Topic: 13" Performance Tires

[Arthur Dent]

I'm looking for some performance tires (ie not all seasons) for 13" x 5.5" rims. Any ideas of brands, places to buy, etc?

I'd perfer to buy in Canada to save on shipping, duty and such.

[mdxtasy]

www.tiretrends.com

[auto_enthusiast]

There are very options in the 13" size for high performance tires.

You're basically looking at R-compound tires like A032Rs, Victoracers, and RA-1's.

[HeliDriver]

Hmm, looks like my earlier post recommending a local Calgary tire shop that specializes in performance rubber was deleted. 

Presumably, the mods here thought that my simple recommendation as a satisfied customer of said shop somehow constituted "advertising".

I appreciate TireTrends' support of this forum, but come on, when someone asks for "Any ideas of brands, places to buy, etc.", are we really not allowed to say anything except (cue monotonous robot voice) "must buy tires at TireTrends".

[mdxtasy]

Wasn't me.  I think it's good to have competition and choice. 

[Arthur Dent]

I managed to read your post before it was deleted so thanks for all the feedback. 

[morty]

OK, I did it...people recommend shops all of the time and I think it is great. However, when there is a plug for an online competitor, I think our sponsorship earns us the option to delete the reference. Not a common occurence, but it has been known to happen on occasion. I very rarely do the delete and usually let things go that other sponsored forums might not.

[dorin]

That's reasonable enough, but it would have been nice to say so when you did it and maybe offer arthur some choices from Tire Trends.

[HeliDriver]

OK, I did it...people recommend shops all of the time and I think it is great. However, when there is a plug for an online competitor, I think our sponsorship earns us the option to delete the reference. Not a common occurence, but it has been known to happen on occasion. I very rarely do the delete and usually let things go that other sponsored forums might not.

OK, fair enough, but did you see that cheesy website, Morty?  Not much of an online competitor, IMHO

It seems to me that he's basically a local guy who decided to spend $100 to put up his own website just for the hell of it.

If it happens to come up again, I'll just post the shop name and maybe the Calgary street address for folks who might find it useful. Deal? 

[morty]

I did not offer options because we were already mentioned and did not want to give the impression I was muscling in. I did not look at the web site and may have confused it with another. I have no issues with giving recomendations on shops and where they are. You are welcome to post the address and name. There may be the odd occasion that I remove stuff because it is an obvious self promotion.

So, I guess that makes it a deal.

As for 13" performance. Nothing other than full race and Sumitomo HTR200's. We have sold a lot of these for older euro beasts...rabbits and the like.

[Arthur Dent]

Yeah the website was pretty much just an address.

I'm kind of looking for something between an all season and race tire. Good summer tire. Hard to find in 13" I realize.

[blur911]

  There are a lot of rarely driven cars with old cracked, hard 13" and 14" tires  because they just don't wear the tread off them.   A near full-tread 12 year old tire with 30k on it is a scary thing, I've seen 'em, on older Porsche's, MG's, Z-cars,  etc. 
If this is going on your Lotus 7 clone, and you realistically are only going to put a few thousand kilometers a  year on it,  then I'd say  get something like the Toyo Proxes  RA-1's, or Yoko A032R,, leave them full tread and enjoy.   You may have to buy new ones in two or three years if the car is a rarely driven sunny-weekend toy, but it will also be the single biggest performance enhancer you can put on  it, plus, it's a Lotus 7 , It'll be fun.

I've used them on the street/track on my street/track 911 and they can make a good dual use tire.  I figured I got 5-8k out of them, depending upon how many autocrosses/laps were included. YMMV
Other than that, it's the Sumitomo Morty mentioned or hockey pucks.

[morty]

Sumitomo HTR200 is only tire I know of. All-Season, but not a race tire....

[Titanium48]

Falken's website lists 175/60R13 and 185/60R13 sizes for the ZE-512.

[morty]

185/60/13 is pretty much discontinued as we have been unable to get any. 175/60R13 is still available. Falken is owned and built by Sumitomo in Japan. The ZE-512 is a better wet tire and the HTR200 better dry. The HTR200 comes in 175/50/13 and 215/50/13 for those looking for low-profile 13". They also make 185/60/13, 195/60/13 and 205/60/13 sizes. Tough to find.

[blur911]

Looks like most of the "R" tires in that size have disappeared from North America as well.  I checked and your only"R"l choice is the Hoosier R6 in 185-60-13, not that it wouldn't be fun, but it's not the best street tire.  There are better choices in this size, just not in North America where everybody drives SUV's .   How hard would it be to import from UK where there are choices of Yoko, Dunlop, Kumho, etc. in both "R" and regular street performance?

[HeliDriver]

Toyo still lists a couple of 13" sizes for the RA-1 on their website: http://www.toyoracing.com/TireInfo/RA1_tiresizes.asp?type=ra1&RA1Sizes=Get+Info . (Maybe it needs to be updated?  )

I only put about 500 street kilometers on mine, but I think they'd make a pretty decent street tire for a weekend-only kind of car.

Might be tough to get enough heat into them on the street to realize their full potential, but I always found them reasonably grippy and predictable when running at below optimal temperatures.

[blur911]

Toyo still lists a couple of 13" sizes for the RA-1 on their website: http://www.toyoracing.com/TireInfo/RA1_tiresizes.asp?type=ra1&RA1Sizes=Get+Info . (Maybe it needs to be updated?  )

I only put about 500 street kilometers on mine, but I think they'd make a pretty decent street tire for a weekend-only kind of car.

Might be tough to get enough heat into them on the street to realize their full potential, but I always found them reasonably grippy and predictable when running at below optimal temperatures.

You're right, Toyo and others still have 13" in North America, but only in 205 and wider, not narrow enough for a 5.5" rim.  Lotus owners have been complaining of this for years.
BTW, watch out for falling temps as when they "freeze" they lose quite a bit of grip.