M758

Personally on a NA I perfer track rubber on 15's and street rubber on the "better looking, but leser performance 16's".

RMills944

I have the ES100 on the 944, and they work ok. They're mainly an autocross tire for me, and they stick alright. Next time I'm moving to R compounds though.

On the Jetta (18") I had Yokohama Paradas (LOVED them), then P-Zero Nero's (HATED them), and now have General Exclaim UHP's. The Generals are surprisingly good! They were $80/tire for an 18" and stick great! The Nero's just didn't stick worth crap - especially off the line with low end torque. It's annoying to have 274 Ft/Lbs at the wheels at 1800RPM and get beat out by a civic cause you're just spinning the tires!

Tenacious_G

This may sound silly to ask -- I was under the assumption that the 16s would offer better grip due to a larger patch in contact with the road. I understand it will have an adverse effect on acceleration, but it is it such to the point where it is detrimental to the track experience? I figured that I would want something that would help manueverability over speed anyway, since I can carry a lot of speed into turns, but maintaining said speed is a bit problematic. Then again, I'm not nearly as experienced as some of the folks on here, and will probably develop as a driver to the point where I'll better handle those kinds of situations.

That still won't really change my plan then -- Hopefully I'll find some sixteen inch wheels here and there over the winter so that by springtime I can buy Kumhos or Toyos for the 16s and then I'll just run the rest of the ES100's down -- so I'll be a few months late getting the RA-1s or Falkens -- unless I get a good internship this year then I can have cake and eat it too!

M758

225/50 R16 are 1" larger diameter than 225/50 16.

There is not change in the size or shape the contact patch. You just have more tire to move and a larger diameter hurts gearing. Back to back on track testing has shown a 2 second increase in lap times with 16 vs 15 wheels. If you go to 16x8's and 245/45 then you do get a wider tire to go along with the larger diameter. This has not been tested and the extra width may counter the dimeter and weight. On a 944 turbo or S2 you have a heavier car and thus it needs a bit more tire. It also has more hp on tap.

The other downside is that 245/45 16's are more expensive than 225/50 15's. Street tires will last longer than race tires so why buy a more expensive tire that may or may not work as well. Plus the 225/50 R15 size is not ideal on the street due to is lower gearing and smaller size. It just does not look right. 16's look really good on the 944 and you can get many more street tire options. Again more reason to run the 15's on track 16's on the street. Personally if I were racing in an open tire class with alot more money I would look at 18" wheels in a 245 size for the NA. It would be expensive to get wheels that big and light and the tires would expensive too, but the big edge there is a very small size wall which may just make it all work. I would still expected to get pulled out of slow corners by cars on 225/50 15's, but If I can carry a bit more speed it may workout.

Tenacious_G

That settles it, then! I'll try and get some 16s in my offset during the winter, put my new street tires on 'em, and use up my ES100s in the summer -- I still have 50% tread, so I'm sure I can do one or two events safely.

Funn944

I usede 15" Dunlop SP 8000 on my 86 N/A. I really liked them. used them on the traxck as well. I just replaced them with 255/50/16 and 245/50/16 BFG G-Force Sports on 16" 7&8" phones. car has been lowered and they really fill up the wheel wheels. No rubbing on the track at the Fest this year.