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R56 Cooper - Replacement tires, keep RFT or not

6K views 18 replies 12 participants last post by  NurseDaddy 
#1 ·
Hi all,

One of my front tyres have had a puncture and I've had to drive a number of miles on it, so suspect that there is no chance of keeping.

One thing that I have seen is that a lot of people are ditching run flats on their Minis. Is this just for the MCS or standard MC?

I've currently got 195/55/R16 H87 Bridgestones ER300 on all corners and I'm not sure whether to replace the front 2 with the same or switch to normal on all 4 corners. Looking at the price at some of the tyres that people are using, there doesn't seem to be much difference in price.

For like for like replacements it's £79.06 fitted, but only £5-10 cheaper for normal. I've also seen people moving up the sizes to 205/50, what would the benefit in doing this, if any?

I'm not what to do for the best. Can anyone give me any pointers?

Thanks in advance.
 
#4 ·
After reading lots on the internet I decided to change from rft to normal last week on my r56 Cooper S.
I can say it has made a big improvement with the handling (not that is was bad before). The car feels more agile, the steering has become a little lighter and some of the stiffness has gone riding over bumps.

I have Dunlop sportmaxx RT 205/45 r17 fitted. I was thinking about going to 16" tyres as it seems more people prefer them but I like the look with the 17's :)
 
#5 ·
After reading lots on the internet I decided to change from rft to normal last week on my r56 Cooper S.
I can say it has made a big improvement with the handling (not that is was bad before). The car feels more agile, the steering has become a little lighter and some of the stiffness has gone riding over bumps.

I have Dunlop sportmaxx RT 205/45 r17 fitted. I was thinking about going to 16" tyres as it seems more people prefer them but I like the look with the 17's

Andy what would you do if you had a puncture? Are you carrying the gel stuff too?
 
#11 ·
Aloha

I've changed over to conventional tires and done in with the run flats. After 30,000 km of using the conventional's the feedback is

A) Massive improvement in ride comfort

B) Massive improvement in Performance, especially in the wet

The only down side for me is carrying a spare. I only do this when on long journeys , when I'm close to home base or a support network i didn't bother but when going a 200 km journey i pack the spare , Jack etc. Its rare that i would have more than two people with me on such a journey so its not a problem. If i have more than two people to consider i take the other car.

There are some great performance tires available to suit all budgets. Im running a new set of KU39's which at this stage appear to be sensational, but that's only after 1500 km
 
#13 ·
I'm going to get rid of the run flats on my R53. Will get the Slime kit AND a Space Saver to put in the boot. I've worked out that you can use this (from eBay ad):
Rover 200/400 25/45, Streetwise, MG ZR/ZS Spare Wheel Space Saver 125/80R15 £19.95
They are PCD 4 x 100, centre bore 56.1 and ET45.
The rolling circumference is 94% of a 205/45/17. The Mini one (115/7/15) is 88%.
Loads of them on eBay or Amazon. All about £20.
Saves a fortune and does the job.
 
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