Difference in handling with wider wheels/tires
 

Can anyone with wider aftermarket wheels and tires on their car speak to the differences in handling felt compared to stock? Coming from my STi, the only letdowns for me on my test drive for the BRZ was light steering and lack of road feel. Wondering if going 235 or 245 on 18x8.5 will aid in that department? I assume going with coilovers might also help with the road feel. TIA!

????

Sure it was a twin and not an SUV?
Utterly unable to process the question under this context.

You honestly are of the belief that the 2nd gen BRZ does not have light steering? Compared to a run of the mill econobox? Maybe just barely heavier. By any other standard it’s light, and that’s not a unique opinion for these cars. The road feel I was expecting to be worse - that’s the reality of coming to EPS from hydraulic steering. Not bashing the cars, just looking for peoples experience…

Get a good alignment.

At a minimum, add the OEM crash bolts for a little more front negative camber.

Are you on the Michelin PS4 tires or the 17 inch primacy tires?

- Andrew

Steering *weight* =/= steering *feel*...

Appreciate the response! This was just on a test drive of the premium, so primacy tires. Will definitely keep that in mind if I decide to buy. I’m sure once a steering lockdown comes out for this gen it’ll solve the problem, but was curious on the impact of wider wheels and tires alone

Agreed, I intended to separate the two in case wider wheels on these cars improves just one or the other. Steering weight definitely increased when I went 9.5 wide on my sti so curious if it’s similar with EPS

When you increase unsprung weight and add a bigger contact patches the steering will get heavier

On the last gen, upgrading to better rubber in the same size definitely increased steering weight.

Still not as heavy as my STI, but I found the feedback was there where it counted (for detecting grip loss and countersteering).


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IMO increased steering weight isn't "better". Of course with stiff-sidewall tires load will ramp up more immediately with steering inputs. But I haven't found my '17s steering to necessarily get much if any *heavier* overall with 245/40-17 200tw tires vs. 225/45-17 winters. I've never been a fan of artificially *heavy* steering (typically via excessive caster) anyway... Tastes vary of course, but just putting it out there, "heavy" steering shouldn't necessarily be a goal.

I like heavier steering just from a tactile point of view. Having said that, I've been into weightlifting for 2 decades now and noticed maybe a tiny increase in steering weight going from oem wheels and tires to my current setup, which is either 255 or 265 section tires and 18x9.5 wheels. I was told the steering was going to be SOOOO heavy - this was not the case for me.

My only complaint is that there is almost too much grip. I got the wider wheels in preparation for FI, which never happened, and may not happen, but I do prefer how the 18s look as opposed to 17s. So instead of kinda teetering at the edge of grip and the rear end sliding out ever so slightly in the corners to let you know where the limit lies, the wider wheels with grippier tires will fight the slip in a very ugly way and eventually - IF you've managed to break the grip, it will very abruptly come back and instead of a quick dab of counter-steer, you'll have this ugly left-right-left sequence that does not align with the character of this car at all imo.

In short, while I do like the increased grip and enjoy winters and winter tires for allowing the car to be more playful, I say do not make this decision lightly. Really think about whether this is the kind of car you want and keep in mind the delicate handling is ruined with wide wheels and grippy tires.

Edit: as for the feel, there isn't any either way, it's an electric rack. After fitting Perrin steering rack lockdown, I do feel an increase in something - let's say a connection to the steering rack itself - but the granularity of the steering FEEL has not increased. Still on mute

My 14 FRS with 18x8.5s on 225/40/18 General GMAX RS's has way to much grip for the street. I have no clue why people go for the 9.5 widths other than boosted or just for looks.

I had the same concern when I initially tested the car before I purchased it. Note that the steering is adaptive and stiffens up when you push the car more. Its still a little on the light side but much better than I initially thought.

You should try an S2000...
IMO electric steering isn't inherently any worse for feel than hydraulic. 1st-gen FT86 is way WAY better than earlier sports car electric assist (s2000). I preferred my BRZ's steering at the track and on the street vs. the hydraulic-assisted steering in my 987.2 Cayman that people raved about as the last "good" Porsche steering (I found it too slow and non-linear). Maybe they took a step back with the 2nd gen?

Driving on my primacy tires compared to my yokohama A052 245/17 on a 9" wheel is NO comparison. The yoks feel some much more direct to any input. And that was on stock suspension and also with my MCS coil-overs.

I have only a few days experience on this platform, but from what I've seen in the past, handling feel and steering feel are not really related. A much wider set up probably would have an impact on steering weight.

For the last two cars I've owned, a MK6 GTI and a RWD BMW 435, changing the wheels and tires had little/no effect on the steering feel, but did change the way the car handled and behaved when given steering inputs.

On the GTI I simply changed to a lighter wheel with a good set of summer tires at the OEM size and found a lot more grip, more agility/better turn in. The lighter wheels just made the care feel more "lively", but that could be placebo and not really measurable.

On the BMW going from the staggered 19's to square 18's again changed the handling but not the steering feel (not that you'd ever feel anything in that car anyway). On a square set up the car was far more balanced and rotated much easier, I noticed this whether it was my winter set-up or my autocross set-up. Both rotated similarly, though the grip was WAY higher on the 200TW...which goes without saying...