It’s time for new tyres for my V12 SIII …
I currently have 215/70R15 but I was thinking of the alternative 215/65R15
I’ve spent many hours searching the forum but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus.
I like the tall gearing effect of the 215/70R15, has anyone seen a noticeable difference with the shorter (3.2% slower) 215/65R15?
I also like the idea of crisper handling and the looks of the lower profile 215/65R15, but will they leave a big empty gap ?
As part of my decision is aesthetics, and the main reason of this post, does anyone has photos of the their car with 215/65R15 ?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. !
Aristides
I had 215/70 on it and liked the look. The switch to 205/70 wasn’t that noticeable, only from the outside. I liked the 215 much more, but you get used to it. Larger ones looked much better. I might go back there one day. Would the handling get much crisper? Would increasing tyre pressure do about the same, with a cost in ride quality of course? Also, you could find a larger swaybar, I know these exist somewhere. Cornering could be tighter to keep up with the times…
You may have seen my comments already in the archives. Handling much crisper IMO with the 215/65s but there is some space in the front wheel arch on my car; I would like to lower it like DD’s.
Agreed…my positive experience was with 7 inch wheels. Wow, your undercarriage is magnificent, Doug. I assume it’s on display in a museum and never driven.
Heh heh, no. It looked reasonably nice for, oh, about a week.
Of all my Jags this is the least clean. My days of endless cleaning are long gone, it seems. I kinda like it this way, to be honest . Sorta like a chapter of life well enjoyed but now closed.
Addco #588 and with a cost of about €220 including shipping and droplinks, bushings not even that bad.
Droplinks, new, are €25, bushings €15, and the brackets and rubber that mount on the car are probably around $50 without looking it up. Used swaybars are not free either so if sold on ebay there would be a price difference of less than 50 bucks, I guess - and all new parts.
If the rear bar should balance the car a little is it difficult to mount the XJS-bar; I assume Jaguar for once didn’t include mounting locations for it, but apart from that it should be drop-in?
If it were me, I would stay with the large tyres for now and do the swaybar first, as I still feel that the cars do that '70s land-yacht thing around the corners more than I like. The look of the 215/70 was very good; I’m not going to say anything about Doug’s now but at the rear wheel arches there is quite an impressive difference; also this is where my change hurt (I can’t say anything about the handling; it was the difference of driving over a ploughed field vs. a proper road; the tyres were old and defect). But the speed vs. GPS didn’t change much. Aristides, as no one mentioned it yet, I like your colour!
Not a difficult installation but I wouldn’t quite call it a ‘drop-in’.
You’ll need radius arms with the little brackets to accept the end links. Or, fabricate brackets. Or, as I did, used Corvette brackets welded to the radius arms.
You’ll need to remove some of the heat insulation board from the underside of the body to mount the U-brackets that hold the bar to the body of the car. The area of the body where the brackets are attached isn’t reinforced or particularly thick so I fabricated some .125" thick reinforcing plates.
New bushings for the end links and U-brackets, of course. That’s easy.
XJS rear bars are a bit hard to find, yes. Not all XJSs used them. In fact, most didn’t.
But I got lucky and found one on Ebay from a UK seller who had several on hand. $150 shipped to the USA.
Addco also makes a rear bar but, IMO, it’s too big. I had one on my XJS and wasn’t happy and switched to a Jaguar rear bar.
So, I decided to replace my 215/70-15 with 215/65-15 and got the Fulda EcoControl HP 96H at a very decent price.
Aesthetics:
Love the look, not so much of a gap between the tire and fender and the wheels look so much nicer with less rubber.
On plus, I opted with Rim Protection tires witch also improved the looks as the tire seems wider and fill the arch better.
The car looks longer and much more elegant.
Driving;
Crispier, with a more “modern” feel, albeit a little bit harsher on bumps.
But, as Frank said on an other post, could be the difference of the rubber compound and wall stiffness.
Also my old tires had the habit of loosing pressure, so they were under-inflated most of the time.
Overall, even though it has been only a few days, I am very happy with the change.
Looks are looks and feel is feel. As in many things, to each his own.
New for old usually meets better on each. tires included.
It looks great.
I prefer more rubber less steel or alloy. The taste thing.
The wheel wells in my Jaguar are well filed with
215 x 70 x 15 on XJS style lattice wheels. Pleasing to me in looks and feel.
A few months ago, the ancient “touring” tires on my old Jeep were deemed done for and no longer safe. Just too old.
I went shopping. Decided to treat me and the Jeep to proper tires. Back to original spec Goodyear Wranglers> M & S capable. And, wonder on wonder match the virgin spare ion it’s boot!!
The Jeep looks good and feels good. The taste thing…
They look very decent, but H on a V12? Come on! I know; they handle well and look good; all you need.
Also never realized you had a federal car. As it’s a V12 it can’t be US, what’s the story?
I recently found Kumho Ecowing, V-rated and 215/65 at reasonable pricing, on a nearby XJS.
But they are summer tyres and that is uncomfortable as I don’t want to shell out money for a second set of rims - yet.
Do the 215/65 fit in the spare well? My 215/70 is too fat and just barely fits; not very nice if I was asked…
The long prevailing consensus is that the higher speed rating tires have stronger, stiffer casings. I have no reason to doubt that but oft wondered what other things, if any, make up the difference.
A lot of people confuse load ratings with speed ratings. Two different specifications and meanings…but in many cases they go hand-in-hand, with the higher speed rating also having a higher load rating. Again presumably due to the stronger casings.
The overwhelming majority of Jags I see on the road are being driven as though they were made out of glass so a high-spec, performance-oriented tire would probably be wasted money.
