15" pepperpot tyre choice

Tire pressures make a difference too probably. Recently I took the winters down from ~2.4 to ~2.2, and they seemed to take up engine/clutch/gearbox vibration (like, when starting off in first gear) much better. Maybe what I'm really after is adaptive tyre pressure. :) Though that somewhat happens as they warm up I suppose.

Anyway, Brett, is the 195/50R15 really that bad in terms of not taking up bumps, ... I cringe even thinking about potholes (though again, I'm coming from an XL tyres, which almost all 195/45R16 seem to be, with only 89mm sidewall).

Also, for bumps, I reckon lower pressures are better, but what about potholes?... depends on what you want to sacrifice? :)
pressures make a massive difference; I think the A2 currently has 2.5 all round and it's undriveable at 120. Steering so light it's not funny. Below that it's good - I know the geometry is out and that needs looking at and correcting, but the pressures will be the cheap starting point.
195/50 is a different world to the 185/60. I run spiked Hakka 8s (new last year) and it is really clear when the car starts to slide. There's a really nice "insulation" between you and the road. The new Yokos are closer to the road - I can't quite feel the single stones on the drive but it's not far off - and they're too new for real opinions, but one thing is clear: they are less stiff than the old Hakka Blue they replaced. This is good. Remember also I run B8 / Eibach / H&R ARBs so this car is pretty stiff anyway. I'm not quite so happy about half a turn of lock at 30km/h as I was previously... that's probably a good thing :)
 
For a great example of light steering check out a 2nd generation (2004-2009) Toyota Prius (Toyota's fault), worsened by the OE Bridgestone Ecopias ('tramlining'? on the highway). You can have continually correct, the car gets blown around easily. Similar with Bridgestone's RE92 on the 1st generation Honda Insight.

ContiWinter TS850 165/65R15 at 2.5 were ok (I mostly drive ~90km/h, or city). City roads were terrible going over bumps, like uneven connections of road to bridge, almost like a slight curb. Going over railway crossings (even 'new' ones with rubberized road on the sides of the rails) could be pretty bad, depending on how well the road prior and post was matched in height to the rubberized sections, etc. With 2.2bar it seemed much better. That car didn't shudder like crazy.

I drove a Peugeot 207 (with 185/60R15, non-standard for it, tyres) today, some winding and quite uneven roads, ~50-60km/h, and some straight sections 70-90km/h and things were ok. There were some very old ContiPremium2 on the front, ~10yo now, but it was an enjoyable drive. The Peugeot's steering is all electric from what I can tell, and it's quiet heavy and doesn't give quiet good feedback, but it seemed quite precise and predictable, fairly planted, though I didn't push it very much. They were quiet loud though (age?), the car being steel and ~1250kg didn't seem to help? Anyway, quite the digression.

I think 185/60R15 might be ok for me on the A2, I don't want to ruin the car further. It's got 5yo KYB shocks on the front, with unknown to me springs, and they were hastily matched to the car (cross referenced to a Skoda Fabia 1.4 TDI if I recall correctly), because I drove the mechanic and he diagnosed a broken spring. In retrospect, maybe I should have drive or gotten car towed home, and researched a bit, and possibly gotten Bilstein or something similar. I think that the lower arms might need looking at too (hello high tyre pressures?), it's sad, but I think the fuel savings might compensate for the repair costs, though that seems cruel on the car.

I also have an issue with setting up the front wheel geometry. They could not set the right side camber to spec (-0.3 to -1.0 degrees?). The best they could do was -1.3. The left was set at -1.0. It was a while ago, but I think they didn't want to move the subframe around. Perhaps the nonstandard shocks/springs made it so that the geometry could not be set up to spec? I wonder if that made the Hankooks wear out much prematurely. My hope now is that a much higher sidewall and one size narrower tread width might help. Also, perhaps some lower pressures. There will be more space to compress before hitting the rim beacuse of the higher sidewall.

I'm still unsure about one thing, are higher or lower pressures better for potholes? I figure if it's very big, higher is better (trying to avoid rim contact), but for smaller, I guess lower would be better to dampen or compress (take up) the load, reducing transfer of the impact to the rest of the car. I don't know if that makes sense though.

What model, and size of Yokohama tyres did you get for the summer set?
I'm a bit concerned about getting the S1 version of the Primacy 4, because of its B wet EU label rating. I've read some things about the Energy Saver + not being great in the wet, especially when worn, and am concerned that this might be similar, as perhaps with the new e.Primacy, which has the same EU label ratings as the S1. Hoping that newer generations have gotten better, but perhaps that's wishful thinking. A chilled out driving style, and knowing the performance limits of the tyre in the wet will undoubtedly help in keeping the car under control. Max speed I really do in this car is ~100-120km/h, and the top end rarely and for short bursts. The engine is very loud.

Sometimes I long for a car that's closer to the ground. ESP and all that, the A2 is still a fairly narrow and fairly tall car, but I like the non-rustability of the aluminium, the low weight. Diesel torque also is great -- handles hills and accelerations better. Hmm, A8.... :) ... In the years of the A2, one of its designers worked on both the A2 and the A8 designs. He's doing the design for Lucid (e.g. Lucid Air) currently. A neat tid-bit of info I found out about the A2 recently.

Sorry for the off topic.
Cheers
 
Last edited:
I also added Semperit SportLife 3 to the list. In the 205/55R16 2021 ADAC test it tied for first with the ContiPremium6. However, in the 185 size, it loses one longitudinal groove. My ContiWinters also lost one, at their narrow 165 size, compared a larger size I looked at. Maybe that's what Conti companies do. The Michelin retains all four.
 

Attachments

  • SEMPERIT-185-60R15H-SPEED-LIFE-3-2020.jpeg
    SEMPERIT-185-60R15H-SPEED-LIFE-3-2020.jpeg
    2.2 MB · Views: 141
Last edited:
Ultimately we ended up with Vredestein Ultrac 185/60R15 88H XL C/A/69. Supposedly new for this year -- an update to the Ultrac Satin.

First impressions:
*They're somewhat loud, especially in the back (but we have the rear seats and false floor removed), but more of a whooshing noise, not like the 195/45R16 Hankooks that were quite loud themselves, but more of a droning if I recall correctly. Maybe it's also the nature of the aluminium body to amplify the noise a bit.
*Slow on turn-in, slow to settle, some leaning/roll in the tires. I guess squidgy does sum it up pretty well. I miss the 195/45s :p
*Very light steering at times, at turn it especially? Didn't expect it to be so light. Kind of sloppy around the centre, but it does react to even small inputs still. I guess, what could one expect, with such a tall sidewall? Remember, we went from 195/45R16, from one extreme to basically the other!
*The front tyres bulge out a lot; more than I expected. TDI being quite heavy in the front might exacerbate this?
*With 2.5bar/2.4bar (front/rear) you can still feel small bumps in the road. I guess the higher profile doesn't help much with that. I'm going to try 2.4/2.3, and probably 2.3/2.2.

I'm guessing they'll be good for protecting the rims from potholes, but what else? Somewhat regretting not getting a shorter sidewall, something like 195/55, if not 185/55 or even 195/50. Maybe next time! I'll miss the 195/45 Hankooks and their dry grip and handling. They were great in that respect. Great car control. Fun times. :)

This is only from the first 20km or so of driving, so very preliminary.

I also noticed that the front right lower ball joint has some slop, which probably caused the excessive inside edge wear I found on the tyre I took off from that corner. So that's going to need to get addressed.

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions and opinions.
 
Back
Top