spotted an 'interesting' car in the trading post today

[EXCESSV]

ahhh, Deano makes the most sense. Nothing to do with the wheel diameter, it's the tyre width. You can get wider tyres on small wheels too

yeah thats tru you can put wider tyres on smaller wheels but they still are never as wide as what the 17/18" wheels have....put a 17" wheel 234/45/R17 next to your 15" spare and see the difference visually :thumbsup:

 

[Torquen]

correct me if i am wrong but 17/18 inch wheels give better grip because the tyres are wider than the 14/15 inch wheels.
so therefore bigger footprint = more grip

yep right on the money.

 

[Trennaa]

correct me if i am wrong but 17/18 inch wheels give better grip because the tyres are wider than the 14/15 inch wheels.
so therefore bigger footprint = more grip

Is that not what I said:

Do you think it might have something to do with Tyre width?

(It wasn't a question out of lack of knowledge, it was more saracasm.)

 

[Tasmaniak]

Having a larger diameter wheel has nothing to do with road contact surface. It's all in the width.

A 215/70P15 is not wider then a 215/40P18

It's the first numbers that count.

 

[Trennaa]

Indeed.
for example, the standard retread for a 15" is something like

205/65/15
205 = Rubber Width
65 = distance from rim to tread (I think)
15 = Tyre Diameter.

no?

 

[Tasmaniak]

It's a little more complicated then that but you are VERY close Trent.

205/65/15

205 = 205mm tread width
65 = The sidewall height is 65% of the tread width
15 = The rim diameter that it was designed for.

 

[Nobody Actually]

i think the reason most people think taller, not wider is better is the fact it's getting quite hard to get the wider tyre's for the smaller size rims like the 14/15 inch ones. and since the focus on aftermarket rims is bigger is better, tyre companies are following suit. for example, it'd actually cost me more to buy a set of 265/60/15's than 265/40/17's for the vc. being $285ea and $230ea respectively.

now i actually prefer the smaller rims on the old girls, but the way it seems things are heading i'm going to have to buy a bigger set of rims just to be able to buy a competitively priced tyre

 

[Clutchy]

Another thing to think about is the compound of the tyres in question al the bigger 17s 18s and so on ya have to have the z rating or wot ever it is which is big wide and soft and we all kno soft =sticky hence making it harder to spin than ya old 15 inch 235 with the harder compound

 

[CSL]

funny how this went form a rexGem to tyre width. but you dont see 500+ hp musle cars getting arouns on 18's, just wide as hell fiftens

 

[Tasmaniak]

funny how this went form a rexGem to tyre width. but you dont see 500+ hp musle cars getting arouns on 18's, just wide as hell fiftens

Yes you do...