tire and battery questions
 

1) Anyone with experience running 215 width tires? Will be getting some 13x7 or 13x7.5 diamond racing wheels soon and wondering what would be the widest tire I could run without, I repeat, without requiring rolled fender lips or snagging on the front sway bar during hard cornering. Doesn't seem like I could go higher than 215s, but if anyone has let me know.

2) On the hunt for weight savings, and the Hawker or Odessey batteries at 15 pounds or so look interesting. Only question mark is is their lower output (680 amps max, I beleive, and something less than 300 cold cranking amps). Car is used almost exclusively for solo and occasional track events (and not at all during winter), and every other electrical accessory is out, except lights, so the battery would not be called on to do much more than start her up. Curious if anyone has tried these or other lightweight batteries and if there were any serious downsides?

Thanks.

PS: smooth move with the new server - the site is mucho improved.

I have 13x8 diamond racing wheels on my GSL-SE with 4.5" backspacing, and I put on the ECSTA V700 in 235/45-13 and have autocrossed them hard with no rubbing problems. This was done with stock suspension. With 4.5" of backspacing the wheels stick out pretty far (maybe 1.5-2" beyond the fender) but for racing they don't look too bad.

Correction:
My Diamond Wheels have 4" backspacing.