<VV> EM tires and braking

[Tony Underwood]

At 12:18 hours 08/15/2006, Bryan Blackwell wrote:
>Just to be clear, I'm not suggesting anything much wider, other than 
>as a convenience for sizing.  A 195 works fine on a stock rim,


I might be checking into something like this for the red Lakewood 
which is gonna be needing tires.


>so I was thinking a 195 just because I know they're out there.  You 
>can get trim rings in 14 or 15 inch, the tough part is the hubcaps.

Now:  If I wanted to keep those factory style trim rings, the ones 
supplied on '60s with the cute little black bowties on 'em, I might 
have some problems finding them in 14".   Likewise keeping the 
hubcaps with Corvair script on 'em, via finding a set of 14" rims out 
there with the stamped nubs to hold the hubcaps and rings.   And in 
spite of this particular 60 4-door's appearance, I'd still like to 
keep its original caps and rings simply because the car still has all 
this original stuff after 46 years.


>The main thing you need are *better* tires, not bigger, 
>IMHO.  Quality greatly outperforms size when it comes to tires.


...I thought these Goodyears were pretty decent tires, 
quality-wise...?    I could go out shopping around for something 
else, maybe some exotic 13" somethingorothers with bubblegum rubber, 
but it hasn't been that long that I the eternal cheapskate had 
coughed up the bucks for the Goodyears.

I *have* dropped the pressure a tad to improve the contact patch.


>In fact, for braking performance a wider tire sometimes doesn't work 
>as well as a skinny one - all else being equal - since the contact 
>patch is loaded the short way.


Sometimes maybe.  My Spyder stopped pretty well, in fact a good bit 
better than what I'd expect out of an early 'Vair, but then again it 
had wider tires on it  This was a few years ago when wider tires 
could still be found pretty easily in 13" sizes.   Not so easy 
anymore.    I'll be looking around a bit to see what's out there, 
seeing as how up until just recently I'd not been paying all that 
much attention to 13" tire varieties or availability.


tony..