What are the widest tires that you have had onyour car and how well do they handle? I want to know how wide of tires i can get without getting a wide body kit and without it looking stupid.

Thank you

Joshua

 

Depends on your rims and Offset, etc.

Are you referring to stock street driving?

Seems 205's up front, and 235's in the rear seem to be the max.

 

you can get 235's on the back? what sidewall ratio? were talking stock wheels right?

 

generally speaking, wider tires make handling worse, because it screws up the scrub radius and wider tires aren't as directionally stable so the car can get very darty.

then can increase lateral grip, though.

i'm a big believer in narrow, tall-profile tires... max grip isn't always as good but the handling gets very precise and incredibly stable.

 

Amen to that bro,

No, I agree 100%. I love my 185/70/R13s all around... makes it handle like a go-kart.

Jeff

 

gotta agree i ahd some 225/60 all the way around. This thing was a hydropaning machine. Now i run 205 on the back and 195 on the front and it corners well and launches well. but this is just my opinio.

jr

 

Unfortunatlly my opinions are always autocross related but I saw a 70 series tire roll off of the wheel!!!!!! BFG factory guys were at the race and they just laughed at the guy for using that side wall for hard cornering(autocrossing).

 

I call BS or severe underinflation

 

Yeah, uhhh...I'm no genious, but that sounds a bit like maybe...Oh, like maybe it never really happened, but would've been great as a responce for the thread...and, uhhh, maybe you thought we'd all be stupid enough to believe it?

...Yeah. That's it.

I mean really. You just never tell that kinda story without adding, "...I **** you not!" at the end.

 

I have to agree with the statement that ultimate grip on the street is less important, for my fun factor anyway, than transient response. If I want max g's I just fire up the kart...street driving seems tame in comparison.

 

Yeah...

I've done enough hard cornering on 70 and 80 series tires, even sliding a bit on bumpy roads, and I can count the times I've rolled tires off the rims on all the fingers on one foot.

 

I rolled the tire off the rim of my old Audi Coupé whilst cornering. Of course, the tire was old and the sidewall completely gave away...

I like my 16" rims and low profile/wide tires on my SE, but it does mean I have to keep both hands on the wheel to keep going in one direction. As stated above, wider tires tend to be less directionally stable. No real probs with hydroplaning, but mine are only 205's

 

my friend has a wide body 1st gen. his kit is sick as f*uck!! its a real head turner. people will look at his car at least 3 times and start pointing fingers. some guy evn came up and said "nice wide body porsche" hehe.... anyways. he had 255 in the back. forgot wut he had in the front but it was pretty wide. he had centerline rims. with wide tires his car handles soooooooooooooooo well. it would juss grip the road and never let go (he also has RB shock tower mod). i have 185 potenza in the front and some 195 dunlops in the back of me gsl-se. it gets sideways too much. its fun when i want my car to go sideways but not too fun when i dont want it too...

hey ~~~~~1st7heaven~~~~~~~~ wut kind of suspension mod did u do for auto crossing? hows the handling?

 

O.k.
So it occurs to me that maybe (just maybe) I don't know what I'm talking about.
(It happens.)
I've made an *** out of myself, and I appologize.

 

This is the first time I've ever read about wide tires on our cars handeling well. I have some really wide rims, and want to do this, but I've always read here that the car would be a pig.
I could never quite understand then, why it is that Porsche CTs had really wide tires.

 

I think people confuse handling with grip.

 

You can have a wide rim.
You can have a wide tire.

You just have to have a low profile tire.

 

205 50 13's and it rails like a train around corners

 

i juss got some 205/60/14 falkens.... the side walls stick out the rims a lil and when i kick the car from the side they wobble a lil....... good or bad?

 

probally bad

 

60 and 70 series will do that a bit. i would highly not recommend 70 series as i have never driven a 70 series that was great in the handling department. the sidewall is just way to tall and soft. if you want good breakaway characteristics and predictability with lower lateral g's and slow turn-in then get a 70. however if your tread width is to wide for your rim and your tires sidewall rounds you will get the same breakaway feel that the 70 will give but with higher lateral g's. if you are looking for utimate grip and response get a 45 or 50 series and try to keep the tire width as close to the rim width as possible. there is a really good article in sport compact car mag on the lancer they tested in japan that used sidewall bulge in the rear by use a of a slightly narrower rim to give it good breakaway in the back. i would suggest a 195 up front and a 205 out back. more rear meat will give you good launch characteristics and the bulge will allow smooth predictable breakaway, where the 195 front will have good turn in and overall grip. there is a reason that 70 series are only found on luxury cars and light trucks now. now i will duck and run from the tomatos...................

 

Oh and I think Ill add soemthign, I have ARE 514's and 205/60/13's and my front tires hit the lips in the fender in the front... On hard cornering it sounds like its gonna rip the fender off. So watch the offset on the wheels, and I was told never go wider than 205 on stock wheels.

 

My 205/50R16s are great at the back but the wide front tires tend to react to every bump and curve in the road. This isn't a huge deal, I just have to keep both hands on the wheel to react when the steering gets kicked around. I don't think they make my rim narrower than 7" though, and for rotating tires I prefer same-sized rims (especially when using tires with directional treads)

 

205/50/15s up front and 225/50/15s on back, all fenderwell lips had to be rolled on the '84 but only the backs on the '80. This is the Weds Autobahns. I don't know the back spacing on them off-hand, though I'm sure it makes all the difference. Handles like its on rails now that it's lowered with the RB springs. Scary sway in the back when it was still on the stock springs...

 

Ok, It's official. Mar3's sig is now officially longer than Mike-P's.