Tire Width & Fun Factor Discussion
 

The reasons our slow cars are such entertaining cars is because they're so much fun to drive on the streets. They get sideways at very low speeds with their skinny tires and have good balance.

Chris Harris has a YouTube video out called "The Mercedes C63 AMG Experiment" where he drives the C63 AMG on 4 spare tires. Sliding around everywhere. In this clip he says:

"Modern sports cars are now so obsessed with lap times and circuit performance that at normal road speeds they're most boring because they never come close to moving around and making the driver work" -Chris Harris

He basically has twice as much fun in the car with skinnier tires.

You guys get what I'm saying.

How wide do you think our tires can get before you have so much grip you lose that fun factor?

I was thinking about getting some 18x8.5 wheels next year with some sticky tires.. but every time I slide around a corner on my stock wheels, I think twice about it with a huge smile on my face.

What do you guys think?

:popcorn:

Why 18"? looks? 17" can keep the weight down.

Going from stock to 17x9 with 245/40 tires was one of the best mods I've done. I prefer grip over drift.

+1 to OP. For all those NOT regularly visiting track / auto-x-ing, for those staying NA and not installed forced induction, i see no reason going for insanely wide tires only for arguable looks improvement when one mostly daily drives. Of course if they still value that fun bit that was there in stock. Some might not care about handling changes at all, going just for looks. I certainly would miss it. In my eyes 215-225 tire width of better tire type then Primacies is maximum i'd ever go for mostly daily driven car. Will also help keeping wheel+tire weight down.

I'm running 225/50s on 16x7s. Best wheel and tire change I think I've ever made on ANY car I've owned.

"Fun" is subjective. I run 255/35/18 as my definition of fun is going around corners as fast as possible on the limit of mechanical grip.


If I were into getting slideways I'd be running the stock rubber.

I haven't found any 17" wheel setups that I really cared for looks wise.. Any suggestions?

I'm running the same. 17x9 with 245 tires. I can EASILY make the car go sideways if the road is just a little damp. 190whp

I cant say the same for 18s, but it should be similar

Depends on your definition of fun.

What offset and do you have any pics?


TIA

I'm in the same dilemma more or less.

Seeing that the stock wheel is 7" wide, and if you're running a 17" wheel most people seem to go with a 17x9. So maybe a 17x8 would be a good compromise between grip and fun. Probably depends a lot too if you run high performance summers or all seasons.

This. Compound plays are large role here.

I had this same dilemma. I had 18x9.5's with 235s and hated the feel and how dull it made the car. I now have 17x9's with a 225 which is better, but I still miss the stock tires, they were too much fun to slide around everywhere. The problem is, I want the look of a wider wheel/tire but I also want the feeling the primacy's gave.


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I went to a lighter OEM Subaru 17x7 BBS wheel with some 225/45 Bridgestone S-04's. Huge improvement with some swift springs and a bit of camber. I can still put it plenty sideways, or drive it around mountain roads and maintain grip. Perfectly happy.