Car feels "sluggish" and less nimble with new rims/tires
 

Hi guys. I recently purchased a set of RPF1 17x9 wheels (+45) and Bridgestone RE-11's (235/40/17). Although I love the extra grip, I can't help feeling the car feels a lot less nimble. I came from using snow tires on the stock wheels, and the snow tires were around 23 lbs.

The RE-11's are 25 lbs. The 40 aspect ratio also means a slightly smaller diameter. And of course I dropped ~4.x lbs from the stock wheels. Despite this, the car feels much more sluggish and not nearly as "nimble". Slow speeds in first gear seem to bog it down and launching seems to take a little more gas.

Is this the effect of increased grip that I am feeling? Or is it the 25 lb tires and the weight being more towards the outside that I am feeling? Car feels like it has more "rolling resistance" also, if you know what I mean. Not very experienced with changing out tire setups.

Thanks for your input

Wider, stickier, tires will definitely have more rolling resistance, but I would also bet some of it is placebo. Are the tire pressures good?

1. You have a noticeably higher MOI (moment of inertia) with the 25lb and very grippy compound tires.

2. The 1" wider contact patch on a wider track is trading agility for stability when it comes to transitional handling, so the car will be less willing to change direction as quickly.

Had the same feeling on the first day.. trust me you will love the new set up.

Well. You know what this means? New coilovers.

tire pressure is at 32 psi. lolll.. oh boy.. coilovers. might as well lmao. and im about to supercharge too.. bye bye paychecks

Please get good ones, I see too many people compromising for cost. Just wait for the right set, and save save save. If you don't 110% like it, don't buy it. Get rides, do research. Good luck.

Try raising your tire psi, dont get too crazy, check out the max psi on the side wall of the tire. But i run a higher psi tire when its nice and dry, its a slight change, but you can "tune out" some of the excessive grippyness.

Give it two weeks and you will forget how it drove before.


That being said, I went from huge heavy wheels to much much lighter than stock wheels/tires because of such things.

I noticed the same after upgrading to my lighter O. Z. 17x8 wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport AS/3 225s.

Installing a Perrin steering rack lockdown seemed to offset a lot of the sluggishness.

http://perrinperformance.com/i-15768...-fr-s-brz.html