Stop Press! Wheel intrusion
All 260 owners, get your off side rear wheel off and check around the wheel arch for intrusions into the "wheel envelope" especially where the fuel pipes go down the wall and under the car. Check to see if the mounting studs are far enough back to avoid digging into your wheel/tyre assembly. If they seem as though they are sticking out further than they need to, take a file to them and pull them back to being flush with the shrouding mounts. A 10 minute job and wouldn’t hurt to look anyway would it?
Tyres are another personal choice, I have chosen the Michelin Pilot Sport route but here are some other views:
The Conti's are the OE tyres for the car, a good safe choice but they wear quite quickly – my rears lasted 6500 miles! £139 a corner at Headley Tyres in Berkshire.
Some owners find they were noticeably noisier than the Contis. But I have found them to be fine. They are probably the most expensive choice but I find they grip very well in the wet and dry. I’ll let you know how long they last. Autocar also put these on their long term test car and were very positive about them.
One owner found the Michelin Pilots to be
worse than the
Conti's in all areas.
Toyo Proxes T1R's,
Dreadnought fi these to their 400hp supercharged monster. Depending on price I will probably give these a go next time.
Priced at £108 each all-in, not sure
what they are like, let
me know if you have tried them!
No reports on these on a ZT but have had good feedback for other muscle cars.
Funny I have found more comments on these
than any of the others!
“Hmm, not really what you want to have on a 260! They are
terrifying in the wet apparently and given the car you have, I wouldn't
trust my safety to anything other than what's recommended! You're only
sitting on a contact patch of about 4" x 4" per corner and I know that
I'd want as
much as possible on the floor as possible!”
One owner killed a set of Nangkang NS2's in around 4-5000 miles and claimed that they are indeed terrible. Dry roads are not a particular problem as they work ok there, if less grippy than Conti’s or Pilots. The NanKangs are at least progressive so there is plenty of warning with one wheel spinning up first and early (before the diff starts to lock) to let you know.
They are not too bad in proper rainy roads, again less grippy than the contis and pilots but they won't try and hurl you off the road if you are sensible.
It is the slightly wet, greasy, just a drizzle now stopped, type of surface they have trouble with - especially once you've knocked the top level of sticky rubber of the tyre and are into the meat of the construction.
They are quite tricky in these conditions, being very unpredictable and prone to loosing grip early on and suddenly. In the right mood they can be amusing, for you and following cars!
It was an interesting experiment to try these tyres and I could have coped with the lower grip levels compared to the other tyres if they did not exhibit this unsettling behaviour in dampish conditions.
Another owner said “I'm still in two minds as to which tyres have more grip. These Nang Kangs, or the bald Pilots”
Another said “the NangKangs are definitely quieter, particularly noticeable on concrete stretches of motorway. They are wearing well. But There is an issue of vibrations through the steering wheel just below 70, which I suspect is due to them being balanced incorrectly. When manoeuvring at very low speed there is no tyre creep/jump that I have always experienced with the Contis. I have not noticed any major deterioration in handling, maybe slightly easier to kick the rear out, but nothing considerable. The only downer is there is no rim protector so the so the tyres don’t appear to sit right - there being a slight gap between rim and tyre but this is purely aesthetic, and nothing to be over concerned about.
Seems to me a set of Nankangs could be good for cheap sideways track day fun!