185s or 195s??????????

[robin]

I run 175s AD07 on the 135R when not running R-tyres. Indeed I will be on them at this afternoon's AMP3 track day at Knockhill. I did this year's FF6 on them too and the car was nicely balanced. I suspect 195s would be OK too but the first time I ran them on my old S2 I noticed that they were a bit of a squeeze to get on the rims (that was on the same size rims you have - the 135R has wider rims to start with) and there is always that floaty feeling caused by the rim shifting left and right under load - you can compensate for this by inflating the tyre more, but this is otherwise undesirable.

If it were me I would take the 185s if you can get them - I don't think you'll notice any difference in grip from either tyre, but the feel of the 185 will be better. If you do notice a change in grip and you are driving on the road, slow down! Next time I recommend splashing the cash and buying the AD07 - excellent tyre - very much lack the Advan Neovas that you could get for the S1.

Cheers,
Robin

[steve_weegie]

You can find a Top Gear clip on YouTube with the S2 Elise where Clarkson explains the narrow tyre understeer and complains about the lack of oversteer (then the Lotus guy shows him up by chucking it all over the track).

(sorry for the lack of a link but I can't get YouTube at work )

Here's the link

JC: why have you made it more understeery than the old elise?

GK: because we're selling 3000 cars, we have to cater for all drivers....

JC: how do i kill the understeer if i were to buy a car like that?

GK: we can supply optional bigger front tyres....

[Chas]

This is the clip showing why Lotus changes tyre sizes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkZmKkqnV6s

Chas

[Bada Bing!]

My AD07's are 185's, and it keeps the front far less pointy. 195's I imagine would induce more oversteer than you have now.

Are you sure?

No.