Dash

although the manual states 9k or 12 months it is the mileage piece that is vital. Therefore providing they took a reading of your speedo today and another one when you book it in you could proove that you have been away?

It wasnt raining thats for sure. But Like I said they are a summer tyre.

623 from bell. stock car. legal courtesy car (not that i need it) 0 (yes zero!) ncb wife with 9+ ncb 9k per anum 250 excess! bet last years quote by 350 quid!

My Fastest Lap on the Nurburgring was achieved using a set of bridgestones. I was quite impressed by the grip levels and how nicely they kept the air temp and thus the pressure of the tyre. Food for thought. Here's hoping I can pull a few more seconds off y time with a "better" set of tyres then.

They are only available on GT4 cars and on all models OUTSIDE the UK. And they are most likely heaver than the 19s Si has!!

Thats what I was saying last night but it being late I think it may have become lost in translation.

Not in dry but it the wet it actually can be, hence why wet tyres on race cars can be narrower, ever seen snow tyres on a rally car, why do you think they are so thin? : To place the pressure on a narrower area to improve grip levels. In the wet yes, see above. We are saying that the contact patch DOES NOT change, irrespective of tyre width, nor does the surface area load placed on that contact patch. See Below. We never said "a wider tyre has less grip" we said that a wider tyre has an equal load on its contact patch and that the contact patch remains the same size. However the wider a tyre is in the wet the more prone it is to aquaplaning or slip angles. Fat or thin? The question of contact patches and grip. If there's one question guaranteed to promote argument and counter argument, it's this : do wide tyres give me better grip? Fat tyres look good. In fact they look stonkingly good. In the dry they are mercilessly full of grip. In the wet, you might want to make sure your insurance is paid up, especially if you're in a rear-wheel-drive car. Contrary to what you might think (and to what I used to think), bigger contact patch does not necessarily mean increased grip. Better yet, fatter tyres do not mean bigger contact patch. Confused? Check it out: Pressure=weight/area. That's about as simple a physics equation as you can get. For the general case of most car tyres travelling on a road, it works pretty well. Let me explain. Let's say you've got some regular tyres, as supplied with your car. They're inflated to 30psi and your car weighs 1500Kg. Roughly speaking, each tyre is taking about a quarter of your car's weight - in this case 375Kg. In metric, 30psi is about 2.11Kg/cm². By that formula, the area of your contact patch is going to be roughly 375 / 2.11 = 177.7cm² (weight divided by pressure) Let's say your standard tyres are 185/65R14 - a good middle-ground, factory-fit tyre. That means the tread width is 18.5cm side to side. So your contact patch with all these variables is going to be about 177.7cm² / 18.5, which is 9.8cm. Your contact patch is a rectangle 18.5cm across the width of the tyre by 9.8cm front-to-back where it sits 'flat' on the road. Still with me? Great. You've taken your car to the tyre dealer and with the help of my tyre calculator, figured out that you can get some swanky 225/50R15 tyres. You polish up the 15inch rims, get the tyres fitted and drive off. Let's look at the equation again. The weight of your car bearing down on the wheels hasn't changed. The PSI in the tyres is going to be about the same. If those two variables haven't changed, then your contact patch is still going to be the same : 177.7cm² However you now have wider tyres - the tread width is now 22.5cm instead of 18.5cm. The same contact patch but with wider tyres means a narrower contact area front-to-back. In this example, it becomes 177.7cm² / 22.5, which is 7.8cm. Imagine driving on to a glass road and looking up underneath your tyres. The narrower tyre has a longer, thinner contact patch. The fatter tyre has a shorter, wider contact patch, but the area is the same on both. And there is your 'eureka' moment. Overall, the area of your contact patch has remained more or less the same. But by putting wider tyres on, the shape of the contact patch has changed. Actually, the contact patch is really a squashed oval rather than a rectangle, but for the sake of simplicity on this site, I've illustrated it as a rectangle - it makes the concept a little easier to understand. So has the penny dropped? I'll assume it has. So now you understand that it makes no difference to the contact patch, this leads us on nicely to the sticky topic of grip. http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible.html

Was this eperience on the same car? As tyre performs differently from vehicle to Vehicle. Also was the car FWD or RWD? At the end of the day some of the handling characteristics of the car will be to blame.

But then they would loose the performance angle for the majority of their users. A bit like the exige running allweather boots instead of the A048's. Besides I know for a fact that europe doesnt get a lookin on the worldwide decissions of Nissan let alone tiny sales of a coupe in the UK. I speak regularly with members of nissan europe who complain about not getting a look in

Merely adding to the discussion, mean no harm to anyone, hold no history, only deal with how I am dealt with. "OVER HERE" as you might call it makes for a refreshing change on a similar subject.

Easy Easy don't count me as someone looking for banter trouble or anything of the sort. Not my bag at all. And I apologise now if thats how I appear. I hold only loyalty to myself. Im a regular on a alot of forums not just one.And trying to be a regular here. (Dash goes off to lick his insulted wounds ....... )

ahh the subtlety was lost over the ether. Valid point tho, we all kow **** all! Otherwise we'd all be doing it for a living, and come to think of it Mr Brewer would be out of a job

I personally prefer to try something myself and form my own opinoin. My driving style is probably not the same as alot of people here and whist I can read opinions and expressed views I would only add these as footnotes to my own decissions on a purchase. I would never expect ANYONE to follow any advice given on a forum by me or anyone else really. More fool them I say. As you have rightly pointed out, with a little research the information is at hand and therefore the best opions can only be formed by oneself.

The problem with reporters and their opinions is the are open to influence from biased sources Personally having use the bridgestone summer tyre throughout the winter I understand its deficiencys although I learned to accomodate them given that it was being used outside its initial remit. How do you find the dunlops perform?

As discussed earlier, this is in fact one thing i prob. won't miss Prescience i dont see what the issue is? I am in total agreement with you? Whilst it may not have appeared clear initially I was merely contradicting the point made by an earlier post saying that a "bigger contact patch = more grip" my point (as is yours) was that the pressure placed upon the area ireamins the same on a larger tyre just over a larger, as it is on a smaller tyre but on a smaller tyre the surface area is less. . Which is EXACTLY what you are saying. ? So for example the PSI placed on the two different surface areas would be equal irrespective of ther different contact patch sizes Was not contradicting you mate.

Where is Mr. brewers credential relating to being a doctor in automotive compound adhesion (would that be physics?) Secondly was he employed by Nissan? Whilst I have no evidence to the contrary I find it hard to believe that a reporter could be employed as a competent consultant during the initial trials of a vehicle or even the following NTE Homolgation trials that took place in various countires throughout europe but were managed by both NTE Cranfield and NTE Bonn, where incidently the nurburgring testing team reside? But without evidence to the contrary I am open to admit that I may be wrong. Personally I would not take the wrok of an ex salesman come TV presenter as bonafida evidence upon which to make my choice of tyre manufacturer for the whole of europe on.

If you read it again you will see I said " Less pressure was placed on a surface area" meaning that over a set area the pressure is reduced as the pressure remains the same but is spread evenly over the wider area, whereas in a narrower are the pressure over a given measure (e.g. per sq inch) would be increased as the contact patch is less but the pressure remains the same. We are in fact in total agreement you have just read my statement wrongly

Yes but the point that was being made earlier referred to the wider contact patch (hence my disagreement in reference to surface area and not the degree of slip, and also refered to the additional weight being placed upon said surface area which when compared to the already massive 1500 kilos would actually have very little impact in difference. In addition to this the 19's were not tested using the same tyre compoind nor the same conditions. That was my point. At not point this I refer to a one dimenisonal contact point. I might also add that I am presuming that the 19 inch wheel would be in accordance to recomendation applied by nissan to equate to the same rolling diameter as a 18 inch wheel in order to keep accuracy in the speedo and therefore I would presume that the relational torque fiugres would be very similar.

Im no scientist but I thought that the wider a contact patch the Less pressure was placed on a surface area? Also the weight of the wheel will only effect the unsprung mass( I will check that though to verify Im right) and not the pressure on the surface as the majority of weight is created by the 1500 kilos above the rims and not the incrememntal change from the weight of a 18 inch rim to a 19 inch

I would beg to differ. Whilst I aggree the bridgestones are A SUMMER TYRE they are infact advertised as this! I was not present at the time this happened but I am sorry to say its probably down to driver input rather than JUST a tyres fault. I have Bridgestones on the car currently and whilst I agree abot oil residue on a surface after extended periods of sunshine I could not blame the characterisics of the tyre for this stepping out. In fact you would be suprised how little yaw you are actually creating on the car hence the reason the ESP did not kick in. Alot of people presume they are sliding when in fact they are rolling on the tyre wall. As for saying they are not suitable for UK use they are no different in their characteristics to any other SUMMER TYRE I have used such as the Pirelli P Zero series or the Continental or Goodyear equivelant. As suprising as this may sound to some, it is expected by companies, that people who can largely afford a 30k sportscar can afford to place a winter set of tyres on their car. I know it sounds like madness but this is done in order to obtain maimum performance under optimum condition "right out of the box" so to speak. This is why performance cars come with performance rubber an extreme example being the Lotus exige were it is fittted with A048's (cut slicks) A uk car company providing a car with tyres that are DEFINITELY not suitable for UK conditions.

cheapest ive seen is 105 for the fronts. Andy drop me a pm if you can better it?

I bought my zed for one reason. To set a lap time. Currently using DS2500 on the front ,some life still in the rears, though plans are afoot to upgrade to Performance Firction all round. Small matter of 1100 quid first!

whilst you might be able to FI a zed for less than 43k (thats true) the reliability WARRANTY and retained value in the current z4 m coupe would hold its value better. Im sorry but its true. Plus purely from a handling side I know that at least the z4 m is capable out of the box where as I would not get away with FI'ing the zed without needing to uprate its internals improve its suspension and running the risk of not having a warranty. In truth, they are, as new, untouched, different beasts at different price ranges and I for one think the build on the BMW will last longer and hold its value better (over 3 yrs at least) than the zed. Also as a zed owner I can honestly say I was quicker in the BMW than in the Zed sickening I know but thats just plain facts. The Brakes arent that great though

I have driven one of these last week and can confrim it is indeed one serious piece of kit. In the right hands this is quicker than the zed folks. Sorry but thats a fact.

Jesus! 27k on the front!!! Killed mine in 9k! (there was 27 laps of the nurburgring in there as wel though!!!) The rears are on the way out now at 15k.