the young lady who previously had the reigns of my '74 was duped into buying these crazy high performance Dunlop SP 9000 in 205/55ZR15 for the 5" stock rims. But she only got three. Now the tire is discontinued. But, I can still get it in 195. And it turns out I like the tire despite its looks.

My question: how stupid and dangerous is it to run the same tire but in different width?

My other question: I haven't read about people here going wider than 195. What other kind of trouble might I be getting in to in keeping these, if I were to put them on the '70, with a mismatch of rims '72-75?

thanks. I hate buying tires.
-Sean
--
'66 122s, '70 142s, '74 142e... Blue is beautiful.

I've found a lot of size overlap between 195 and 205 tires with the 195s
in some cases wider than the 205s, especially if the 205 was a cheaper
brand.
One thing you could do is buy 2 195s and put them on the front and use
the 205s on the back.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

Another bit of advice. Whatever you decide to do, don't skimp on the tires. Volvos (and most other European cars) are designed to have at least Touring tires on them and just don't handle right if you put on no-name all-season radials. You'll also have to replace them sooner since the car was engineered for tires with stiffer sidewalls and it will grind the outside shoulders off a cheap tire surprisingly quickly, especially if you don't rotate them. I like Pirelli P400's. They're reasonably inexpensive and have a good tread life despite my, uh, spirited driving. They even made my wife's Olds minivan handle better.

I don't want to hurt your feelings, but those P400s are like a million years old and basically worth crap these days. I wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole if I had the choice. I liken that tire to a generic from the tire place these days.

I actually wouldn't take any pirelli tire, to tell you the truth. You can have better, if not MUCH better, for cheaper.

So, basically, wait until you get your next set of tires, you'll be amazed I would think.
--
Kyle - 142, 145, and 244! - Oregon Volvo Tuners?

"Duped" is certainly the right term... particularly if the P.O. was actually sold 3 new tires that did not match the 4th. That's just stupid. Beyond that, the 205/55 tires are the wrong diameter for the car, and on rims that are a half inch below the recommended width. Other than that, it was probably a pretty good deal. ;) Just out of curiosity, what's currently on the 4th wheel?

To answer your question, you do NOT want to run a 195/55 with the 205/55's. If mounted on the front, the car will most likely have driveability problems, and on the rear it might drive okay, but it would make life very difficult for the differential. Plus, it's going to look just plain weird... there's a pretty good size difference here, with the 195 a half inch smaller in diameter and nearly a half inch narrower.

Putting the 205's on even narrower wheels is ill-advised, IMO. As stated above, they're already mounted at below minimum recommended width. Nothing necessarily dangerous here, but the tire will not perform (nor wear) as it was designed to.

If it were me, I'd put a new pair of decently rated (H or better) 205/55's on with two of the current Z-rated Dunlops. And just in case... if you buy lower rated tires than the Z's, put the Z's on the rear. All else being equal, the higher rated tires are typically stiffer and run at lower slip angles than lower performance tires. If the Z's are put on the front, with some non-descript low performance tires on the rear, you could (repeat could) end up with a tail-happy machine.

Gary L
--
1971 142E ITB racer, 1973 1800ES, 2002 S60 T5

Thanks for the input guys. I guess correct or at least matching size wins over tread design then? The odd man out on my '74 is a Cooper 165 on the pass rear. (which, George, IS considerably wider than the 10yr old Bigot-ires 165s on the '70 so I know what you mean.

Looks like I'll be getting a pair of... something not as crazy expensive as another pair of Dunlop ZR tires, but still in a high performance category.

Too bad, these tires are wasted on this car! I'm a G/T guy personally, but a poor guy first and foremost.

So it goes. -Sean
--
'66 122s, '70 142s, '74 142e... Blue is beautiful.