Tires

Need more grip from your car, there's only one way to go and that's to upgrade your tires.  If anyone has upgraded their tires, please feel free to drop a mail to the club with pictures of the tread pattern if possible.

Below results acquired from the tire size calculator.  For your reference only.

Tyres: by Frankie

(1) Continental Premium Contact 195/55 R15 H

After a my big crash tragedy in mid Oct last year, I finally got the insurance compensated new 2001 Gti delivery in early March this year. I'd never been told before the new 2001 standard 206 Gti would come with new spec. of tyres. The French Pug factory (perhaps it was LM's decision, who knows) has replaced the 185/55R15  P6000 by 195/55R15 Continental Premium Contact. At the first sight, Continental tyres treads seems good at wet condition, in reality, it's not too bad handling during raining. However, the overall performance of the Continental is "fear + uncertain", crappy crap!

Straight forward driving: Continental handling in straight driving is quite oblique & uncertain, got to keep shaking a bit left & right of the Steering wheel to make the car runs straight forward.

Cornering / Turing:  the rear tyres are lacking of grip which caused the car sliding at every turn, most 206 Gti owners reckon that the rear slightly shifting is fun, some of owners even kept using P6000 until they retired, as P6000 is less grip than those Japan famous model like RE711 & Advan. But "fun" also needs the rear to be under control, P6000 is competent to the point "fun" in most case, while Continental only gives me fear & worry at all!. The main reason is Continental tyre compound is quite hard, light weight car has not enough weight to force down the tyres to stick on the road, particularly hatch back cars, rear sliding or so call over steering is pretty significant. Second reason is Hong Kong's road condition and people driving behaviour are quite different to those in Europe, Continental needs long time (say about 20+ km travelled) to warm up each time. The longer the journey you drive, the tyres seems more grip on the ground.

To conclude: Year 2001 Gti model using Continental is a bloody wrong decision. I personally reckon Continental "down grade" the original Gti performance at least by 50%. I would recommend owners change the tyres as soon as possible, perfectly just right after got the car delivery.

(2) Bridge Stone G Grid II 205/40 ZR17.

After 2 weeks of worrying about Continental would sooner or later loss control & over sliding, I made up my mind and used up all savings in my pocket, I decided to replace the tyres. At the beginning I planned to buy Yokohama Advan or Yokohama DNA or Toyo R1R. When I down to the tyre shop in Sham Shui Pui (the one seems offering lowest price in HK I guess), the prices were quoted DNA around $850 each, Advan around $750 and R1R is $650. I mean all are same size quotation: 195/55 R15 as OE setting.

Advan & R1R have been tried by other owners, both are confirmed excellent for our tiny hatch back. While DNA is the latest fashion tyres from Japan. Most ppl like to try at first place. When the time I'm considering which model would fit my driving style, I was strongly (bit hard sell) persuaded by the tyre shop ppl to swap OZ 17".

To use this OZ 17", I have to use 205/40 17". Recently big wheels become more popular for small cars, more big tyre with low profile models choice available than before. I can choose P7000, BS Grid II & Yoko DNA at the same shop. I finally choose BS G Gird II, as P7000 is Euro tyre while DNA is too expensive.

G Gird II is not a new model, it's market is largely replaced by RE711 & S-02 in past few years. The tyre tread shape & compound structure of Grid II is just in between of RE711 & S-02.

Straight forward driving: Much certain and a very strong force of the steering wheel return to the centre point, feels like those million dollars Super Cars. Pick up from 1st gear is a little delay but overall can't say it's a hindrance of acceleration. Low profile tyres are really fun indeed and give the driver more confidence. Both hands on steering like hands touching the ground, a very strong signal transmitted from the tyres. Communication between the car and driver has overall improved.

Cornering / Turing:  the rear tyres much more grip than Continental, the rear still slightly sliding but now all the way under control, I got "fun" again. First **Smile** on the face since the delivery of the car. Turning corners is more willing, lively and responsive, 17" really not a burden which I was quite surprised.

To conclude: Low profile tyres are pretty suitable for 206 Gti, I would recommend if you guys change tyres later, try to use lower profile tyres, such as 195/50 R15 instead of 195/55 R15.
 

Wheels

Peugeot cars are hard to find rims in HK. We can only find it by chance or by special mail ordering or simply back to dealer to buy Pug factory options. So far only Pug factory's 16" & 17" do not need spacer. All other made such as Musketier, OZ, Fox & MS Design are needed spacers. Price is around HK$1200 to $2500 each pcs.

Basically, what you want is a 4 holes with PCD 108 mm. But the big question is Pug cars need smaller offset than others. That is to say, 108 mm PCD does not necessary mean you can use even it can perfectly be fitted on the brake disc. Wrong OFFSET will cause wheels touching the caliper (too big offset) or outside the panel (too small offset).

I have recently read, seen, asked as well as my actual experience about the most correct  OFFSET of bigger rims. I would say offset from 25 to 30 mm would be the best, of course 1, 2 or even 3 mm variance is also acceptable but according to the actual tyre models available in HK, better choose rims have 25 to 30 mm OFFSET.

Before you decided to buy bigger wheels, always make sure the spacer comes with the wheel's original factory longer screws, better carefully check the quality & length of the screws before you pay & install, those European or Japanese made are better quality than others. For example OZ mainly made in Italy and Japan, but recently heard some model(s) from Singapore.

My 17" OZ set is made in Italy and each wheel, spacer & screw are marked OZ as well as Made In Italy. Packing comes with a CE (EEC) safety & quality proved. I have heard one owner (but really need to confirm by actual seeing) has swapped 17"s which do not have factory longer screws attached in the packing. The owner needed to use other unknown brand made screws that can only screw up 3 turns. What a danger!!!

Finally. Good luck to you all and hope you guys would share your experience with me & others.

Yokohama Advan Neova (asymmetric tread design)

Changed by Ricky on this white 206GTi (baby Type-R).  Comments as below from his experiences. Waiting for some pictures Ricky.

Dear all,
I've changed the tires on my lovely GTi from P6000 to Yokohama Neova today.  Although the P6000 are only 4 months old (jc_333 says "that's not very environmentally friendly"), I still changed the tires cos the lack of grip at cornering.  Here's a short report on the new tyres in comparison with the original:
The tire noise is, surprisingly (cos it's performance tire, only a grade below the R tyre) more quiet than the original! the grip of the new tires are, by far better than the original even at the early run-in stage, I could darely say it's almost the same (grip-wise) to BS RE711!  The size of the tires are 195/50R15 with tire pressure of 30psi (front and rear) and the cost of the tires are about 10% cheaper than RE711.

If anyone has changed the tires from the original, please share your opinion with us!
Ricky

Bridgestone S-02 Pole Position

Changed by club_206 on this grey 206GTi.

Waiting for the driver to thrash his car "a bit" and comment on his 205/45-16 spec tires.  Would you like me to test them for you, they must be run in by now! hehe

Pirelli P8000

Changed by Seltorque on this grey 206Gti.

Waiting for the driver to comment on his 205/40-17 spec tires. 

Bridgestone S-02 Pole Position

Changed by myself (jc_333) on my grey 206GTi.

The OE P6000 were okay for normal driving but when pushed would scream out and slide out.  Also when driving at high speeds the car didn't really feel that "on the ground".  After 9,600km I decided to upgrade to 195/50/15 with the OE wheels.  Fit from the tires is prefect, wraps nicely around the wheel to provide an edge to protect it from being kerbed.  Noise is minimal even at hard cornering, car feels more firmly planted to the ground.  When pushed the S-02 will slide out very smoothly, off the gas and its back in line.  UPDATED With the car now lowered the tires perform so much better, tires can now be used to their full potential.

Cheers

jc_333

END

Page last updated 27/03/01