Hey guys, curious is to what your opinion is on tires. Do you prefer stretched, normal, or track?

 

This post makes my head hurt.

 

Yeah, me too. Gonna just drop this question.

 

stretched is never an option in my book.
the real question is what is your intended use? Street or track? Wheel size? Suspension set up? Budget?

 

i had this big long thing written out about what we did on the race car, but it turns out that Mazda has it right 7" wheel gets a 205, 8" wheel 225, 9" wheel should get a 245, and so on.

it turns out at the race track, some stretch helps.

 

My track tires are normally stretched.

 

Not a track guy, but for the street 245’s (45/16) work fine on the stock 8” wheel...and even keep the speedometer close. It was also a popular size in R compound for autocross.

 

i did it in too, but i wouldn't do it today. in the race car we used a 205/50/15, because of the rules, first on a 7" wheel, then 8" and 9", the 15x9" wheel with the 205/50/15 was basically the same performance as the 225/50/15 on a 15x8

again, race car = rules, so we also went to the dyno like 8 times to try and make less power...

 

Normally for the track and street I prefer slight stretch.

Like BMW and Porsche whom spec 265mm tire on 10.5" wheel width even though that is just beyond the tires rated wheel width.

When I have a chubby sidewall I feel the tire roll more to the side on the wheel when cornering and it has an elastic rubber band feeling on turn in (initial loading) and then again on breakaway (slip angle increasing to the point of reduced traction).

 

Wanna see something scary? 245 Hoosier R7 on an 8" wheel.
And yeah, slight stretch. Wide tire on a narrow wheel feels like you're driving granny's Buick.