It's time to bring you up to date with the saga involved in putting 16 inch wheels on my '92 Liberty RS. As you can probably remember, I bought a set of late model WRX 16 inch rims to replace the standard 15s - expecting to be able to stick on virtually any old pedestrian rubber. The problem was that the tyre placard states a minimum load index of 91 - a rating that's virtually impossible to find in a 205/50 or 55 series sixteen.
However, since the load index is loosely based on the volume of air contained inside the tyre, why not go for a wider section and/or higher profile to bump it up? My first step was to talk to a couple of people who had already fitted wider rubber to their RSs to find out if there were any clearance problems. According to one source, 215s would fit perfectly; another stated that even the standard 205s could rub; while another said 225s would squeeze in okay. So I got a big help there!
At about this time we decided to do a story on guard lipping, so I thought it would be an ideal opportunity for my car to be the guinea pig. A nice little fringe benefit. With the extra centimetre or so of room now available, I thought I might even be lucky enough to fit those big 225s. Every little bit of clearance would help.
After I got the car back on the road (I'll go into the reasons why it was off the road shortly!), I drove down to a local tyre outlet with the WRX 16s rattling around in the boot. This was the same place that had told me 225s would fit - but there was only one way to find out for sure. We tried one on. A brand new Firestone was popped onto a rim and tested for clearance at both ends of the car. Boy was it tight at the back - barely enough room to poke a piece of cardboard folded into two between the tyre and the strut.... At this stage the tyre man enthusiastically chalked up the inner sidewall of the new tyre and got me to drive the car slowly back and forth. He then pulled the wheel off and proudly revealed that there were no chalk marks on the strut, "so there must be enough room". Of course he didn't think too much about wheel and tyre distortion when cornering (and the Liberty can corner extra hard!).
So I went away, having learnt that 225s would j-u-s-t fit (as the good man said), but with what I consider to be an unacceptable amount of clearance. During the journey home I tried to visualise tyre distortion photos that I'd seen in different books - and how much of it occurred at the top of the tyre near the strut? (Does a tyre really have a 'top'? It does now!)
I rang the local Road Traffic Authority again (uh, oh) and asked the question "what is the minimum allowable tyre clearance to the suspension and body?". The answer I got back was a gem. The guy (probably the same one as last time) stated unequivocally that "the tyre must not protrude beyond the wheel arch". Ahh, yeah okay. I asked my question again slowly and with more emphasis. Then the obviously indecisive reply came down the line "There is no set minimum, just so long as it isn't going to cause an accident".
After thanking him for that little pearl of wisdom, I thought I'd speak to some people I figured would know what they're on about. To cut the story short(er) the answers were a little varied, but the average figure was about 5mm - more than that folded up piece of cardboard.
But then came the next interesting stumbling block in the whole drama - are all 225s really 225mm in section width? No sir! I discovered they can range up to around 235mm, and still be labeled a 225! The Firestones I had fitted were actually 229mm wide - so there was still hope of getting "proper" 225s in after all. However, that hope was shortlived. While 225s do vary in size, I'll be buggered if I could find any that were narrower than the Firestone's 229mm width. I suppose I measured about 20 different tyres that were in my price range and not one was narrower - grrr.
I had no choice but to downsize.
The next step was to look at 215s in either a 50 or 55 series profile. I found that the load index problem raised its ugly head again in the 215/50 range, but every 215/55 I found had the necessary 91 or higher rating. The rolling diameter of the 215/55 16 as opposed to the standard 205/60 15 is only about 2.5% greater, so there is no real problem with speedo accuracy. And at last now I had found a legal set of tyres to suit the car and its new wheels.
Finances were a little prohibitive by this time, but I found a savior in the form of Australia's Japanese-import secondhand tyre market. After a little ringing around I found a set of four early model Yokohama AVS, and the price was only A$240 for all four! By way of comparison, the Falken GRB would have cost just over $200 each - the price difference was one I couldn't afford to waste.
The guys fitted the tyres that very same day and I drove away in a much-improved looking car. The strut clearance is now acceptable - since the 215s are actually 215mm across... I haven't been able to make them scrape (and I have tried!). A benefit of the bigger 16s and their lower profile rubber is considerably improved steering response and feedback - but the trade-off is more harshness over sharp bumps. Cat's eyes in the middle of the road are an obstacle that now makes the dashboard crash-bang and sends shock waves through the occupants. I wonder how harsh the ride is in those cars with massive 18-plus inch wheels?! The slight increase in tyre contact patch area (actually no change at all! - Editor) has made a noticeable improvement, but if I wanted mass-grip I'd go for a road/race tyre like Yokohama's new A032. Hmm, maybe once I get the suspension sorted out...
With around 200,000 kilometres of hard driving on the clock of the mildly modified Scooby, it has every right to pack in the factory engine (and turbo). I thought it had finally done so a couple of weeks back when she decided to run on three cylinders, along with no illumination of the Check Engine light. After checking the hundreds of vacuum lines and electrical connections, I took a stab that it was a stuffed ring or something equally terminal. Either that or a strange electrical nasty - like the ECU (oh no).
Fearing the worst (that's just my personality, I suppose) I rang around the local Japanese import wreckers and located a good EJ20 turbo motor with turbo and intercooler etc for a measly 1400 clam-a-roos. No problem, just swap all the sensors and bits that were known to be working off the existing engine and the change should be a doddle. But just to make sure I wasn't on completely the wrong track, I took the car to my trusted workshop for a full diagnosis. There it soon became apparent that the fix would be an even bigger doddle than expected. The damn stubborn engine was still alive and well - it had just dropped one of its four ignition coils. Do these EJ motors ever know when to throw it in? I sort of wish it would, so I could put a new one in!
A next-day-delivery coil from a Japanese spec engine was sent from interstate for only A$65, and the flat four again fired into its usual running beat. Blub, blub, blub...
I was lucky enough to have a drive of BMW's flagship 7 series the other day - none other than a 750iL. It was by no means as-new since it was an '89 model with a fair number of kilometres behind it, but you could certainly see why it had once cost in excess of A$200,000. Of course I thought was it simply an awesome car right? Well, not really.
For sure, it had a delightfully smooth and powerful V12 that accelerated the car deceptively swiftly, but there wasn't that inspiring stir you sometimes get when you get behind the wheel of some 200+kW cars. Yeah I know the 750 is more a heavy luxury saloon then a hi-po ball-tearer, but by today's standards I'd say even this mighty 750iL would be considered only "above average" in class for NVH. It was about quiet inside as a new Mitsubishi Magna. What - a Magna?! And its ride was only slightly more supple than a Magna Sports - incidentally, it costs around $2000 a corner to fit new shockers to a 750iL! Ten years of age has really caught up with the early 750iL.
Having said that though, they are currently a real bargain on the used car market. They've dropped to around A$40,000 for a good one - and that, boys and girls, represents one massive crash in value. People at the side of the road gaze upon the car, instantly recognising it as a top-line Beemer - without realising it might have cost the owner about the same as a new model optioned-up family hack!
I only wish I had the chance to test the big saloon near its 250km/h speed limiter, but the poor owner sitting in the passenger's seat might have raised a few concerns...
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