hi. i have been reading through the archives and stuff i pulled up on search, although most discussion was for FD setups. i am looking at wheels and tires for a FC. a lot of people have gone with a staggered wheel setup on their cars. i was originally planing on going the same size all the way around, for economic reasons, and for what i thought as keeping the original balance. however, is there good reason to go with, say 225/45/17 on 17x8 in the front, and 255/40/17 on 17x9 in the rear (where do you even get 17x9 rims anyways...), over 17x8 all around? i don't know exactly how the dynamics of the car will be affected until i try it, but would you not lose some turn in (or do you gain...) and generate more understeer this way (staggered)? i know this question is application dependent, but i am just looking for a general explanation. if anyone really wants to know though, just say so.

thanks

 

two words: understeer sucks.
people have staggered setups because 1) they have insanely powerful cars
2) they drive a Porsche or other mid-rear engine car
3) they possess mad skillz
4) they think they have the abovementioned variety of skills
5)they wish their cars had ***** enough to need a bigger rear tire

 

yeah, that does make sense. i think i will be just sticking to 17x8 all around, or 17x7.5 all around then...besides i can't afford NOT being able to rotate my tires

 

i will have too much power for a tire you can fit nicely on a 8" wheel.

 

are you saying that you have too much power for anything 8 inches or less, or that you have too much power not to go with a staggered setup?

 

Sorry for being unspecific. But, technically, i guess "yes" to both your questions.
i would not put more than a 245 series tire on an 8" wheel. I am going to run at least 255s. So, too much power for 8" or less, AND too much power not to go staggered. It is difficult to fit a 9" wheel up front in an FC. (I will be running 8" in the front and 9" in the rear.)

 

oh okay...i guess it makes sense that you would want to keep your *** planted as much as possible with high hp figures, and a staggered setup would also help control power oversteer. for my purposes, where i am planning no more than minor powertrain improvements on a N/A FC with an aftermarket LSD, i don't think i have to worry too much about on thottle oversteer. a staggered setup will more than likely give me too much push going into corners fast.

i am, also, planning on weight reduction, including striping whatever doesn't really need to be there. now THIS may change weight distribution, and from what I can figure, will probably take more weight off the back than the front; just because i can find more stuff to strip from the firewall back. so that's one more reason not to go staggered, right?

 

what are you gonna do with the car? drag racing? or autocross? drifting?

 

i knew this question was going to come up eventually...

well, it will be for the most part a street car, although i want to get into autocross this summer. the local motorsports club runs the event about once every two weekends, so that will be the extent of on-track use.