Tire choices for 14 inch Alpinas

[Stevehose]

They're great. I drove 1400 miles on them to the Vintage, and 6 hours through torrential rain, just as good as my previous set of new Michelins. I don't track them though so I can't comment on that aspect of handling.

How do you like the Pirellis? Do they handle anything like a modern sport tire? I’m considering them for one of my cars (not an E9)
John

 

[Dan Mooney]

That certainly is a beautiful car. Any way you can be talked into keeping the velour? Or, making it a mission to find some good cores for recovering with the leather and putting the originals aside? My opinion, of course, but low wear blue velour has such a great luminous look to it. No better testimonial for a low mile European specification car.

Thanks for the compliment! I hadn't thought of it before, but if I could find some reasonably priced core seats I might consider setting the velour seats aside. My personal preference is definitely for leather, but I can see that some might prefer the velour common to the Euro spec cars.

Best Regards,

Dan

 

[Dan Mooney]

You will find that if you wish to increase the width, you should decrease the aspect ratio. My recommendation is 205 65 14 all round on your square set of Alpinas. Incidentally, are they Alpinas or BMW turbine style? What width are the rims?

I agree. In fact I have staggered tire sizing on a couple of my other cars where the wider rear tire has a slightly lower profile.

Best Regards,

Dan

 

[Dan Mooney]

Here are a couple of photos of the Michelin XWX 205/70/14 tires installed. I really like this wheel and tire combination.
Cheers!
Dan

 

[Nicad]

Looks very nice. How's the ride and handling?

 

[Dan Mooney]

Looks very nice. How's the ride and handling?

The ride feels great. Can't honestly comment on the handling yet as the car isn't running well enough to do much more than a gentle cruise. I have a pretty good vacuum leak that I haven't had time to address yet.
Dan