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My search for 18" is not going well. Anyone car to chime in on going to 19" besides the marked increase in price for the tires. I found a nice set of 19" HRE's which look great and are close (fronts would be 8.5 vs stock 8) and was wondering ride quality by going bigger. In addition any suggestions on tire size. This is a car that will not see the track just road use with some spirited driving at times
I've got 19"s and use hankooks for rubber. I like the way they fill out the car. I'm a novice owner and I will never be on a track so no worries there. My tires were installed at a dealer and all ratios for the awd were within spec. By no means can I answer any technical questions but I do prefer the larger wheels. Car rides comfortable and when I was test driving other cars this one felt like all the rest.
I'm in the same boat as OP. There seem to be more and better looking options for 19's out there than 18's, and I don't intend to hit the track. I just don't want to screw up my car.
19s definitely look more menacing, but can also make the wheel gap look larger if the car isn't lowered. The ride is harsher than the stock 18's and it is much more difficult to see if the tire is low or flat. They look better, but not too many other positive aspects. After having the 19's on for a while and switching back yo the 18s , the car rides like a Lexus.
I am doing the same search, and I am doing it because I am finding that tires are CHEAPER in 19's vs 18's. Especially when you start looking into Bridgestone or Michelin quality tires....S-04's and PSS's.
careful with the deep dish HRE's they vibrate like mad in any heavy rain. so much that the car is undriveable. Can't believe they sell wheels like this. My 993 turbo came with them on and one day I got caught in the rain and basically couldn't drive.
careful with the deep dish HRE's they vibrate like mad in any heavy rain. so much that the car is undriveable. Can't believe they sell wheels like this. My 993 turbo came with them on and one day I got caught in the rain and basically couldn't drive.
I have experienced exactly the same with HRE wheels. It seems they missed the water shedding aspect of wheel design, at least for some of their products, which just seems to me to be a little amateur for a company that specializes in wheel manufacturing. They can send special "wings" that attach to the insides of the wheels, but they really don't help.
I have a set of 19 inch Champions for street with Nitto tires and use the my stock twists for autocross with Michellin Cups, I had the car lowered with Tech art springs. The ride is a bit rougher with the 19s but I feel its worth it for the much better look.
My $.02...been running OZ 19" for years...personally never noticed the "harshness" of the drive, but I also do not have stock suspension. Love the look and no performance issues come to mind.
Street ride is fine but avoid any hole in the road more than 1 cm deep!; stock struts; aftermarket springs. I don't drive when its raining so I never noticed what Turbodan mentioned...yikes.
Keep in mind the "harshness" of going to 19's comes from a few different issues....and they are not necessarily related to moving to 19's (meaning the wheel size).
First is tire choose. In the same size tires the "ride quality" varies radically. The Mich PSS I run on my Audi are very quiet and smooth, and the Bridgestone S-04's and Conti DW's are even more supple over harsh bumps. I had a set of Pirelli P-Zerro Rosso's that were VERY harsh over bumps, and anything "runlet" will ride like a brick!...again all in the same size tire.
If you go to 19's and run the 315/25 rear it will feel harsher. This is an attempt to keep the over all diameter as close to stock as possible AND keep the front/rear differential within the limits of the AWD system. Because the wheels went up an inch in size, to keep the same over all diameter, the sidewalls must shrink.....and this means they are also necessarily stiffer...which makes for a harsher ride.
You can move to 305/30 rears, and run 235/40 front on 19's on these cars just fine though. This increases the over all diameter about 1 inch, as you are keeping the sidewalls about the same height as stock, and the rim is growing an an inch. This should ride the same as stock as the sidewall hight is almost exactly the same as stock (actually slightly taller as these tires are wider than stock). Yes your speedo will be off a bit as these are taller in total (about 1"). As for the AWD System these are fine too as the front/rear differential is within the proper limits.
As a result of all of this I will be running either Mich PSS or Bridgestone S-04's on my Turbo in the 305/30 & 235/40 sizes. If you look around you will see cars setup like this look great, even on stock springs, they ride like a stock car would, and you can lower them just fine.
Duc Hunter, thank you for the information. After all my research I thnk I'll stick with stock. One issue that was raised if one deviates from the offsetsof OEM wheels and with the all wheel drive system you are linmited in tires available. Going with custom HRE wheels would be about $6K, So in an effort not to mess with the car and keep cost down will just invest in some better quality 18" tires and keep stock rims for now. Although this supplier says in the summer they will have something matching the OEM 18" specs
04-15-2015, 04:18 PM
19" vs 18" wheels
