Well after much deliberation regarding upgrading to 15 or 16 inch wheels I finally decided to stay with the 14's on my 300SD. The two major reasons were 1) that I have asperations fo showing my car and 2) after reading Luke's Stickey I felt that I would leave the unsprung weight as designed. With that here are the early results:

Drove off on new subject tires and immediately noticed a much lower noise level up to 60mph. I could hear the Michilins I removed over the engine. When coasting in neutral I had to put the window down to make sure I was hearing tires at all.

It's a week later now and I just took the car out in light snow. There is a remarkable difference in traction. Both starts and stops quicker without breaking loose or locking up. Also holds wet corners when the turbo winds up. Previous tires would frequently break loose. Tires are inflated at 30psi-front and 33.5psi rear.

In all fairness I should mention that although the Michilins had adequate tread left I think they were drying out or getting hard due to age.

__________________
Art Bourget

1983 300SD
1st In Class - Starfest Concours 2004
1st In Class - StarTrack Concours 2003
1983 300TDT
1985 300D

MBCA - Niagara Section

they are good tires ....

care to fill out a survey ?

__________________

Please, call me to place orders or for more info
use my name for on-line orders