Bob Jane is having a sale on Bridgestone tyres.

Buy 3 get one free.

The dealer was offering me a deal on the Potenza RE003

$399 for 4 tyres.

Bridgestone tyre catalogue

I've got a 1964 Beetle - using Mangel 5.5 rims. Also anti-sway bars front and rear - and the front suspension is lowered slightly by about 1.5 inches.

I decided to choose the 195/60 R15s. As that was what I used previously. And they had that in stock.

I'm just curious though - they had 195/50s… 195/55s

What's the difference - would the 195/50s give me a lower profile?

http://www.willtheyfit.com 

Try this website for tyre size comparisons .......yes, the 55 or 50 series tyre of the same width will be a lower profile.....they will also alter your speedo & engine revs

Yea, the bit after the / is a percentage ratio for the sidewall height. It is a percentage of the tyres width. Hence you can work out what larger tyre will have a similar rolling circumference by doing some simple maths.

Original tyre was 155/80 so 80% of 155mm = 124mm.
Your 195/60 is 60% of 195mm = 117mm

Then the 55 would be 107.5mm and 50 would be 97.5mm If you then worked out the overall rolling circumference of the differnt tyres you can see by how many revolutions the lower profile tyres will increase engine revs and speedo error.

The 195/60 seem to give me the same speedo meter readings as my stock tyres. In other words the speedo with the 195/60 is correct.