep cut to the tread pattern on the outside edges so I expected them to be good in the wet, didn't let me down once.

Certainly going to change the rears as well.

Adrian
Adrian Clifford

Whilst GD03 tyres were being "Investigated", it enabled MGR to fit much cheaper tyres to their new TFs.
Geoff F.
G. Farthing

Captain Sceptical, I completely understand your confusion regarding this point - but I'll have to point you to frequent reports by owners that appear in the archives where fitting GS-D3s to the rear leads to profound handling instability that repeat visits to tyre factors cannot resolve.

The adverse reports are considerably less frequent were the GS-D3s are fitted all round (and for example I have these fitted front and rear on my car with no ill-effect) - hence the BBS recommendation based on common experience.

As with all advice, you can decide to heed or ignore it. It's your choice.
Rob Bell

Regarding tyres. In a month or two I will have to replace front tyres - 195/45R16 and after reading yours threads I wonder if I still should buy GSD3.

My rear tyres are GSD2 and I think the performance is great. Is the ill-effect also happens when putting at front GSD3 and at rear GSD2?
marius

I can't answer that with any certainty: reports of handling instability haven't had a clear identifiable cause - but usually, the handling instability occurs when new tyres are put on at the rear, so you *should* be okay with what you have planned Marius.
Rob Bell

Has anyone seen what tyres MGR are fitting to 2005 TF 160?
jt
John Thomas

This thread was discussed between 04/03/2005 and 17/03/2005

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