Black, round, a hole in the middle. Destiny's GoodYear Spectra M+S tires almost met the definition of tires. They were black and had a hole in the middle but instead of being round they were oval. In certain velocities this caused vibration in the steering wheel and front bouncing up and down. Taking a deeper study revealed that these tires were made in 1997. The treads were still deep but the rubber turns to stone in twenty years which makes it easy to loose traction.
The offerings of white striped tires in the market are narrow. Especially if you are not willing pay enormous sums of money. Also, the fact is that the western tire manufacturers, like GoodYear, do not have white wall tires in their selections any more. If you want inexpensive white walls, you must go with Chinese.
The width of the white stripes is important for me. Mustangs should have quite a narrow stripe, not wide white walls which would make a Mustang look like Donald Duck's car. The old Spectras had 15mm wide stripes which looked fine to me. I think original bias-ply tires had 3/4" stripes on them.
This caused me some trouble as it seems that many of tires have different widths depending of the size of the tires. In addition to that many of them were branded something that sound Chinese to me.
I chose a set of Milestar MS775 Touring SLE as their brand sounds like English. To be honest, the brand sounds like something which is Chinese but disguised as American. And that's exactly what these tires are. Genuine Made in Taiwan , by Nankang. But their white stripes are 19mm wide. And they only cost 300 EUR a set.
I took me some time to decide whether to stick to 195/75R14 or to go with 205/75R14. The wider tire is also 15mm larger in diameter which would fill the wells better, but would they make the steering heavier in parking. I finally made up my mind to go with 205/75R14 and have not regretted doing so.
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| Looks aggressive without hub caps, doesn't she |
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| The front might need to be lowered a little |
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| Rear wheel well nicely filled |
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| It's a pain to wash off the blue protection wax |
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| Done with all wheels |
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| Nice tread pattern |
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| Hub caps remounted |
To my surprise, the steering did not get heavier. Vice versa, now it's easier to turn and park. The car rolls nicely, holds the direction and the front does not bounce any more. The new tires are quiet and smooth. I did not test how they keep traction in heavy braking. I do not know about their durability either. But so far I'm happy with the Milestars.
