17x9 -VS- 18x9 Square

[hmong337]

Yea, I'm looking more along the lines of a Yokohama S.drive , Falken 452 or something in that range. People must got deep pockets to DD on Dunlop star specs or other extreme summer performance variants that wear fast.

At my current stock power level, it's too much tire to run 255's that are sticky summers. A mid performance summer 255 would be great for a 17x9 or 18x9 I believe. For what I use my car for, it should be optimal.

I do plan to wrap the stock wheels with Hankook RS3's. It makes the most sense to me to just use the stock wheels with sticky summer tires when only at the stock power levels or basic bolt-ons.

It's so hard to decide... 17"s or 18"!!!!!

[wparsons]

Have you actually priced out wheel and tire costs for what you're looking for? That should really guide your decision more than people on a forum telling you what to do.

As for your stock wheels, IMO you should sell them and buy a set of light 17x8's for the RS3's. Dropping ~5lbs per wheel is nothing to laugh at, and a set of used RPF1's shouldn't be more than ~$600-700.

[charged86]

Originally Posted by Turkish

The 18's will look nicer, but for me, I'd go with 17's because they weigh less and the thicker sidewalls mean that road imperfections won't be as rough on the ass bones. In the end, go with what your gut tells you, you are probably leaning more towards one or the other. Go with your stomach, it's hungry.

your exactly right 18s will look better but the 17s may perform better

[hmong337]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Have you actually priced out wheel and tire costs for what you're looking for? That should really guide your decision more than people on a forum telling you what to do.

As for your stock wheels, IMO you should sell them and buy a set of light 17x8's for the RS3's. Dropping ~5lbs per wheel is nothing to laugh at, and a set of used RPF1's shouldn't be more than ~$600-700.

That's like the weakest recommendation of wheel aesthetics ever LOL. Convexed RPF1's are ugly as sin. No, I will never waste my money on a 17x8 wheel when the stock is fine. If anything, I'm already thinking about 215/45r17 R-comps wrapped on the stock wheels. That should be PLENTY of tire for the car. Light weight wheels are best, of course. But I'd rather spend my money on something significantly wider. 9" or go home... It's for later when this car has some REAL power. An 8" wide wheel at that point just won't cut it. You're pretty much stuck to a 235.

I absolutely love the fat bulge look with a 255/40r17 on a 17x9 rim. That's what I run on the back of my mr2. Aesthetics and raw functional is my taste. I will admit that I'm heavily leaning towards going 17x9's with the FRS. Functional fat tires will look incredible on all four corners.

[mfbmike]

18x9.5 with 265/35 tires

because #bootymeat

[wparsons]

Originally Posted by hmong337

That's like the weakest recommendation of wheel aesthetics ever LOL. Convexed RPF1's are ugly as sin. No, I will never waste my money on a 17x8 wheel when the stock is fine. If anything, I'm already thinking about 215/45r17 R-comps wrapped on the stock wheels. That should be PLENTY of tire for the car. Light weight wheels are best, of course. But I'd rather spend my money on something significantly wider. 9" or go home... It's for later when this car has some REAL power. An 8" wide wheel at that point just won't cut it. You're pretty much stuck to a 235.

I absolutely love the fat bulge look with a 255/40r17 on a 17x9 rim. That's what I run on the back of my mr2. Aesthetics and raw functional is my taste. I will admit that I'm heavily leaning towards going 17x9's with the FRS. Functional fat tires will look incredible on all four corners.

This post makes it pretty clear that you're after look more than function all around.

Go spend some time in the HDPE/Track section and see what people have to say about tire/wheel sizes and lap times. CSG runs 17x8 with 225's on their shop car because that was faster (with actual quantitative testing) than 17x9's with 245's.

If you think saving more than 5lbs per wheel isn't significant on a track you might want to rethink spending any money on R comps too. Have you considered what supporting suspension mods you need to take advantage of the grip from R comps? They'll need much higher spring rates than most people will run.

I'm not saying you shouldn't go wider if you like the look, but wider will not always give you more grip or make you faster.

FWIW, if you wanted a bulged look you can put a 245 on an 8" rim safely, it just won't be quite as quick as if it were on a 9" rim (we're talking a couple tenths per lap, not huge). A 245 on a 9" rim is going to be pretty square, almost bordering on a slight stretch.