Tyre sizes

[stephenrs2]

Hi
I've had my LHD RS2 for 10 months now> When I bought it it had what turned out to be Porsche 993 Turbo alloys fitted. As I've just got myself a set of original RS2 Cups and had them refurbished, I wanted to confirm the correct tyre size.
I'm sure it's 245*40*17ZR's, although I'd like to be sure before I hand over a stack of Euros for Bridgestones.
As a point what is the best tyre brand?

Steve

[scillyisles]

The RS2 was fitted with specially developed tyres by Dunlop - SP8000. These tyres were developed by Dunlop to fit on the 7" RS" rim - thye had a specially strengthened sidewall able to take the pronounced bulge that fitting onto a 7" rim produced. Although the tyres were supposedly sized at 245/40ZR17 - they were in fact undersized and were more or less 225 in section width.
The topic of tyre size on RS2 has been researched in detail on this and other Audi forums - the consensus is as follows
- no current 245/40ZR17 tyre is safe to fit on a 7" rim. If you do so you risk tyresidewall failure (generally on the inner sidewall which is not immediately visible)
- the best alternative for the RS2 7" rims is 225/45ZR17. This tyres size keeps the diameter more or less the same (speedo won't need adjusting) and there are several well known brands of tyre that are approved for fitment to a 7" rim.

I've currently running Pirelli Neros in 225/45ZR17 on mine and I'm very impressed with them - one of the other common choices is Michelin PS2 also in 225/45ZR17. Generally for a heavy car like the RS2 you need to choose a tyre with a high Load Speed Index (the Neros are 94Y whilst the Michelin are 92Y)
Hope this helps

[stephenrs2]

thanks for this, you've just saved me what would have been an expensive headache, if not a dangerous one.

[alastairg]

I would second the choice of pirelli nero BTW