Is it safe stretching budgets? Or should i splash out for premium?

Buy the best tyres you can afford, they're the only thing keeping your car out of a ditch

True true :(

:badgrin:

whats that about?

Buy the best tyres you can afford, they're the only thing keeping your car out of a ditch

Probably one of the best statements made on this forum and something I agree strongly with.

It annoys me greatly when people insist on buying budget tyres.

Buy the best tyres you can afford, they're the only thing keeping your car out of a ditch

Probably one of the best statements made on this forum and something I agree strongly with.

It annoys me greatly when people insist on buying budget tyres.

Indeed, lets just say I learnt my lesson the hard way. Tyres might seem expensive, but they're a hell of a lot cheaper than an insurance claim and loss of NCB!

Yep. I always buy the best i can, that normally ends up being the best thing before semi slicks though, which costs an arm and a leg.

also, stretch is for gays, if you want your car to handle get the correct sized tyres for your wheels.

Yep. I always buy the best i can, that normally ends up being the best thing before semi slicks though, which costs an arm and a leg.

also, stretch is for gays, if you want your car to handle get the correct sized tyres for your wheels.

always thought there's a bit of a fine line on this, semi slicks brilliant in the dry, but how good are they the wet?

tyres should be the thing you spend the most cash on for what they are, like said above, its the only thing keeping your car on the road.

even winter tyres when they are needed, people think there tyres have loads of tread and are great but thats only for summer and rain, not ice and snow. So spending as much as you can on a good tyre is the best thing you can do

Yep. I always buy the best i can, that normally ends up being the best thing before semi slicks though, which costs an arm and a leg.

also, stretch is for gays, if you want your car to handle get the correct sized tyres for your wheels.

always thought there's a bit of a fine line on this, semi slicks brilliant in the dry, but how good are they the wet?

next best to semi slicks i said. not actual semi's.

semi's are lethal in the wet, almost guaranteed death haha.

They also need to warm up before they are any good.

i stretched nankangs and lived to tell the tale

If you dont drive like a loony you'll be fine.

Want to feel like the cars attatched to the road? Spend money on diecent handling upgrades and a mighty fine set of rubbers. If your bothered about show. Budgets will be fine.

The gap between premium and budget has closed considerably. In a recent trial that compared 3 budget brands against 3 premiums, one budget brand, arrowspeed iirc (quickfits own I think) was very close and in some cases out performed some of the premiums in some tests. Do your research first, so you don't spend unnecessary £ I have always gone budget and never had an issue. but then again I don't drive like a tit!

Do your research first, so you don't spend unnecessary £ I have always gone budget and never had an issue. but then again I don't drive like a tit!

You don't have to drive like a tit to have a bad experience on budget tyres.

My Laguna was running tyres called 'DongFeng' all round when I bought it.

A few weeks after I bought it, I was driving in a line of traffic on a wet road, turned a corner same speed as everyone else and....went ploughing straight on up an embankment and into a fence.

You can buy budget tyres all your life and drive like a granny and survive for ages, but there may come a time you need to take evasive action to avoid something...it may be that time you wish you have spent a little more £ on tyres.

If anyone is willing to lend me some ££ then I would willingly splash out a few hundred on some premium tyres, but the way things are at the minute (e.g. barely able to scrape by without repo men come knocking, rising road tax, huge cost of fuel etc etc), I think I am probably going to continue buying budget tyres.

On a side note, some of the best tyres I have run were some 195/45/14 FALKEN on my old mk2.

195/45/14 are awesome! i had them on my Mk3, soo grippy

Yeah it is safe to stretch budgets, in my opinion you'd be wasting your time buying really nice tyres then stretching them on.

Nankang is the best bet.

You don't even have to spend major money to get decent tyres. I'm not saying you've got to go for the most expensive Contis or Michelins you can find. I got a full set of Uniroyal Rainsport 2's for 180 quid and they are really grippy. Nankangs in the same size would have been around £140, so spending the extra was a no brainer to me.

If anyone is willing to lend me some ££ then I would willingly splash out a few hundred on some premium tyres, but the way things are at the minute (e.g. barely able to scrape by without repo men come knocking, rising road tax, huge cost of fuel etc etc), I think I am probably going to continue buying budget tyres.

On a side note, some of the best tyres I have run were some 195/45/14 FALKEN on my old mk2.

Ran them on my mk3 and they were the worst tyres iv ever had no grip at all in the wet and lead me to rear end someone in traffic. Changed to 195/40/14 Conti and they griped like hell in the wet and dry

Yokohama Parada's is the best rubber imo you can get, dont know if these are classed as semi slicks but they sure are good. makes going round a corner at 60 no problem and the other week coming back from Bournemouth in the rain these saved me from crashing (and my amazing driving skill lol) came up to a round about, about 90 and because visablaty was poor i under ester mated the breaking i could only get down to 50-60ish without locking up, went out on the rabout, back end went flying out and i powered round, i could feel the parada's griping their heart out and all was good, i truly rate these tyres, they are sooo worth 88 a corner.

fuck budget's up the arse they will kill you if you drive a bit mad

if you where amazing at driving you wouldnt have been in that position

Yeah it is safe to stretch budgets, in my opinion you'd be wasting your time buying really nice tyres then stretching them on.

Nankang is the best bet.

Probably the worse advice I have read in a long time.

Yokohama Parada's is the best rubber imo you can get, dont know if these are classed as semi slicks but they sure are good. makes going round a corner at 60 no problem and the other week coming back from Bournemouth in the rain these saved me from crashing (and my amazing driving skill lol) came up to a round about, about 90 and because visablaty was poor i under ester mated the breaking i could only get down to 50-60ish without locking up, went out on the rabout, back end went flying out and i powered round, i could feel the parada's griping their heart out and all was good, i truly rate these tyres, they are sooo worth 88 a corner.

fuck budget's up the arse they will kill you if you drive a bit mad

Drive a bit mad? if I saw you on the road driving like that near my car I would wait for you to stop at some lights and punch you in the sponge. You're a moron.

Edited 25 March, 201115 yr by EnthusiastOwned™

Trackday tyres are fine when the road is wet, just crap in standing water. TBH I prefer how FWD cars drive with good tyres on the front and cheapo tyres on the back. Ran my Clio round a lot with either Eagle F1s or A048r's on the front and Linglong ditchfinders on the back, or at one point gravel rally tyres. Much easier to go quick when you have less grip at the back and you can get the back dancing and eliminate understeer pretty much.

me and my mates dont call shit tyres ditchfinders for no reason haha i just think for the sake £50 more for four your better getting the best! imagine if you lock up in the wet and go into the back of someone with a set of ditchfinders? it would piss me off! :)

Yeah it is safe to stretch budgets, in my opinion you'd be wasting your time buying really nice tyres then stretching them on.

Nankang is the best bet.

Probably the worse advice I have read in a long time.

Why? Good quality tyres improve grip, stretching them on within an inch of their life counteracts this. So really, you may aswell have just bought budgets in the first place. Anyone looking for good handling with stretched tyres is barking up the wrong tree.

The only thing stretched tyres are good for is fitting wide wheels under arches, going very low and parking up at meets.

Good luck on the track with a set

(This is obviously disregarding drift cars).