345/35 R15 Tires

Peter,

About 2 months or so ago I searched 'Yokohama AVS' in eBay and cam up with a guy in FL who has a few pairs of NOS tires in your size. At first he was asking $400-500 a pair. At last search, I believe he was asking over $700 a pair.

As far as I know, the only recent production run of these discontinued sizes was done by Yokohama of the AVS series for the front (15x10) in the size 285/40/15. I heard they only did 1000 or so, and were mostly snapped up real quick, some people paying $1500 for a pair! I'm sure other enthusiasts know more about this than I do as I wasn't looking into it, only following what others were posting.

Roland Jackel of Germany (Pantera874 on this BB) may be able to help you better if the guy in FL has sold out. Good luck.

Michael

Try Discount Tire. I had to special order them, but they had them about 6 months ago. I paid $212.00 each. (345x35ZR-15) Their code # 43189

Try this place.
Selected Size : 345/35ZR15 PZERO ASIMETRICO 95Y Y $304.00 each. Says stock is low.

http://www.treadepot.com/tireswheels.c/orders/index.html

You guys are probably going to hate me.... Last year I ordered 8 tires when the Tire Rack was eliminating stocks... I paid $107 per tire, and at the end of their "all tires must go" sale, they were priced at $87/tire!

I suspected that the same thing would happen with rear tires that had previously happened with fronts, and at $100/tire, how could you go wrong?

They were manufactured recently enough by various manufacturers (yoko, Pirelli) so that I'm sure they are out there somewhere...

Thanks for the help from all those who replied. I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the places you suggested, along with the many others I called, do not have any tires remaining in stock (with one exception I will explain below).

The good news, for those of us who want to stay with our original (and much lighter) 15” magnesium wheels on our wide-bodies, is that Pirelli representatives in both Canada and the USA have told me their 345/35 ZR15 tires in their ultra high performance P Zero Giallo (“Yellow”) series are still an “active product”. John Luca, Product Manager at Pirelli USA, has confirmed to me that there will be a production run in December, and the tires will be available in January.

Larry Stock at Pantera Parts Connection confirmed with Pirelli a couple of weeks ago that they will be sending him tires from the December production run, and he is quoting a price of $319 per tire. For those of you who can’t wait, Jerry Sackett at PI Motorsports has tires in stock now at $950.00 per pair plus shipping.

The Giallos are available in two versions, the “asimmetrico” and the “direzionale”. Only the “direzionale”, intended for the rear of a vehicle, is available in a 15” size.

Although the manufacturer specifically recommends against it, I have been unable to find any information regarding the specific problems that may result from mounting the Pirellis on the rear of a car that will not have the same tire type on the front (I will be running Yokohama AVS Intermediates). Any advice on this would be appreciated.

We still have a real problem with the front tires for wide-bodies. Until recently, Phil Stebbings of the UK DeTomaso club had them available for 485.25 Pounds Sterling per pair. I contacted him a couple of weeks ago, and he is now sold out. Therefore, after a fair amount of research, I now believe there are only two sources remaining in the world for the 285/40 R15s.

• Roland Jaeckel in Germany has advised me that he can supply 2004 production Yokohama AVS Intermediate 285/40 ZR15 tires at 428 Euros per tire plus UPS shipping at 285 Euros. As far as anyone else I have asked or reviewed e-mail list or bulletin board postings from knows, the last production run by Yokohama was in late 2003. Roland, however, is adamant there were some made this year, to which he has access. Regardless, it is clear he does have the correct size available.
• New Yokohama AVS Intermediate 285/40 ZR15 tires are available through Kjell Jansson of the Svenska DeTomaso Klubben for 335 Euro per tire plus shipping. The date code is 4503 or 4603 (week 45 or 46, 2003). Kjell takes care to store his tires properly in order to preserve them, and he is very forthcoming with answers to any questions. You can see photos of his tires advertised for sale on his club’s web site at http://www.detomaso.nu/ Just go to the “ads and announcements” page and navigate through to the “offered” for sale section, find his listing and click on “details and photos”.

I spoke with the Yokohama factory representatives in both Canada and the U.S., and they both confirmed that the company has no plans to use their AVS Intermediate 285/40ZR -15 tire molds again. Phil says he spoke with Yokohama representatives in the UK, and they have no plans for production in Europe either. A month ago, I sent an e-mail off to Yokohama in Japan, where the last limited production run happened last year, but they have not replied. Beyond Yokohama, neither Pirelli nor any other tire manufacturer I contacted intends to make tires in this size again.

quote:

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Originally posted by Peter H:
Although the manufacturer specifically recommends against it, I have been unable to find any information regarding the specific problems that may result from mounting the Pirellis on the rear of a car that will not have the same tire type on the front (I will be running Yokohama AVS Intermediates). Any advice on this would be appreciated.

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Peter,

Manufacturers claim that having two different types of tires on a car front to rear (or in any position, for that matter) can result in unpredictable handling. They say that different tread patterns can result in those patterns handling road irregularities and hydroplaning 'inconsistently with one another'. They also say that different 'sidewall deflection rates' can cause a loss of control, as well as different 'compound adhesion qualities' and 'belt construction techniques'...etc.

I'm sure that it's all true, but to what degree? (I'm guessing it's a minescule one.) I guess in the event of being that on the edge of you and your car's capabilities, wherein the tires are your toenail grip on control, anything is possible. It's likely that in 99% of those events, a loss of control would've occured anyway.

I would personally avoid mixing tires just because I like all my tires to have the same sidewall and tread pattern. I like symmetry.

I'm sure that most of us have had a car in our younger years that had different tire types and sizes on it! (You remember, it was 3 different colors!) Aside of the shimmy, a pull to the right, and shocks that went dead two years ago, (not to mention the inoperative defroster), I never felt out of control!

Michael

Naw, we could never hate you Charlie.
But I am going to be sick.

quote:

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Originally posted by Coz:
Naw, we could never hate you Charlie.
But I am going to be sick.

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:-)


(By the way, I've run both Pirellis and Yokos on the back while running Yokos on the front. My car did not spontaneously self-destruct. We can talk all we want about whether it is ideal or not, or whether it would be more prone to hydroplaning, but if there aren't any other options, then it's all academic!)