BB512 Michelin Rear Tires

Has anyone had any luck recently sourcing the Michelin XWX 225/70 VR15 BB512 rear tires?

If not, what are people using?

I recently bought a set for my bb through Longstone tyres in the UK. They delivered quickly and efficiently to Australia with no dramas. They are currently advertising them for US$383 with free delivery. Web link below

http://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/

.....and the date codes on the tyres indicated they were about six months old

Perfect, thanks Greg.

Good day Drew,

I, too, have been agonizing over replacement 512BB tires with original rims... If one wants the original XWX, then it looks like Longstone and coker (www.coker.com) are the only distributers.

If one wants more modern tires, sadly there are not a lot of options. However, I did find Michelin XGT-V4s in 215/60/V15 and 225/60/V15 that I am planning to use. Although a 60 series will reduce the tire height by approx 1" and change the speedo readings a little, the tires are of newer design and consequently better performance... also they are a lot less money... a full set front/rear for $990 CAN /$840 USD installed (balanced, etc).

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Sam

Thanks Sam.

I have those same size tires as Sam with Pirelli P600s and all I can say is don't do it they are way too small and don't look good on the car.

Turns out my tires are flat spotted and shot, I tried to have them balanced and found this out today from diagnosing my front end vibration.

Here are the options I have found

1.You can go to a Hoosier Bias Sports Car DOT racing tire, 275/60/15 rears are the closest to stock XWX 225/70s which are 27.5 diameter and 9" wide. The Hoosiers are very close at 27.6 and 9.2" wide.

Fronts 225/60/15 are as close as you can get with the Hoosiers to have a matching set.


2. Tire Rack sells Yokohama tires in 275/60/15 which has a diameter of 27.9 and width of almost 9" as well, their are others such as Firestone Firehawk, Good Year Eagle 2, BFG TA and Dunlop qualifier as well with similar diameters in the same sizes.

The fronts would be a 235/60/15.


Not many choices but 1 XWX rear is over $400 plus shipping from UK for a junk tire IMO but factory correct, so $2000 for XWX tires doesn't make sense to me, plus I want to take advantage of my new racing springs and Konis, even with my bad tires the car corners incredible should be a huge improvent with new tires.

Good day Jeff,

Thanks for the input! However, I recently saw a post with 215/60/15 and 225/60/15's on a 365BB and it did not look too bad... In fact, here is the picture... These are the sizes I mentioned, however the tires are not Michelin but BF Goodrich T/As...

I will have to look at the Yoko's to see how they measure up ... (please forgive the pun)!

Cheers,

Sam

Sam,

here's a pic of my car with the 235/60/15s rear which are bigger than the 225s of course,in the pic above the tires look like 255/60 or 275/60s rear to me, much bigger than on my BB with the same size 9" rear rims.

Good day Jeff,

Cool pic ... As for the one I submitted, the tire sizes where given by the owner, which could be inaccurate.

I used a site that was referred to me by another member that compares the old sizes to new sizes. The site is:
http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html
Attached is the data I obtained for 60 series tires as compared to the stock 70 series.

As for the Yokos in the 275/60/15 size, sadly, I could only find a T rated tire... Others such as the T/A's etc seem not that much better. In my case the tire must be H rated or better.

I was unable to find the Hoosiers you mentioned (size) on Tirerack. Referring to the Hoosiers website, these tires are geared towards racing courses and so how well they perform on the street (cornering, longevity, resistance to puncture, etc) would be of a concern.

Yikes, all this analysis for tires... I wish it was easier, as there always seems to be a compromise.

Anyway, I have not given up and will keep looking!

Cheers,

Sam