running 205-45-16 on a stock fd rims (8 inchs)
 

has anyone tried running running 205-45-16 on a stock fd rims (8 inchs)? I heard its suppose to make it steering more sensitive. 205mm is 8 inchs so theortically it will fit. do you guys think it would fall off the rim? (most places say 7.5 inch tire is the max for a 205 series tire)

WTF???

Skunks,

Let me try and answer your question in a more articulate fashion than SleepR1. Running a narrower tire may decrease steering effort, but the tire width is not suited to a 8 inch rim offered on the FD. The smallest you should be running is 225/50/16.

Most people opt for a larger size tire (245/45/16), for a gain in usable traction (i.e. contact patch). Sensitive steering is a function of your alignment settings, mostly.

Pauly D

well the reason I ask is that I got a crap load of drift tires but they mostly 205's, I was wondering if anyone has ever had any experience running these on their stock 8 inch tires (to see if they fell off or what not). for grip racing, I have 265-40-17's SO-3's on the rear with 235-45-17 on the front on RP-01 rims :D I did not really feel like smoking my $250 per tire rubbers all in one night when I can get free drift tires with a lot of meat still on them and shread those.

On another note, A lot D1 grand prix guys are running streched tires, 8-9 inch tires on 10 inch rims do not seem to be uncommon now adays and they dont seem to be falling off their rims. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to try it out for myself, an 8 inch tire on an 8 inch rim should be safe enuf in an empty parking lot ;).

the question about the more sensitivity steering was to get you input about something I just read some place or another. I just happen to be post it in this post :)

I've got some nice 'drifting' 205 tires & wheels from my TII. I'll trade you for those nasty FD rims if you pay the shipping. :D

Ahh...well that's better. Now we have contextual reference. I take back my "WTF?" :) I'd be concerned more about how short a 205/45-16's sidewall is compared with the stock 225/50-16's sidewall height. The overall diameter for a 205/45-16 is ~23.3 inches. The stock 225/50-16's overall diameter is ~25 inches. That's 1.7 inches shorter with the smaller tire size, and 0.85 inches shorter sidewall than the stock 225/50-16 sidewall height. My guess is that it would be nearly impossible to fit a 205/45-16 on an 8 x 16 wheel because of the narrower section width and shorter sidewall height. I'd say the smallest tire you can possibly squeeze on an 8 x 16 wheel are either 205/55-16 or 215/55-16. Overall diameters for either tire size are 24.8 and 25.3 inches respectively, so the sidewall heights will be similar to a stock 225/50-16, but the section widths will be narrower for the 205 and 215. Not only would it be impossible, but IF you were able to squeeze a 205/45-16 on an 8 x 16, your load index will be much, much less with that tire than with a 225/50-16. For drifting you really should maintain the stock 225/50-16's load index of 92 or greater (~1389 lbs of load at max tire pressure). Load index indicates how much weight that tire can widthstand under G-force load transfer. You figure that with 1389 lbs each tire, that's basically the entire weight of an FD supported by the outside tires under "jounce" with a 1-G lateral load. God help you if you have 205/45-16s with load indexes suited more for a Saturn SL-2.

I would recommend following the tire manufacturer's rim width range for a given tire size. If you look up Tire Rack's tire spec section, you'll see each tire size's max rim width. As an example the max rim width for a 255/40-17 is 10 inches wide. Considering that nominal rim width is usually an inch less than the overall rim width, the 255 actually stretches 0.5 in each side to fit on a "10-wide" (actually an 11-wide).

I had 205's on my car when I bought it(cheap bastards!) and drove my car off the road twice in one week trying to drift around corners. Thankfully I didn't hit anything. Immediately I change tires to 225's and I felt I had more control. Even when I was out of control in was much more manageable.

ahhh, so you did have 205's on your car though, did the tire fall off the rim or something? also, what was your tire ratio (middle number?)? was it 45 or closer to 55-60?

doesn't sound like a good idea to mount 205s on 8s from what's been posted thus far

yeah, sounds like quite a stretch but I gonna have to try it at least once to know for sure ;)

be careful!

They were 205/50's. I should sue the damn dealership for selling me the car w/ those tires!

i'd say this is enough evidence for one to not mount 205s on 8-inch wide wheels!