Right now i'm entertaining the thought of having 18's with wider tires in the back for traction (245+), and 17's in the front with regular width tires (225) for handling. 17's in the front will also probably help with some fender clearance issues.

Any thoughts on how a setup like this would look, and most of all, how effective it would be? If someone has pics, do share!

 

You'll turn your car into a drag car. In other words, handling will go out the door.

If you want a good handling car that is well balanced, you need to keep the same width tires on all for corners. This is not the case on every car but it is the case on the FD. If you put wider tires on the back than on the front you will increase rear traction without changing front traction... result: understeer. While understeer is much more predictable & managable than oversteer, it isn't very pleasant on the 7 an pretty much makes the handling go to *****.

The one good thing about larger rears is that you can come out of the corners with more throttle than with the same size all the way around, & not worry about spinning it around. However, imo it is more desireable to maintain balance throughout the entire corner.

I have 245's in the rear and regret getting them. Oh well, live and learn.

 

the wheel diameter has nothing to do with fender clearance.

 

BTW, handling will not suffer too much. C5s and NSXs run staggered 17/18 wheels. they handle hella good. it will just be a different setup, with a different feel.

just go with 18s on all corners. go with 245/35-18s in the front and 285/30-18s in the back. thats the best plus size.

 

18's will not give you better traction than a 17 wheel. contact patch will be the same , if not smaller that the 17's. just go wide and get real sticky tires.

 

now that i think about it you're both right... i'm at work right now and pretty high on pain killers.

 

Remember that those cars are set up for those tire sizes from the factory. Also wheel size is not all that important. You basically want less side wall on the tire so it doesn't roll over in corners.So you will see people going with a larger wheel and a tire with a lower aspect ratio yealding the same overall size as the stock setup or close to. There is quiet a bit more than tire size to handling. Shocks/ springs/sway bars/caster, camber and the list goes on.Also a quality tire will provide better handling than a cheap but wider tire. You can ballance out the differance of wider tires in the rear, but the car is factory set up for 4 corners of the same size. Then if you only street or drag the car you can throw this out the window!

 

uhm... did you read my post at all?

1. I said "this is not the case on all cars but it is on the FD." Porsche's come with wider rubber on the rears too, but they have a lot more weight in the back to manage (just like the NSX). I'm no Corvette expert but I'd be willing to bet the GM opted for larger tires in the rear to accomodate all the horespower their engine puts out & justified doing so with the proper suspension setup for neutral handling.

2. I mentioned that I have wider tires in the back & regret it, which, in this sense, implies that I am experiencing understeer with my FD - hence the whole point of the post.

So, back to the original question - yes, if you get wider tires in the back, it will feel different... it will feel not only like understeer, but like understeer which isn't there by design - which sucks. Other than that, Donovan hit it right on the money.

On the topic of larger rims = better response because of less sidewall flex: I've yet to ride in or drive an FD with larger rims at any speed where I'd notice the tires, so I have no basis for comparison, but I'll make mention that I'm very pleased with the sidewall strength of my Pirelli P-Zeros & recommend them for whatever wheel size you get. Not saying that there isn't something better out there, but these are great & not too incredibly expensive.

 

I was thinking about such a set up as well.
I think it would look real good.

However, I only recomend doing it with wider tire sizes.
275-40 and up in 17's have a lot of sidewall and overall diamater.
Therefore 265-35, 275-35 or 285-30 18's start making a lot of sense, especially when you consider how sweet, a set of wide 18's look.

As for the fronts I still think anything over 24.5" diam will rub in front (at least on my car it does). Therefore 235-40 or 245-40 17's make a lot of sense in the front.

I almost went the 17's/18's route but went with 17's all around instead. Availability of R compound tires in 18" sizes was a factor for me.

 

i have a 17rear/16stock front setup right now temporarily because i blew a tire and am lagging to get new ones. i have noticed that in slow maneuvering like parking the turning radius seems to be a little tighter (it just might be my imagination but it really does feel that way). but in hanging turns, while driving fast or regular driving in the rain, it is a lot harder to control because the wider rears are a lot grippier than the front stockers so the car doesnt feel as neutral as before. it feels like it is slightly understeering, but not close to as severe as the torque steer in a front wheel drive car. i think a setup like this would be better for somebody who is scared of the fd's regular subtle oversteer. hope this helps a little.

 

Don't forget that the shocks in the front angle inward as they get closer to the body. Running 18s in the front will also allow to to run a wider dish, being that the wheel is made from a quality manufacturer, of course, you would get little to almost no rubbing from running something like 18x10s in the front and 265s.

Some of the guys DO run 285s/30 18s in the front with minimal rubbing on the fender WITH coilovers. A little bit of lip rolling would be able to help that.

 

yup flybye is correct..I will be running 18x9 in front and 18x10 rear...
I thought about 10's ...but it's highly unlikely I'll ever run 265's up front...but I may run 255's..which should be fine on a 9inch wheel.

for now I'm going 235x40x18 and 265x35x18 for the street.

 

The pic I attached is before my veilside kit was installed but it has 17s all around, but I have 11.5 wides in the back and 9.5 in the front. I autocross a bit and I have no problems with under or oversteer from the widths. Just my ".02"

 

wow 11.5's and no flair kit... pretty cool

wonder what the offset is..............

my 18x10 and 18x9 are going to be 50et...just like the stockers..

 

I have no clue what offsets are. My brother did that for a birthday present for me while i was away on vacation. All I know is they are bad *** looking.

 

What size tire do you have on that 11.5 and the front too? I'd be interested in finding out the offsets like Johnny mentioned.

TIA, Rishie