I was thinking of trying 265s after I get rims for the car.

 

With the stock rims, don't use anything more than 215's. It might seem as though you are getting more rubber to the road, but the carcass is flexing which decreases traction. With 265's you'll need at least 9" wide rims. Becare with 265's. Not all are the same actual width. Some tires in that size might get too close for comfort while others will be fine. 255/40/17 is a great size for the back of these cars. There are tons of great tires in this size as well.



With my 225/50R16 on my 8" wide rims, I also get tons of wheelspin. This is with some relatively sticky Yokohama AVS Intermediates. I'll need to step up to some wider tires soon.

 

im using 245's on the stock rims and they work fine and have given me alot more traction.

 

::And now for the ramblings of a madmad::



I'm just trying to say that wider rubber isn't always better. But there's still more traction to be had with those 245's with wider wheels and the right tire pressure. But all tires aren't created equal. Some car handle being too wide for the wheel, some don't. Mine are a good example of ones that aren't happy with the wrong sized wheel. The sidewalls of the Advan series are very stiff. Stiffer sidewalls make for nice turn in and a smooth transition from lateral traction to sliding sideways but when on a wheel that is too wide or too narrow, the contact patch gets way out of whack. I didn't even get into how tire pressure affects traction on a bowed out contact patch. With a too wide tire you need less pressure so it'll wear more evenly. Depending on the tire, less pressure might get a lot more traction. Most street tires will just get hotter than they should with daily driving usage. After x amount of time the rubbber goes downhill in grip no matter how much tread is left.



But throw this out the window if you have some tires made for drag racing. The soft sidewalls are made to give. But these types of tires suck for the twisties. Those Nitto drag radials are a good example. Just as the Advan A-032R's are a good tire to race on a road course with then be able to drive home on, the Nitto NT-555R are some killer drag radials that are decent enough to drive home on. Just don't get wild with the cornering while they are on. But if you want good corning, (aside from having the proper tires for good handling) then keep the tires even with the wheels or even a bit narrow.



Hell, I could get more traction with decent 185's compared to the 205's that my car came with. Those things, even though they were a perfect fit, were total junk. They were Grand Spirit's or something like that. Just no-name tires. Bahhh! Cheap tires suck except for doing brake stands. Those old tires of mine chewed through some brand new asphalt (two decent divots scoured out of the road - thanks Ryan ) and still had plenty of tread left. WTF?!? It took me forever to kill them. I can't remember how many burnouts I did with them just to get rid of them.



It all boils down to what direction you want to go. Straightline or corners. To have your car do it's best in each respect it requires different tires with different characterisics. Some tires do well at both to some extent. But they have to compromise one strength to be good at another.



The only time I see tires too wide for the wheels in a race situation where handling matter is in autocross. They only do this because in some classes the wheel widths are limited by class restrictions. And the tires are usually Hoosier slicks that weren't on the car when they drove in.



Holy crap! You read it this far? Good shop.

 

Well I took it to the drag strip, here is a link to the thread....



1/4 mile times.

 

13.2?!? Hot damn that's a good time!



You do know that is faster than 98% of the people out there? Not too shabby at all.



I have a feeling as soon as you saw that you started thinking of what'll get you into the 12's.

 

Yup! I wanted 12s so damn bad. Every run after the 13.2 run went down hill. Then once the clutch started going out I said **** it, I got what I wanted, a whole bunch of 13 sec time slips. So I went home.