The quest for a good wheel/tire setup?

[koyv90]

I am searching for new wheels/tires and was wondering what to get because there are so many options it can be overwhelming.
Such as Staggered or Square?
Tire options? 225 255? Wide or stretch tires.
I know what staggered and square wheels/tires are but I don't know which would be best for my application.

I daily drive the car but would like to take it to some track days and drift it and enjoy my self. Pretty much I want my car to be a sleeper. I wanted to keep similar balance and tail happiness as stock. However I did want to get bigger wheels and a flush look. (Not Hella-flush).

Yes the car will eventually be dropped. I want to turbo the car in the future but it will not happen for a while.

On my civic turbo and rsx I always just ran square setups but now I feel that i am in a whole new playing field.

Thanks for all your help!
I apologize if there have been similar threads.

[fatoni]

Square 225 on an 8 or 9 inch rim.

[mfbmike]

Comes down to personal preference really. The best performing setup would be something lightweight, 8" wide with upgraded 215, maybe 225 rubber.

I run 9.5" wide with 265 tires. Overkill and does hinder acceleration to some (trivial) extent but I'm very content.

There was a video posted where they took a stock FR-S onto a track with 215 stocks, 215's of x better tire and 225's of the same upgraded tire and the stock size upgraded tire gave the best last time.

For a DD, it's not always the best performing setup, for me anyway. I want what feels and to an extent, looks the best.

[ZionsWrath]

I don't think it is a good idea to street the tires you plan to track. I would look into a street setup and have a dedicated track wheel/tire you don't use daily.

For street use I just run a staggered wheel with all seasons

[SirBrass]

If you're going to track, square setup. If you're going to autoX also, stay stock width & go 225/45 or 215/45 in order to stay stock legal. Enkei RPF 01's are a great choice.

After that is tire model.

For tracking & daily probably an extreme performance summer that has good wear characteristic.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by fatoni

Square 225 on an 8 or 9 inch rim.

9" is a bit of a stretch, wider than max recommended width (8.5) for 225/45.

Personally, I'd probably go square 17x8.5s with 245/40-17s all around.

[Killerbee]

as most have said before. With your reqirements, take a 8" wide rim and 225 tires. Offset something in the 35 range as long as you are on stock suspension

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by mfbmike

There was a video posted where they took a stock FR-S onto a track with 215 stocks, 215's of x better tire and 225's of the same upgraded tire and the stock size upgraded tire gave the best last time.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/special-...transformation

They tested on OEM 215/45-17 Primacy HP, 215/45-17 Dunlop Z1 StarSpec, and 235/40-18 StarSpecs. IMO they screwed up in a big way on the "upgraded" sizing, as 235/40-18s are 0.7" larger in diameter than the OEM sizing which changed the overall gearing, and no good reason to go to 18s anyway. They should have tested 245/40-17s on wider wheels as the upgraded size (same diameter as OEM). Or 245/35-18s (also OEM tire diameter) if they just HAD to go up in diameter.

The wider tires did give them more lateral grip: 0.96g vs. 0.94g, 71.2mph slalom speed vs 70.2mph on the 235/40-18 StarSpecs vs. OEM sizing. But the additional weight and worse gearing reduced max track speed from 94.0mph to 92.5, and added 0.6 seconds to lap time.

[koyv90]

Thanks for the feed back guys. I was also thinking of having two sets of wheels. But for now ill stick with the ones i was looking at.

[Boofneenee]

Go light weight for improved performance. Just picked up some used rims 17" that weight 4 lbs less than stock. Using stock tires. I cant believe how much more responsive and just quicker the car has become. If u can find 18 that are light i guess that will be good as well. Will look better for sure but expect to drop big money as ure gonna hve to get tires with that.

[fatoni]

Originally Posted by ZDan

9" is a bit of a stretch, wider than max recommended width (8.5) for 225/45.

Personally, I'd probably go square 17x8.5s with 245/40-17s all around.

i think im gonna disagree. 9 inches is 229mm so its hardly a stretch (ignoring tires that run narrow). if you look to other platforms with infinitely more performance data, you will see that a 225 on a 9" rim is faster than a 225 on an 8" rim in every single situation. i have yet to hear why it would be different with this car. i have yet to even see the difference tested. but so far, in every comparison ive ever seen, the 9 is faster at that size.

[ZDan]

Originally Posted by fatoni

i think im gonna disagree. 9 inches is 229mm so its hardly a stretch (ignoring tires that run narrow).

9" is wider than the maximum recommended wheel width of 8.5" for 225/45-17 tire size (for any tire make/model I'm seeing, anyway). To me, that makes it a STRETCH by definition.

if you look to other platforms with infinitely more performance data, you will see that a 225 on a 9" rim is faster than a 225 on an 8" rim in every single situation.

225/45 on a 9" might be quicker and put up better handling numbers vs. 225/45 on an 8", BUT on a given 9" wheel, 245/40-17 is going to be quicker around just about any autoX or road course than 225/45-17 of the same make/model tire. And it will look better (subjective).

Also, it's not ONLY about absolute lap times.
OP said: I daily drive the car but would like to take it to some track days and drift it and enjoy my self.

Daily driver, not competing where tenths matter. Besides being a lower-performing option on 9" wheels vs. 245/40-17 and being outside tire manufacturer's recommendations for fitment, 225/45-17s on 9" will leave the wheels more susceptible to curbing due to the stretch. Rim will hit the curb way before the tire's "rim protector".
And it looks dumb (subjective).

For OP's usage, I'd actually still prefer 245/40-17 on 8.5" wheels. This is the street fitment I have on the front of my FD. If I were to run 225/45s on the street, I would want 7.5" wheels. Personal preference based on not being a fan of any stretchie look at all and also in order to protect the rims better against curbing.

[mfbmike]

Originally Posted by ZDan

http://www.roadandtrack.com/special-...transformation

They tested on OEM 215/45-17 Primacy HP, 215/45-17 Dunlop Z1 StarSpec, and 235/40-18 StarSpecs. IMO they screwed up in a big way on the "upgraded" sizing, as 235/40-18s are 0.7" larger in diameter than the OEM sizing which changed the overall gearing, and no good reason to go to 18s anyway. They should have tested 245/40-17s on wider wheels as the upgraded size (same diameter as OEM). Or 245/35-18s (also OEM tire diameter) if they just HAD to go up in diameter.

The wider tires did give them more lateral grip: 0.96g vs. 0.94g, 71.2mph slalom speed vs 70.2mph on the 235/40-18 StarSpecs vs. OEM sizing. But the additional weight and worse gearing reduced max track speed from 94.0mph to 92.5, and added 0.6 seconds to lap time.

Thanks.

And yes, agreed. Not sure why they upped to 18's for that test.

Either way, 0.6 seconds is negligible. So is the lateral grip to many for a daily driver.

[campy]

Originally Posted by Boofneenee

Go light weight for improved performance. Just picked up some used rims 17" that weight 4 lbs less than stock. Using stock tires. I cant believe how much more responsive and just quicker the car has become. If u can find 18 that are light i guess that will be good as well. Will look better for sure but expect to drop big money as ure gonna hve to get tires with that.

Hmmm I think your butt dyno might need calibration