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I want MAX wide for street and track with very little or no modifications. lol..? 88 turbo
What is your motivation for wanting the widest tires you can fit onto your car? Have you ever seen any actual data that indicates that fitting wider tires on a given wheel improves grip? I haven't. Everything I've read indicates it's the width of the wheels that counts - you can fit a wide range of tires on a particular wheel, and it has no impact on anything, other than final drive ratio due to changes in overall diameter. So, the goal should be to fit the widest wheels you can, and then mount the grippiest tires that give you the overall diameter you need. If anyone has any actual data, with a direct comparison of different tire widths of the same brand of tire tested on the same wheels, I'd love to see it. I doubt it exists, because a test like that is a lot of work, and every tire test I've ever seen compares different brands of tires on the same car (and therefore the same wheels). Everthing I've ever seen on the subject has been pure conjecture "...I run 315 tires on my 8" rims, and I absolutely LOVE it!...", but no actual data, at least none that I've ever seen.
Ah, OK, I didn't pick up on this from your posts on this thread. I thought you were only talking about tires. My car has 2.25" i.d. coilovers, which give me more room on the inside vs. stock springs, so I've got a set of 17 x 10.5" Signature SV103 wheels on order (don't remember the offset - I have it on the invoice at home - I want to say it's 42). I'm going to mount 255/40-17 tires (Bridgestone RE71R's). This will maintain the stock tire diameter, and minimize the chance of clearance issues vs. trying wider tires. According to my measurements, these should fit without the need for spacers, or to roll the fenders. We'll see...
I ran 315 on 10 inch MY02 in the rear before widening them to 12". Worked well. I like the 12 better, but I still run 295 up front on the 10 inch MY02 and they fit the rim nicely. keep in mind that's a hoosier A7 so its more like a 325 I had before in rear and 305 in the front for most other brands.
I'd be curious to see how they turn out. So what are your thoughts on 265-35 on 18 x 10 VS 255-40 on 17 x 10.5?
Well, like everyone else, I have my biases and prejudices, based on what I've read, who I've talked to, and the level of regard I have for both. The problem is that there is very little hard data comparing, say, different widths of the same brand tire on the same rim, or vice versa. So, a lot of decisions on tire and wheel selections are based on anecdotal evidence, which is dubious at best.
But you asked for my opinion, so here goes. I found the tire test Grassroots Motorsports ran in their December 2013 issue to be very convincing. In it they essentially concluded that wheel width is what really matters - the wider wheel you can fit under a given tire, the better. Also, I'm a big fan of staying under 18", simply because of the weight issue, not to mention the tire cost differential. Others will disagree, of course - if nothing else, tire selection is a bit better in 18". So, my vote would clearly be for the 255-40 on 17 x 10.5, seeing as that's what I went with after doing literally years of research. But keep in mind that wheels of this size are strictly a custom order affair. I'll let everybody know my impressions with Signature, but so far, their responsiveness and general level of customere service has been excellent. And their price is the lowest I've found in the custom forged wheel world. Finally, keep in mind that wheels of this width won't fit on a 944 or 968 with stock coil springs - you'd have to switch to smaller diameter coilovers, if you don't have them already.
Has it been mentioned that wider is not better? Wider heats up slower, so if you go too wide, and they don't heat up, you aren't getting as good of traction as with appropriate width tires that have heated up.
I run my widths because of power, and how I drive it at hillclimbs. But I do lose a little bit at autocross where they don't heat up quickly.
The fronts are MY02 (originally rear) 18x10s with 295 A7s, and the rears are MY02 8 inch (originally fronts) that have been widened to 12 inches, with 315 A7s
I thought the rears looked awful beefy. It's interesting how many different combinations of wheel/tire widths people are running on these cars. Your case is particularly interesting. In front, you're running what I would consider to be a very wide tire for a 10" rim, while in the back, your tire/rim relationship is much closer to what Grassroots Motorsports found to be the optimum.
03-14-2018, 12:37 PM
