412 tyres

[TFO412]

Hi all, new member here, just purchased a 412 that hasn't moved for quite some time so four new tyres needed.
It's currently sitting on the original 205vr15 tyres but a quick look online revealed that to replace these would cost over one thousand pounds, being a thrifty chap I would rather find an alternative tyre size that would be somewhat cheaper!, anyone have any suggestions as to suitable tyre sizes and any experience of running them?.
Regards, Steven.

[pasini s]

Hello,

what is the profile you need? In the site 'Gommadiretto', a very good online tire retailer, 205/65 15 tires are dozens and start at £55 each....

Cheers

Stefano

[Nick Challacombe]

Hi,
Longstone tyres who support our magazine by advertising in it, have a great selection of rubber for our cars.
I chose to reshoe my 407 with Michelin X as they were around in 1962, they give a super ride and do not tramline like the Avon Turbo speeds or Dunlop's originally fitted.
Do not be tempted to put cheap Taxi tyres on a V8 as they are not speed rated for any V8 and you could find yourself uninsured.
On this forum you will find plenty of info on tyres for our cars.
Welcome to the club.

[mjolner]

30 years ago bought 30 odd 205/70/15 vr Dunlops
xj 12 type.they were marked "remold quality" because of
a miss print on the side wall="TREAD TREAD" instead of "TREAD TYPE"
those were the days.As suggested load and speed rating are important and
looks like plenty of suggestions -65 or 70 section.
see you all at RREC annual rally.

[Geoff Kingston]

Blockley Tyres do a 205/70VR15 Tyre at abound £150 ea, the car will ride a little bit lower on these as the aspect ratio of the original was 80 not 70, they are available direct off their websiteb and from one or two suppliers.
I have not tried these but a friend has some of their tyres on a vintage MG and is very pleased with them.
I am thinking about getting a set of their 16 inch radials for my 401 so would be interested as I am sure you would be if anyone can share their thoughts having fitted Blockleys to a Bristol.

[TFO412]

Hmm plenty to think about then, thanks for all replies, will look into it more after getting the thing running and sorting the brakes, the old ones are holding air for now so will do to move about the garage...
steven

[peter dowdle]

My 411 mk 2 has avon wheels off a 412. They came with 215/70/r15 FALKEN tyres with plenty of tread. The larger size has not been a problem quite happy with them. I run 215/70/r15 pirelle p4000 tyres on my Ferrari 365 gt4
they are great but I believe have just gone out of production.These tyres I was told were made to suit Jaguar XK8 .May be there is a current replacement.

NB I have a P 4000 as a spare for the 411 , it sits in the side well quite easily

[Sam410]

Originally Posted by Geoff Kingston

Blockley Tyres do a 205/70VR15 Tyre at abound £150 ea, the car will ride a little bit lower on these as the aspect ratio of the original was 80 not 70, they are available direct off their websiteb and from one or two suppliers.
I have not tried these but a friend has some of their tyres on a vintage MG and is very pleased with them.
I am thinking about getting a set of their 16 inch radials for my 401 so would be interested as I am sure you would be if anyone can share their thoughts having fitted Blockleys to a Bristol.

I have fitted Blockley 205/70VR15s to my 410. Although wider than the period 185 R15 tyres, they were actually a narrower tyre for me as my car had had 215/70 R15 Falkens fitted since I bought it. As Peter mentioned, these are NLA so I had to find something to replace them when they wore out. I considered all sorts, but went with the Blockleys, partly but not entirely because they are the cheapest of the 'classic' tyres, though still four times the price of the last set of Falkens I had. If you want a cheaper modern tyre you seem to be limited to soft-roader type tyres designed for Freelanders, CRVs etc, in that size

Compared to the 215 Falkens, the 205 Blockleys give a much softer ride (I have quite firm Konis) and have made the handling feel rather different too. I get the impression they are quite soft in the sidewall compared to the Falkens, as the car seems less precise in corners, and feels almost drifty. It took a bit of getting used to, but I'm happy with them now. I run them a bit harder than the Falkens.

Geoff, if you're ever passing along the M4 you'd be welcome to drop in and have a drive to see what you think.

[Philip]

Vredestein Sprint Classic are available in 215/70R15. Not too expensive but anecdotally seem to suffer sidewall issues.

[Dougal Cawley]

Hi

There isn't a cheap option. generally speaking cars don't have tyres that are this tall and this high performance.

A 205VR15 tyre should be about 710mm tall (or the gearing, fuel economy, speedo, clearance under the car & appearance will be wrong). this is about the same diameter as the 16" tyres that were fitted to earlier cars.

It's funny; nearly all the best cars of the 40's and 50's fitted either 600X16 crossply or 185VR16 radial tyres with a diameter of about 700mm - 710mm. cars such as Bristol, XK Jaguars, Feltham Aston Martins, Ferrari 250, Maserati 3500GT, Pegaso, Jensen 541.

Then in 1964 Pirelli developed the ability to make a radial tyre of the same diameter 700mm - 710mm but fitted to a 15" wheel with a bigger section and still able to withstand speeds of up to 150mph and they were adopted by Ferrari 330 & 500, Lamborghini 350GT, 400GT, Espada & Muira, ISO Griffo & Rivolta, Maserati Mistral, Ghibli, Sebring Aston Martin DB6 & DBS, etc and this size was also adopted by Bristol (though i am not certain what make)

Then in 1968 the tyre size 215/70VR15 took over, but this is smaller in diameter and wider It could also do with wider wheels to gain the benefit.

I would suggest your cars will be better on the 205VR15 Cinturato CN72 https://www.borrani.com/pirelli-tyre...cinturato.html

In case someone doesn't undersstan how tyre sizes work i will try to explain

215/70VR15
215mm wide at the widest part of the tyre (no tread width)
70 = (the aspect ratio) 70% of 215mm is the height of the side wall (150mm)
V is a speed rating meaning 150mph
R means radial
15 means to fit a 15" wheel
Overall diameter = 380mm (15") + 150mm + 150mm = 680mm

205VR15
215mm wide at the widest part of the tyre (no tread width)
aspect ratio - because when radial tyres were first invented there was no choice of aspect ratio so they did not mention it in the tyres description and the standard was 80%. so 80% of 205mm is the height of the side wall 164mm
V is a speed rating meaning 150mph
R means radial
15 means to fit a 15" wheel
Overall diameter = 380mm (15") + 164mm + 164mm = 708mm

185VR16
185mm wide at the widest part of the tyre (no tread width)
aspect ratio - because when radial tyres were first invented there was no choice of aspect ratio so they did not mention it in the tyres description and the standard was 80%. so 80% of 185mm is the height of the side wall 148mm
V is a speed rating meaning 150mph
R means radial
16 means to fit a 16" wheel
Overall diameter = 405mm (16") + 148mm + 148mm = 701mm

I hope this will explain why the cars loook silly when they are fitted with tyres like a 205/70VR15 because it will be nearly an inch smaller in radius, and leave the wheel arches empty, with less clearance under the car, all the gearing and speedo wioll be wrong etc.

Good quality unusual sized tyres are not cheap, but they do make a difference. today many of thyese cars are fitted with 215/70VR15 Avoon CR6 ZZ tyres which are great on the race track and are the cheapest branded tyre in the size but the carcase is too harsh for these cars and they won't last. i say stick with the good stuff and fit Cinturato

Dougal
Longstone Tyres

[Philip]

Those CN72s are monstrously expensive.

Given that a lot of Bristols are still in regular use as "normal" cars, I wonder how they perform at modern speeds in modern conditions. I have (discontinued) P4000 SuperTourings in 215/70R15 on mine - contemporary construction, compound etc. and they are pretty hopeless in terms of traction and braking, particularly in the wet. Not sure how a forty-plus-year-old design compares.

[Dougal Cawley]

Hi Philip

Bristol 411 | Longstone Tyres
Bristol 412 | Longstone Tyres

I would suggest that the P4000 is a good tyre for the late Series 3 XJ12 ( I had one with those tyres on it) However i think the ride will be a bit harsh for your car. I think they are a late 80's tyre and i believe they had to soften the Jaguars suspension to cater with the P4000 tyres.

If you have the 215/70R15 P4000, i would suggest they will be very old.

If you look on this page Aston Martin DB5 there is some pictures of a green DB5. one picture of it wearing 215/70VR15 P4000 and a picture of the same car with the 205VR15 Cinturato CN12 so you can see the difference in diameter.

One of the things you get when you fit a car with a low profile tyre like a 215/70VR15 compared to a full profile tyre like a 205VR15 is you minimize the amount of movement in the side wall so the steering will feel tighter.

the draw back with modern tyres like the P4000 is the foot print will be dramatically wider than the car is designed to deal with so you may find it picks up the unevenness of the road and tracks on our horrible rutted motorways.

The 205VR15 Pirelli Cinturato ™ are ideally suited to modern roads. more importantly i would suggest that they are more suited to your car than anything else available. They have a V speed rating. we fit them on a wide range of things from Series 1 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow to the back wheels of a Ferrari 250GTO.

The P4000 is a good tyre but not for your car. the Cinturato will be much better as it is suited to your car. they are a period carcass which will suit your geometry but a modern compounds so they will grip in the wet.

The other alternative tyres are also listed on the 2 web pages at the top of my post. I don't think the price of the 205VR15 Cinturato is ridiculous. It is a high performance tyre made in small batches by one of the worlds best tyre manufacturer, all these things don't come cheap.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Dougal Cawley

If you have the 215/70R15 P4000, i would suggest they will be very old.

Dougal - they're the P4000 SuperTouring and not the earlier P4000. I believe the SuperTourings were discontinued at some point in 2011; from memory, those on my car were bought and manufactured in 2010.

My decision would be different if it were a concours car or a TR3 or something, but I'm happy to trade absolute period authenticity for better performance given that it is used no differently from a new car - I'll probably move to 16" wheels on the next project for this reason.

[Miss P]

Just in case it's any help at all but remember I'm no expert...

My car runs on 16" wheels from an XJS, with 225/60/zr Pirelli tyres and drives smoothly and quietly with plenty of grip and nothing fouls anywhere. Speedo is pretty accurate too so overall diameter can't be much different.

The wheels still look quite small though so I may even go up to 17" rims (found some that are sort-of styled along the lines of the old Avon safety rims) and even lower profile, but no wider than 225, tyres.

M.P

[Anne]

Have looked at some previous posts and for my 409 I think I have narrowed it down as follows:
Tires on the car are 600 X 16 or 5" ( footprint) X 28".
A 185 VR16 would be close...need to check footprint and I am considering these 2 options:
https://www.cokertire.com/185r16-michelin.html Michelin X at $300
or http://www.lucasclassictires.com/185...-CA67-518p.htm Pirelli Cinturato at $400.

Thoughts??

Anne

[peter dowdle]

I am needing to purchase new tyres for my 411. The pirelli 4000s are no longer made nor are the Falken tyres i am currently running . The tyres recommended by Longstone are when landed in Australia too expensive. The original size 205 15 are a lot taller than the 215 70 15s most people are using. My question then has anyone tried 225 70 15s . These are about the same height as the original size, 205 15. That size was apparently used on the Beaufighter.

Any thoughts please

[Dougal Cawley]

Hi

Just thought i would let you know that Pirelli have just made a fresh batch of proper tyres for the 411 and 412

https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/205...rato-cn72.html

there is a lot of talk about fitting different aize tyres, and how low profile modern carcasses are cheaper, and yes they are cheaper, but they are not by any means the same. It is a big credit card bill, but it is a massive compromise you are making to a car that is all about not being about compromises.