Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Tyres - Plus8 15" wheels

Hello - newbie with 21 years with a Plus 8

Done a search on here and not really come up with anything positive regarding the situation with decent sports tyres for Plus 8's which were fitted with 15 inch wheels, rather than the later 16 inch ones.

Standard tyre size was 205/60/R15. Tyres of this size now seem limited to Passenger car tyres, which are not sports high performance tyres.

Has anyone changed to 205/55/R15 such as the Toyo Proxy T1-R or can anyone come up with a sports tyre for the 205/60/R15 tyre please.

Dear noddy,

YOKOHAMA is doing a road-legal Semi-Slick tyre in 205/60-15: A048 (available at RTCC for example).

It´s told to be quite "tricky" in wet conditions and is the successor to Roadster Lightweights/LeMans62´s A032 Tyres.

Did you think of the current Roadster Sport´s 205/65-15 too?

Would be also interested in ANY (road-lagal!) trackday tyres!

Hi Noddy,

Had the same decision to make last year.

In the end I chose continental sport contact 2 tyres which are available in 60 profile. Been very happy with them.

Having said that it was a tough decision, the Toyos seem to be the general tyre of choice and I'm told that the 55 profile doesn't change ride comfort significantly, nor does it put the speedo too far out (haven't done the sums but presumably the circumference is reduced by 5/60).

Seem to remember that tread pattern was a factor because the contis aren't assymetrical, so the spare will fit either side, I'm not sure about some of the others that I considered.

Not much comfort I know, but if your existing tyres are very old, I'm sure that any replacements will be a vast improvement!

Malcolm T

Does the Roadster Sport have 205/60 -15 wheels and tyres? I would have thought the tyres would be too heavy, but if so what make and spec?

Hi again dear noddy,

the bespoke Roadster with the works alloy wheels has 205/60-15 (Yokohama) tyres on 6" rims, on the works stainless wire wheels it has 205/55-16 on it´s 7" rims.

The Roadster Sport has the "fat" 205/65-15 on 6,5" painted wire wheels. Mostly AVON in this case as far as i know...

Hope that helped?!

Continental, like others, no longer do the Sport Contact tyre for a 15 inch wheel.

Just for the record, asymmetric tyres can be fitted on either side of the car (asy. means one indicated sidewall of the tyre must be mounted on the outside face of the wheel) therefore the spare can be used anywhere on the car.

Hello numog

Thanks for the info.

Is there any particular reason why MMC reduced the wheel dia and increased the tyre wall profile and weight for the Sport?

So 55's will decrease the tyre dia by 20mm and 65's will increase it by 20mm.

The reasons were twofold, ride comfort and aesthetics (they felt it looked closer to weekend racers of old).

The ride comfort, especially on UK roads, would certainly be improved with a higher profile tyre.

Thanks Simon

Now I just need opinions on whether 205/55/15 (-20mmm dia from std) or 205/65/15 (+20mm dia from std) would look/perform best. Incidentally, my car is fitted with painted wire wheels (MWS special order), which are more in the old 1960's style - like the 4/4 wire wheel, rather than the +4 or Roadster wire wheels. Any opinions anyone?

Reducing diameter will reduce ground clearance slightly and reduce gearing slightly. Since the Rover V8 doesn't like revs, I'd go for +20mm to give the clearance and increase the gearing. The V8 torque will take care of that so you won't notice. Just look at wing clearance at the rear - you really don't want the tyre to sit inside the arch at the edge where the running board starts, and beware of reduced clearance on lock at the front.