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Originally Posted by Zappo interesting, and good find gt_bhp. ishaan could this feeling that i have whenever i take a sharp turn on a NHC about the tyre dislodging (kind of sliping out of the rim, inwards) and the car turning on the rims really be extrapolated in Laxminarayan's case to explain what happened to him? Probably it actually happened in his case. Now that I read his case I get this wierd feeling that without going through the same ordeal I also had this feeling a couple of times that I was a step away from experiencing a slipped tyre. How wierd! |
Zappo - LM's case was different as he had experienced a near-complete deflation in one of his tyres IIRC. That we can't compare with a correctly inflated tyre. Quote:
Originally Posted by benbsb29 Laxminarayan, was also telling me during the TBHP meet at Yelagiri how inconfident he feels when driving the NHC VTEC at high speeds owing to the disconnected feeling which the steering provides. |
I feel that the steering issue owes more to the fact that Honda with the NHC switched to EPS rather than the earlier Hydraulic system in the OHC. It is a well known fact that EPS systems are pretty much lifeless & have no feel whatsoever, in most cars this leads to a feeling of disconnected & aloofness especially when at speeds & taking turns. Quote:
Originally Posted by amit What size tyres does Honda give with the NHC VTEC?
I am no expert at this but I feel that there is more to this issue then just puny tyres and absence of ABS. The Baleno was a powerful car too (94 bhp) with puny tyres and no ABS but didn't have this issue. What about the 102 bhp SX4 Vxi with no ABS? What is it's tyre size compared to NHC VTEC?
We should do a comparo of powerful cars with no ABS with original tyres and that will give us a better idea. Baleno (94hp), SX4 (102hp), Fiesta 1.6 (100hp), Verna Petrol (100+bhp), Palio 1.6 (100hp) are cars that we should compare with NHC VTEC. If all the above cars with no ABS run on puny tyres and don't skid then I don't see why the NHC skidding should be acceptable? |
In addition to the sizes posted above, the Baleno earlier came with 165/80 R13 which were woefully thin for the power on offer but MUL later equipped the VXi with 185/65 R14 while continuing the LXi on 165/80 R13. Since MUL did the upgrade themselves can we deduce that they realised that this was a problem or shortcoming in their own product?
Also for the skidding I think quite a bit of the blame also lies with the stock Bridgestone S322 tyres, they are hard & are woefully short of grip for a car with decent power. My OHC also came equipped with the same tyres but I upgraded them (Both in Width & Better Compound) on day one itself so can't draw a direct comparison. But I was recently was driving a NHC with stock S322's and in a hard braking situation they locked up way, way too early compared to my earlier Energy's or current Preceda's.
I've been noticing that with the City, Honda has been going the MUL way of fitting thinner tyres so as to improve the FE figures & needless to say I usually advise people to fit better tyres from day one on their cars. |