Pete
I don't think anyone was saying any of these tyres are bad, just that some may provide a better match to a particular car than others. Undeniably different rubber compositions, profile, load index affect road holding, steering response and comfort which is why Porsche even goes to the extent of specifying their own sub set of tyres from the major manufacturers (N0, N1, N2, N3 suffix). As users we are a pretty forgiving lot and most of us tend to 'drive around' any handling issues and put up with strengths and deficiencies in equal measure. I am just reading 'Cat out of the Bag' by Peter Wilson who relates that Graham Hill would agonise for days over small changes to the E-Type suspension whilst his team mate Roy Salvadori just drove what he was given. They were both equally quick.
As for the Vredestein it is a cheap tyre and it shows because no manufacturer will be able to put in the necessary R&D effort and production values without charging a premium. I have four cars and a van on my drive at the moment and I just checked. Twenty tyres and not one of them shows the anomalies in the above pictures. It is clearly possible to make tyres to a high standard so I why would anyone want to fit those with wobbly side walls on one of the world's most beautiful 150mph supercars? They are also HR rated which actually has as much to do with side wall distortion under cornering loads as maximum speed. Money spends anywhere so I refuse to reward a company who cannot make a tyre to a commercially acceptable standard, even if it is only visual.
As has been discussed before the lower profile tyres from Pirelli and Yokohama are a compromise for the E-Type because of their increased rolling resistance, low ride compliance with a cross sectional design and construction to meet the needs of modern suspension geometry. They are not bad, just not optimised for a 50 year old design. If you can live with that, fine, your car.
Longstone Tyres have the right idea - a set of slave wheels and tyres for owners to try. They did this for me and swapped my P6000's for Michelin's and sent me off to play. Took 15 minutes to decide, night and day, no if's or but's. I do accept however that some drivers are more sensitive to change than others so perhaps for many these alternative tyres are suitable for their needs. Personally I can tell at the first corner whether the tyre pressure is down by even a couple of pounds. But then I repeatedly drive the same test route in the E-Type trying different pressures - 30/35, 32/32, 32/35 until I am happy - gets me out of the house I suppose.
and these are on Borrani wheels from a Ferrari. As Dougal says would you want to trust these tyres if they can't even get the sidewalls right, think what could be hidden away on the inside.
