[R129 SL] New Tires/ wheels

[Rob Vonderhaar]

I'll second Bill's vote on the Toyo Proxes:  On my '95 SL500, I many
years ago upgraded the 16" OEMs to the SL Sport wheel/tire setup (18"
AMG monoblocks with staggered 245/275 widths).  I always ran very
expensive ultra-high-performance Dunlop SP9000's, which were exactly
what MB itself used at the time, but recently switched to Toyo Proxes
T1R's as a slightly less-expensive replacement.  Personally, I can't
tell much difference -- first Toyos I've owned, but so far I'm very
happy.  The car still has great handling in both wet or dry; plus the
Toyos are a bit quieter and appear to be wearing a bit better.  And at
the rate at which the SL chews through tires, that cost savings is not
insignificant!

If I had it to do again, though, I'm not sure I'd do the 'staggered
width' setup because it means you can't rotate tires and the fronts wear
out much faster than the rears.

     Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: r129list-bounces at mbcoupes.com
[mailto:r129list-bounces at mbcoupes.com] On Behalf Of am3bi at adelphia.net
Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2007 12:15 PM
To: SL Mailing List
Cc: Steve Hinrichs
Subject: Re: [R129 SL] New Tires/ wheels

I have Michilin Pilot sports on 18" AMG's and can't say enough good
things about them except the price is steep. I do a lot of tire shopping
for my other sports cars and like the Pole Position as an alternative
but have not bought any yet. They seem to be a good combination of
price/performance. Current Porsche project got Toyo Proxes T1R (16")
which seem to be an excellent value/performance package.
Bill Amata