Tyres of choice for 172 Cup?

[Ash J]

Hi,

New to this forum, recently acquired a 172 Cup. Tyres are due a change very soon, just wanted to know people's experience with certain tyres on the Cup, which are better than others etc.

On most of my previous cars, I have run and been very happy with Yokohama Parada Spec 2's but these are not made in the 195 size for the Cups. They start at 205 (205/45/16 are available) and I know 205s can be used on the 172 wheels (seeing as the 182 uses 205 tyres), but I have read mixed reviews on this forum about the 172 on 205 tyres, and I like the drive on 195s (although I haven't tried 205s to compare) so would prefer to stick to 195s if I could!

Another popular choice people use for any car is Toyo T1Rs. I've tried these on previous cars, and whilst they do give a fair amount of grip, the sidewall is a little soft and personally I don't feel they are all that great in the wet.

I have seen a fair few good reviews on the Hankook V12 Evo's, but I can't seem to find these in 195/45/16 anywhere?! Do people that run these choose 205 instead of 195?

Another tyre I very much like other than the Parada's above, is the previous Eagle F1 which is the GSD3. These are hard to get hold of now, but I have found a website that offer the GSD3s in 195/45/16 (albeit it at over £80 per tyre delivered), but the sidewalls are rated as 'XL' which I thought was designed for quite heavy cars and small commercial vans, whereas the Cup is a featherweight! Would these be ok to use, or avoid the XL rated tyres?

What other tyres do people use? I'd like to avoid 205s if I can, unless anybody has positive experiences with running these over 195s? If so, I would go for Paradas in 205 as I've always liked these tyres and would like to give them a go!

Please help with your experiences

Cheers

 

[Don]

I always used to have contisport contact 2s 195/45/16 on there. It is what they came with originally and I didn't want to change that as at the time, they were the best tyres I'd tried for the car.
I used to love the stiff sidewalls that they came with.

I had a 172cup for 5.5 years and covered 95,000 in her...so I definitely used it.

 

[mr.pink87]

My daily tyres are Hankook S1 evos. I think they are pretty good for the money.

 

[Danith]

If I had the ££££ I'd get contisports.

Hankooks seem to get a good write up everywhere I look.

I've just fitted 195/45/16 Yoko S Drives and I think they're really good for £60 a corner fitted! Get some really positive reviews too.

 

[ali_warriner]

Contisports get my vote aswell. Best allrounders I had fitted to my cup.

Owned it for 7+ years and tried loads of different brands.

AD08's were best I tried for dry grip but not so good in other conditions.

 

[Ash J]

Thanks for your suggestions guys. Swaying towards the Contisport Contact 3s at the moment, many good reviews. Just been ooking at some of the most recent tyre reviews by Evo magazine etc, and the tyre that is coming out on top everywhere at the moment is Goodyear Eagle Asymetric 2. Unfortunately, they only offer these in 17s and 18s for now, I'm hoping they make them in more sizes soon as would love to give these a go!

What are people's preference in terms of running a 195 or a 205 on the Cup anyway? 205s are more readily available and give a wider choice, but think I'd prefer 195s, undecided yet! 195/45 seems like an odd size, not many tyres available in this size in 16s, bespoke for the Clio Sport's lol!

Cheers again

 

[KevF182]

Not a 172 cup but on my 182 FF...

In the 205 45's I had a mix of the pe2 and ps3 michelins. I tried each at both ends in a similar state of wear and found not a great deal of difference. Swapped them for 195 45 contisports all round (not 3's but the original OE tyre for ph2 172's) and now with over 4k miles of use I've found they are possibly a little bit less forgiving, you have to be a bit more patient and precise to keep it tidy. Just a marginal difference. Can't say I notice any more or less grip.

 

[gus592]

Just bought some more Pirelli P Zero Nero tyres, worth the money. 195/45/16 80V XL - so has a good stiff side wall. Relatively low road noise as well.

 

[matt_132]

http://www.camskill.co.uk/m62b0s94p..._3_CONTISPORTCONTACT_3_-_195_45R16_80V_FR_TL_

 

[Jimbo_M]

The original tyres off 172 cup's were Conti contact Sports. Not contact sport 2's,3's etc although they are all just as good as each other. I replaced the worn contact sports that came on my cup when i first bought it with some brand new ones and its still one of the best mods i have done to the car.

Dont skimp on tyres they are one of the single most important areas of a car imo and there is a reason renault used them specific tyres

 

[Addicted]

Hankook V12's, currently £67 a corner from camskill

 

[JamesT87]

PE2's no comparison IMO

 

[Wests Renault]

PE2's no comparison IMO

+1 although you'll probably have to get the ps3 now which is effectively the same tyre

 

[KevF182]

I know what you mean but I kind of don't rate the PS3 for being the ideal replacemement... I felt the PE2 was sharper feeling wheras the PS3 is smooth and progressive but less tactile in steering feel and didn't stand up to dry cornering loads quite as well. I went through a front set of both before trying conti-sports (which I also like, the original contisport being most similar feeling tyre to the PE2 IMO and highly recommended)

PS3 is also about 3/4 inch narrower tread width than PE2 (measure it and you'l get where I'm comming from) for the same quoted size, quite why I don't know really!

Not saying its a bad tyre, it's just not at all like the PE2 in design or performance in my opinion.

 

[Danith]

Ps3 are ok?

Or not a patch on Ps2 and Ps4?

Are they better than rainsport 3s and worth the premium?

 

[Clio_fool]

Holy cow batman. Has there not been another tyre discussion since 2012? Amazing! 😂