I dont see why some of you see to asume that having good tyres means you drive like a tit

I like to drive mine hard, it also see's some track time. therefore i want the best tyres i can get my mits on (within reason of cost)

This doesnt mean i drive like a tit.

On this note, I've just purchased a set of 175/50/13 Yokohama A539's

Amazing in the dry, mixed reviews about the wet. Time shall tell.

I'd be shitting myself running stretch on a track or just driving it 'enthusiastically' on a nice country road.

constantly be thinking 'omg the tyres are gunna pop off i i corner hard'

the problem with most tyre reviews, is people giving it death, and lossing traction... they automaticaly think its the tyres fualt.

Grip wise in my 1L 6n2 there wasnt much difference in Grip between good tyres and budgets, just how quickly the tyres worn down. I had a pair of budgets on the front and they last about a month of continuos use.

These 175/50/14 Sonars are very good imo, had had two sets in total:

The first being on a set of 6.5j Rz's they lasted ages, had them for months and they hardly got worn down before i sold them.

Now I've got the on 14" exips, and still I'm seeing no sign of ware, other than the sidewalls on my arches

Only problem is not many companys make this size tyre so there not what i call budget cheap

Edited 25 March, 201115 yr by mattpolo5491

Cheaper ones tend to be a harder compound, thus they last longer but grip less.

1.0 polo, I'm not surprised you didn't notice any difference

Better tyres are softer, so they ware down a lot quicker.

It depends what you use the car for as to what tyres you need really.

if you wanna go silly low then budgets are your best bet, as you cant drive a low car fast so you dont need good tyres.

where as if your car sint too low, and you have some sort of power and like to abuse it from time to time, then ideally you don't want ditchfinders. You want tyres that will keep you stuck to the tarmac.

Edited 25 March, 201115 yr by B-shaw

As Iscariot says, it depends what you want to achieve. Its all very well getting into a debate about the safest tyres,but clearly that's not the main objective to someone knowingly ill-fitting a tyre onto a wheel too big for it,is it?

I run Nankangs because i like the amount of grip they give. I could run more grippy tyres,but i dont want that. I like a bit of adjustability afforded by the looseness they give,at the level they're on.

So it depends what you want from a tyre.

In this case,the cost of expensive tyres is not being justified in the way it would be,had they been fitted to the correct size wheel. Stretching is just dodgy full stop,when the manufacturer of the tyre did not design it to go on that wheel,so you're foolish to exploit such performance avenues. You'd be foolish to exploit the performance avenues of budget tyres,so why not use them?

The only exception id make is for extreme budget,as I've had problems with them (Optima one i remember) holding air even on the right size wheel - if their bead tolerance and finish is that far out,i cant imagine them being the best bet for staying on the rim.

i've mostly run budgets for years and not put it in a ditch yet, no matter how good your tires are if you drive like a dick sooner or later you will crash and no amount of grip will change that

rustproof, your tires didn't save you on that occasion, it was just shear luck that no one was coming round the island as you came barrelling along driving like a cock end that saved you. if you were a good driver you would of been driving to the conditions, but judging by that little tale i think it's safe to assume your a pretty shit driver

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).

He's not talking about the track is he? In my opinion, yes stretch tyres aren't as grippy as a properly suited size/profile are going to be, but putting budget tyes on a stretched rim will only make things even worse.

So in answer to the OP's original question of "Is it safe stretching budgets? Or should i splash out for premium?" I would say no to budgets, stretch tyres have been known to pop off the rim, traction is reduced due to the fact that the supporting sidewall isn't sitting correctly and budget tyres are, well budget, they are designed with the highest priority to be cheap and everything else, including grip is compromised.

In answer to your response Iscariot, like you say "Good quality tyres improve grip, stretching them on within an inch of their life counteracts this." If what you say is true, I would want the best possible grip to start with, otherwise by fitting poorly gripping budgets you're only making things worse and nobody wants that. Nankangs aren't renowned grippy tyres to start with, never mind making them worse with stretch.

I run Continental Sport Contacts - 195/45 on a 8.5" rim with no grip issue what so ever for day to day use and spirited driving. Whether I would dare take them on a track is another matter.

Edited 25 March, 201115 yr by EnthusiastOwned™

I do see what you're getting at, but I still can't see anyone would want to spend 3-400 quid on a nice set of tyres, only for them to be wasted on the wrong application!

Stretched tyres doesn't equal no grip. A stock Mk3 Polo is fitted with 145/80 13 tyres on 4J wheels iirc. If I stretch 175/50 13 tyres onto some 8J wheels it'll still have more grip as you've still got 30mm more tread on the road. It'll also be more responsive in corners as the sidewall will be much stiffer, but you will feel bumps in the road more and the car will lose traction more violently. I would say however that it'd probably be nicer to drive with a 175/50 13 tyre on a 6J wheel as the tread will remain flatter.

f*cking hell didn't expect this big of a debate haha cheers for all the comments but i didn't really give any infomation on my use of them, so i'll allaberate.

First of all wide wheels on a bready doesn't work well so thats were the stretch comes in, i generaly drive a bit faster than i should but tend to slow down quite a bit for corners, atm I'm running on standard wheels with shocking tyres on and so far havn't had to much of a problem and i'm not planning super stretch.

Also reviews for the budgets out of 69 reviews the mojaority all say they were spot on, alot saying they performed as well as there previous toyo's.

Oh and i am deffinetly taking her on the track hahah

What wheels are you planning to run dude?

In my opinion you're best off running 13x6's with 175/50/13's or 14x6's with 195/45/14 if you're going to be using it on the track aswell as the road.

running 7j classics man thinking of 165/55/13 and just for road use majority slow run to work and back.

7 inch classics with standard bready arches? You gonna have problems....

7 inch classics with standard bready arches? You gonna have problems....

Who said there standard? hahah got it planned man

Toby... Go jerk off

Toby... Go jerk off

well said that man

Stretched tyres doesn't equal no grip. A stock Mk3 Polo is fitted with 145/80 13 tyres on 4J wheels iirc.

True, but they're bloody terrifying too

You need about a 165 or 175 on a mk1-3 Polo to get a plausible amount of grip. I run 165/65/13 Avons and they're brilliant

i've mostly run budgets for years and not put it in a ditch yet, no matter how good your tires are if you drive like a dick sooner or later you will crash and no amount of grip will change that

rustproof, your tires didn't save you on that occasion, it was just shear luck that no one was coming round the island as you came barrelling along driving like a cock end that saved you. if you were a good driver you would of been driving to the conditions, but judging by that little tale i think it's safe to assume your a pretty shit driver

lol i will admit i wernt paying attention and was very lucky no one was coming, this was the worst maked roundabout ever tho, i looked away for about 4 seconds and looked up again and see it 50ft i front and because it was wet i couldn't slam the brakes on or i would have locked up and crashed so had to ease them on and engine brake and go with it. it was the first time i have ever almost shat myself and i could see a crash happing like going straight over the round about, i felt if i was a normal day to day driver it would have been a crash. btw this was all on a dual carriage way and pretty late so it wernt danger's to be doing 90. the tyres did a amazing job at holding me straight i rate parada's so much. i dont drive like a nice person at all tho, always make sure its safe to open it up a bit, fuel cost restrict me lol.

anyway enough of my of topic ramberlings

tread proceed..... I'm a dick :-)

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.

lol sponge. fair enough I'm all for punching up dick heads on the road, nobody was even about when this happened, plus i care way to much about my car to fuck it up, just lost my mind for a sec

You travelled for 160 meters without looking at the road. Well done.

how did you work that out? 90ish and 15 meters in the wet is not enough time to stop, i knew this so went with it, roughly 4 seconds i looked away for, was looking in my mirror at a car in the distance to work out weather it was cops as it was the only car any where near

90mph is 40m/s, so you did 160 meters whilst not looking at the road. No wonder you missed the roundabout.

i've mostly run budgets for years and not put it in a ditch yet, no matter how good your tires are if you drive like a dick sooner or later you will crash and no amount of grip will change that

rustproof, your tires didn't save you on that occasion, it was just shear luck that no one was coming round the island as you came barrelling along driving like a cock end that saved you. if you were a good driver you would of been driving to the conditions, but judging by that little tale i think it's safe to assume your a pretty shit driver

lol i will admit i wernt paying attention and was very lucky no one was coming, this was the worst maked roundabout ever tho, i looked away for about 4 seconds and looked up again and see it 50ft i front and because it was wet i couldn't slam the brakes on or i would have locked up and crashed so had to ease them on and engine brake and go with it. it was the first time i have ever almost shat myself and i could see a crash happing like going straight over the round about, i felt if i was a normal day to day driver it would have been a crash. btw this was all on a dual carriage way and pretty late so it wernt danger's to be doing 90. the tyres did a amazing job at holding me straight i rate parada's so much. i dont drive like a nice person at all tho, always make sure its safe to open it up a bit, fuel cost restrict me lol.

anyway enough of my of topic ramberlings

tread proceed..... I'm a dick :-)

you were doing 90 in conditions that prevented you from seeing an island, baring in mind that doing 90 on a duel carriageway in perfect conditions is illegal anyway so as much as you think that makes you Michael Schumacher, your a shit driver and if you hadn't of told this story on here most people wouldn't of known.

did you think that it made you cool or some thing? because i honestly can't figure out why you would tell that story unless you wanted to get the piss ripped out of you?

Edited 26 March, 201115 yr by McLOVIN

Just to say,before the inevitable lockdown,that having a police vehicle behind you should not be a problem for you. It should not be such a concern that you're travelling hundreds of feet concentrating on the mirror instead of what's in front of you.

Its none of your business who's behind you,your business is what's in front.

Especially when you're at illegal speeds,and in wet weather to boot,in which case you know that a police vehicle would've meant you'd be rightly banned.

My osf wiper doesn't work above 80mph due to it having a blade 4ins longer than standard.

With no bonnet overlap,its enough of a percentage for the air to get under the blade and lift it.

Perhaps you should adjust yours accordingly,to help wean you off such antics..

Or have a rain sensor limit your car,like we'll all have to thanks to people like you.

Or just sell the fast car and get a 1.0 because you've proven too irresponsible to drive your current perk?

Just a few thoughts I'm throwing into the wind,here.