I bought a set of new tires the other day. Previously I was using 225/50/ZR16 (front) and 245/45/ZR16 (rear) Dunlop Sport 8000s on the Vintage Wheel Works V45 wheels. These tires were old and frankly with tire performance technology at an all-time high today, I figured I should splurge for some new tires.
I ended up with a set of Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec tires in 225/50/R16. They ride way better and grip way better, which I expected since they are highly rated on Tire Rack. I am using 36/36 for air pressure, and will adjust over the next couple hundred miles as they wear in. Since they are the same size and not staggered, I can rotate them around the car too.
One item to note is that these Vintage Wheel Works wheels are lug-centric (the lug nuts are tapered and center the wheel on the axle through tapered holes in the wheel), which is uncommon enough today that four local shops I visited to get the tires mounted and balanced had no idea what lug-centric even was. Most shops expect hub-centric wheels (the wheels are machined to center the wheel on the axle through the hole in the middle of the wheel -- no tapered lug nuts or lug holes) and attach the wheel/tire to be balanced with a hub attachment through the middle of the wheel.
These wheels couldn't be balanced properly that way (although each shop said they could until I explained the difference) and required the attachment that connected the wheel to the balancer through the five lug holes. The fifth shop had the attachment in the back room and literally figured out how to use it on my wheels. They balanced one wheel with the hub attachment and then the lug attachment for practice, and sure enough got two different balances. But they are all perfectly balanced now. Woo hoo!
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