550bryan

I just acquired a somewhat hot rodded 78 SC with currently Bridgestone RE-11's installed. They're about six years old and not one of my favorites tires. My challenge lies in my tire sizes, they are 205/55 -16 and 245/45-16. It's on 7's and I believe 9's in the rear. The only tires currently available in those sizes are the RE-11's I now have or the Pirelli's. Regarding the Pirelli's, I know they are not good in the wet (I live in So Cal so don't care) and they have short tread life (I'm guessing 10K miles for my moderately aggressive street driving? if correct again who cars). Here are two additions questions I hoping someone can address. How noisy are the Trofeo's, any more so than other high performance tires? Secondly are they particularly harsh? I've read on the tire rack comments that one poster said there were better street tires than PSS's so that's high praise. Anyone out there that can help me on these questions? I'm hoping the Pirellis will work, they have a badass tread design.Thanks, Bryan

r911

usually the softer tread compounds give better stick, less life, and less noise

did you check TireRack?

550bryan

Thanks, yea, I did check tire rack and the few comments there were seemed pretty positive but they didn't speak directly to my questions. The one post I mentioned said the performed better driving back and forth to the track than PSS's, which sounds good. Besides the COA on my cars says it came equipped with Pirelli tires so that would be cool to go back to the same brand. Love the tires tread design too.

550bryan

Isn't there anyone out there who has run these tires?

upshift4

Got them and love them on my 75 Carrera.

550bryan

I pulled the trigger today. I'll have them soon, and I suspect I'll be happy with the decision.....

Amber Gramps

I want to do there for the back of mine but they don't make a size for the front

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires...omCompare1=yes

hootie

Any update on how they are? Any pictures?

I'm in the same boat trying to find tires for 16x7/9. I was thinking of going 205/55 in front and 245/45 in rear. However matching treads are limited. I was thinking Toyo Proxes R1R for the front and Proxes T1R for the rear, but was also considering the Pirellis.

550bryan

Hootie, I've had the tires on the car for about 2000 miles now. I'm pleased with how they are working out. Fairly quiet with a reasonable ride, the grip is great although you're warned to insure they're up to temp. If you live in a cold climate (I'm in So Cal) that's a bigger consideration. They are sticky so they tend to throw up a lot of pebbles and stuff up into the wheel wells. The biggest negative I heard about the tires when I reseached them was limited tread life. I'm not going to put tons of miles on my car so that doesn't bother me. My guess? I'll get 8-9000 miles out of them. That's not just based on tread life but just as much about increasing tread noise and increasing harshness. All of these tires tend to get worse in both of those dimensions over time. Lastly, it's hard to capture the tire in photos. In this thread above there is a close up of the tread pattern, which is both aggressive and cool looking. Here's a couple of shots of my car taken at Luftgekuhlt, hard to see the tires, but they look great on the car and fill up the wheel opening nicely.

hootie

Bryan, they look great and I love the Talbot Yellow. Nice looking car. That's unfortunate about tread life. Since I live in NYC, I'm also a bit concerned about driving in the wet. I expect to use the car for weekend trips with my gf and at times we will have to drive in inclement weather, which makes me lean towards the Toyos. I'm sure living in SoCal you rarely drive the car in the rain.

Random question, is that Tag Heuer sticker on the passenger side covering up the passenger mirror holes?

Steve Weiner-Rennsport Systems

I've had the Trofeo R's on my '74 Carrera for two years now and I just love them. It does rain here in OR, however I simply slow down if/when I get caught out.

550bryan

Yea, the Tag Heuer sticker does cover the mirror hole on the passenger door. My car is a somewhat modified SC and the PO who modified the car wanted to insure it could be easily returned to stock. I have the painted mirrors and the SC deckled also painted with the car. That sticker was really expensive though. Looks cool on the car but it seemed like an empty promise. I always wanted a set of timers on the dash of a car, they look so cool and remind me of my brief flirtation with rallying. As a result I went in search for a pair of timers that would be period correct for the car. By the mid 70's analog timers were being replaced by electronic timers. The last analog T-H timers were actually less expensive as they had a plastic mounting rather than the traditional chrome plate, and as they sold so few they are hard to find. Regardless the black timers look better than chrome would in my interior. It took me months, finally finding one in Spain and the other in Japan (they have slightly different bezels conducive to rallying). Heres' a pic. At least the sticker is no longer an empty promise.

hootie

They look great. A similar mod to what I eventually want to do as well. How is the driver side chrome mirror set up to cover the holes? I thought that the holes would be visible underneath the silver base.