I’ve just bought a ‘97 MX5 1.6 and it’s very rear happy, and in turn making it a tad fear inducing when the tyres decide to mimic a slip and slide on hardly damp roads, to try and fix this I’d be looking at replacing the tyres (and checking to make sure the alignment is correct). The most recent post is a few years old so I was wondering if there were any new recommendations? I use the car for everyday use and at the moment track days aren’t something I’ll be doing anytime soon so I’m purely looking to reduce/eliminate the sliding.
the old ones could be just old. what kind of driving to do you want to do with the car ? uniroyal rainsports are quite good in the wet, as are the bridgestone turanza 005s - depending on where you are you may want to consider allseasons, also.
Thanks for the suggestions I’ll definitely look into them!
It’s my first car so I’m not too familiar with Mazdas or any other car for that matter after learning to drive in a basic Ford Focus, however my partner is driving the MX5 at the moment (his Audi TT mk1 is in the garage at the moment) and has noticed how rear happy it is. I personally won’t be driving the car hard for the foreseeable until I’ve done some necessary changes to it but even then we are looking at a few years or so.
Do you have any recommendations for all seasons please?
I run Michelin pilot sports on my 1.8 they work well for me. They have never given me a moment ! Rear wheel drive needs a different driving style to front wheel drive though. I use the car for motorsport as well as on the road.
Your tyres are either very very old/perished, pressures are very high or the alignment is seriously out (or a combination of them all). The easiest thing to check is pressures. how old are the tyres on the rear and what are they? I have 175 tyres on mine at the moment and even those take some ragging on before the back end comes out.
Thank you all for the suggestions I’m glad I decided to ask, and for what Zed said I’d usually agree with you on that one as my partner has a claim or two but whilst in my car he knows better than to drive like a twat 😂
Also the tyres on the car atm are from the previous owner who chose really cheap firestone hawksport 2’s and I believe they’re from 2017. I haven’t checked the pressure yet but that’s my next go to.
Tyre pressure should be 26psi not 32psi as most peeps set them too. Be nice to know what tyres are onit... there are some dreadful ditch finders out there.
Uniroyal rainsports / rain experts are the ones I'd recommend. My old mx5 was quite tail happy no matter what conditions, thanks to cheap old worn tires. Rainsports provided plenty of grip in the wet, granted still could get tail happy but that's if you push it hard and we'll generally drive aggressively
Thanks for the response! Would that be the uniroyal rainsport 3’s by any chance? I’ve seen them mentioned a few times but the difficulty is finding them in the right size. At the moment my car has r14 tyres on and I’ve been told to aim for r15 if possible as they’re the sweet spot but for rainsport 3’s it seems almost impossible to find any in stock.
They're listing the rainsports (now "rainsport 5") look out for the Bridgestone Turanza T005s (great rain&summer tyre - I've got them on two cars!) and also the Advan Fleva V701 for a quieter noisy option, if tyre noise is a concern for you.
(bridgestone and goodyear have you covered in 14" - A-rated wet handling summer tyres - rainexperts are in 14" there and only B-rated, surprisingly.)
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