oh good lord
tires and wheels need to be set up for a particular style of driving.
F1 cars dont use 19 inch low profile tires, they have very stiff suspension, they use a large sidewall tire to absorb bumps and to keep unsprung weight down.
Most spec racing series or grass roots racing uses a 14-16 inch rim with a tall sidwall tire (55-65 series).
Now on the street, MOST Ultra high performance tires only come in 17,18,19 inch sizes, so if you want the performance offered by the tires then you will have to buy larger rims.
but there are many high performance tires that you can get that are 15-16 inch, like the falcon azines, and kumho 712, ect.
it is VERY hard to "only add 1 inch" and maintain the weight of a rim. This is where that little C=PIr2 comes into play. there is ALOT more material in a 17 inch rim than a 16 inch rim.
Low profile tires (30,35,40,45 series) are heaver then regular tires, they have alot more stuff insid them to make them maintain there flat shape, the tires are basicly squares, it takes alot of stuff to make someithg that wants to be round into a square.
Un sprung weight (tires, rims, reake assemblies, wheel nuts, steering knuckles) will affect your handling, if you have alot of unspring weight, then there will be more inertia on each corner, the wheel assmbliy will be slow to react to changes in the road, it will just want to stay where it is, or if you hit a bump, it will want to keep moving up and the shocks will have to work extra hard to control the movement.
if you use a small light rim and a light tires, the wheel will fallow the road better and you wont loose contact as much in the corners, this will result in better cornering and shorter stoping distances, as well as better overall drivability.
on a street car with stock suspension, a set of 17's with good tires will increase your cornering grip. it will also make you feel every pebble in the road and you WILL dent your rims on pot-holes,
will 18's whith 30 series tires increase grip and cornering perfromance on a stock car? yes.
But just like carbon fiber, spoilers, air splitters, and every thing else that has been takin from racing, its all Mostly used for Bling Bling, and the street cars that use them wont use them corectly or gain the full performce that they can offer.
<small>[ April 13, 2004, 07:23 PM: Message edited by: curtklze ]</small>
Your speedo is generally going to be off a little bit. The speedos are calibrated for stock, so even a small change in rolling diameter will throw it off. And you do feel the road more. It really depends on the driver if it's bad or good, because some people like to feel the road, and some dont. I do, personally, because I feel like I have a bit more control.
