Effect on handling of wheel mass and tyre brand/size.

[airmanuk]

Hi,

I have just put some newish wheels on my Mk1 MR2.

The old wheels were stock 14" with Pirelli P6000 185/60/R14.

The new wheels are Toyota 15", 6 spoke and I imagine a lot lighter. The tyres are Barum Buvaris 195/50/R15. I got the wheels off Ebay and they are in perfect nick, and new tyres locally. They look fantastic , but....

The feel and handling of the car have changed considerably, unfortunately for the worse. The car previously drove like a typical Mk1, ie very chuckable.

Both at low and high speed, the turning resistance is a lot less, and the car feels more prone to understeer. I have not yet driven the car in the wet.  I thought that with slightly wider and lower profile tyres I should, if anything, get more grip and feedback, but I don\'t. With lighter wheels, and therefore less gyroscopic effect, I could accept that turning resistence should be lower, but shouldn\'t grip be the same?

The car also pulls right with the steering wheel centred, but when the car is driven hands off, the neutral position of the steering wheel is about 5 degrees to the left, but the car goes straight. I had the tracking checked out at Quickfit, and they couldn\'t fault it. I hadn\'t previously had any problems with tracking.

The car feels more entertaining, but scarier.

My thought is to go back to the tyre shop, and order something decent like Eagle F1s, SO3s etc, as it was only my impatience that made me take what they had in stock (Barum) for that size. However, what effect on the handling might be down to the new alloys?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

Neil