Optimal tire for 17" rim

[shattered_memory]

245/40/17 tires are close to the stock 215/45/17 tires in terms of gearing. A 225/45/17 tires will make gearing longer, which will affect straight line acceleration a bit. Michelin Pilot super sports is a really good street tire by the way. The 17x9 +35 wheels will be great with the 245/40/17. You will be 1 pound lighter than stock with the 17X9 rpf1 and 245/40/17 set up. Plus you will have more dry grip. If you are on stock shocks and springs, the +35 offset may give the affect of body roll when you are cornering. The reason for this is the offset is lower than stock. A lower offset means you're effectively increasing the lever arm, which alters how your suspension responds to the road. That also changes ideal spring/dampening rates.

[Lynxis]

Considering your usage, I'll echo most peoples sentiment on here and vote for 17x8 with 225/45/17. I think a +35 will fit best if you are lowered but a +45 will be better if you're stock ride height.

[drewbot]

Originally Posted by xsnapshot

So a 245 tire is not too wide for an 8" wheel?

I'm leaning towards 8" (vs 9") for cost and weight reduction, and will be throwing 235/40R17 BF goodrich sport tires on there. I know a 235 will work on a 9" wheel as well so I COULD go 9" width.

However I don't want any issues with clearance as I'm going to stick with the stock suspension and stock ride height.

245 on 8 I think is the skinniest wheel width recommended. Check tire track specs page

[DAEMANO]

Originally Posted by xsnapshot

So a 245 tire is not too wide for an 8" wheel?

I'm leaning towards 8" (vs 9") for cost and weight reduction, and will be throwing 235/40R17 BF goodrich sport tires on there. I know a 235 will work on a 9" wheel as well so I COULD go 9" width.

However I don't want any issues with clearance as I'm going to stick with the stock suspension and stock ride height.

You should probably be looking at "tread width" instead of "tire size" (the 225 part). That will more closely tell you what you want to know. Tread widths can have massive variance on tires that show the same size.

Example: These are all 225's but the tread width varies by ~1.3"
225/45/17 (all tires) - width at tread

• Michelin Primacy HP - 7.6"
• Kumho Ecsta LE Sport - 7.7"
• Hankook Ventus V12 evo 2 - 7.7"
• Sumitomo HTR ZIII - 8.1"
• Bridgestone S-04 Pole Position - 8.1"
• Yokohama S.Drive - 8.1"
• Michelin Pilot Super Sport - 8.2"
• BFG G-Force Sport Comp2 - 8.8"
• Continental Extreme Contact DW - 8.9"

Take the tread width and as long as its' within 1" of your wheel (rim) width then you're most likely running within mfg spec. Also tire weights also have quite an amount of variance so make sure and check that too. Tirerack's site has all that info under "specs" for each tire (about halfway down any tire page).