S13 Owner

[mikeface]

Hi All,

Recently purchased my self an S13! Have loved the shape for years and finally have one! Only other performance car I have had is a Civic Type R which I owned for around 3 years.

Only picture I have of 200 so far:



Buying it from a friend who has owned it for many years! Modifications I am aware of are:

Auto to manual conversion, organic clutch,
S14 calipers and new discs all round
Blueflame exhaust system
Walboro Fuel pump
Adjustable arms all round
Apex performance coilovers all adjustable
Front and rear godspeed ARB's
Rear strut brace
Abs removed
Battery relocation to boot
Short shifter
Huge front mount intercooler
Huge radiator
Norris design T25h turbo
New big-ends
Different alloys

Roughly pushing out 250-260bhp but would like to get it dyno'd at some point.

Few questions I do have:

Looking to buy some new tyres for the rear wheels, current tyre size on the wheels is 215/45R17... what is the recomended tyre to go with? Looked at Bridgestones, Dunlop, Toyo, Pirelli and Kumho so far.

Recomended Oil, oil filter & gearbox oil?

Thanks!!

Mike

[Jonny Wilkinson]

Oil Fuchs supersyn 5w40 (or 10w50 if u drive very hard for long distances) , OEM filter and Nissan gearbox oil 75w90. Nice looking car BTW

sent from t'internet

[mikeface]

Oil Fuchs supersyn 5w40 (or 10w50 if u drive very hard for long distances) , OEM filter and Nissan gearbox oil 75w90. Nice looking car BTW

sent from t'internet

Thanks for that! It isn't in the best of condition but I just love the raw power of it!

Can you suggest any popular tyres to have on a S13?

[Jonny Wilkinson]

I have 195/60r15s on mine so can only say that I like the 17in t1r tyres I have on the impreza. Don't think Tokyo make them anymore though

sent from t'internet

[steve109]

I've had Advan AD08 and AD07's 225/45/17 on mine, transformed it completely wet and dry.

[mikeface]

I've had Advan AD08 and AD07's 225/45/17 on mine, transformed it completely wet and dry.

Wow they are not cheap!

Here are the prices I have found so far (All the best prices I have found are on eBay). I know of a garage that will fit them for around £25.

These prices are delivery of two tyres

Bridgestone RE040 - £212
Dunlop Sport Max - £190
Toyo Proxy T1R - £150
Goodyear Eagle F1 - £190
Pirelli Pzeo - £206
Yokohama AdvanSport V103 - £210
Kumho KU39 - £145

I personally have used the Bridgestones, Pirellis and Kumho. Would say Bridgestone were the best. All these I have had on my Civic Type R which is obviously front wheel drive.

From the above prices, I am tempted to try the Toyo's as I have heard many good reviews about them.

Any opinions or personal experiences on the above tyres would be much appreciated!

[Rochester]

(My drive: Stage 2 S13 CA18DET 150K miles, fully rebuilt top and bottom at 89K, daily driver no track or drift).

Of the tyres you mention I have real life experience of / used Toyo T1Rs and Kumho KU39.

Toyos very grippy in dry, dreadful in the wet, and wore out in very few miles indeed (6K+).
KU39s excellent dry grip, good wet grip, nicely progressive and decent enough mileage for the amount of grip (12 - 13k)

Better options Maxxis ZE1 in 97W XL (extra load, reinforced stiffer sidewalls) flavour, as much if not more grip in the dry than the KU39s, waaay more grip in the wet, simply don't let go, and as at present lower wear rate as well. Expect to get 15 - 18K out of them at this rate.

Also Falken ZE914 97W XL (ditto extra load, reinforced stiffer sidewalls) pretty damned good and all. Using them on my other half's Merc with enormously good dry and wet grip even better than the ZE1s, plus better wear rate (especially under two tons of tyre shredding Merc).

Personally I have in the past run 205/55 and 205/50's on standard 15" rims, reasonably succesfully. Didn't get on with the 50s, made things distinctly "jiggly" in the handling stakes, plus slightly lower overall diameter vs. standard. Back to 55s, worked well. Worked even better on 15 x 6.5J rims (as opposed to standard 15 x 6J)

Upgraded to 16 inch rims six or seven years ago*, 16" x 7.5J, et 38. Fit perfectly with no spacers or arch rolling shennanigans needed, and no heavier than standards. Run various combos on them but finally settled on optimum for real world road use of 205/55 on the front, 215/55 rear. 225/50 work on the rear too, but they're not worth the substantial exra cost over 215/55s. Especially if you make the effort to seek out 97W XL spec tyres for the rear. The extra stiffness of the extra load sidewall really does make a feelable difference. All the benefits of a higher / taller kerb friendly sidewall with the same stiffness as a 45.... plus the slightly larger than standard OEM overall diameter means that the speedometer reads accurately at last !

* In order to clear Z32 calipers, only reason.

PS. For an every day / 15 - 20K mileage tyre with good dry and wet grip I used to swear by Kumho KU31s for years, and still a great fallback.

If it isn't already apparent from the above I am not a fan of 17"+ rims or 40 / 45 profile sidewalls on an S13. Heavier, vulnerable, no more grip and much much more expensive. Pram wheels with rubber bands strung round the edges look great in styling pics and anime cartoons, but for the real world ? Not for me.

[mikeface]

Thanks so much for all the information! I will take a look online about the Maxxis tyres!

From what you have said I am pushed more towards the Kumho's now rather than the T1R's!

The car is currently running 17" wheels with 215/45R17 tyres on them. As far as I am aware, the arches have not been rolled in anyway.

[Rochester]

From what you have said I am pushed more towards the Kumho's now rather than the T1R's!

To be scrupulously fair my feedback on the Toyos is probably somewhat out of date, more than 7 or 8 years since the set I had fitted, and I think they have updated / improved / revised their construction and compounds since then.

I defer to / suggest you prefer feedback from anyone with more recent experience than mine

[Jonny Wilkinson]

Funny about the t1rs, Evan. I've had 12k miles out of them on the impreza and they are a little over half worn. I've found them to be brill in the wet. Much better than bridgestones. impreza is not an s13 though so maybe theyre different. Check the age of the tyres when buying online

sent from t'internet

[Rochester]

Impreza spreading the torque around a little more evenly and therefore less stressful / wearing on the tread compounds than all the power through the driving wheels of an RWD car ?

Plus, as I say, my feedback is (checking back) more than ten years old. Suspect a lot may have changed for the better with construction and compounds since then. Happy to defer to your more up to date experience of the Toyos.

In passing, forgot to mention that for front wheels I have been happily using Bridgestone Touranza ER300 for the last couple of years in 205/55 flavour. Slightly better all round grip than KU31's in both dry and wet (though not much in it); definitely better wear rate.