Most popular wheel size

[03A08M3]

I know it's been asked before about what's best in people's opinion but that's subjective.

I'm interested to know what is most popular, so what are you running and why?!

[9kracing]

Once you understand how width and stagger effect understeer and oversteer, you won't need to ask this question as you'll be able to dial in YOUR setup for YOUR car.


If you just want to look cool, 10 and 11 staggered with some fat lips will do it.

[Obioban]

All else equal, the sole functional benefit of wider tires is more heat capacity. That allows lower pressures before overheating the tires, and lower pressure = more grip (all else equal). Wider tires do not have more grip unless you run them at a lower pressure, and for street use applications you almost never need to worry about tires overheating at any sane pressure.

Wider tires make steering feel worse (front tires), increase tram lining, make the car accelerate worse, make the car get worse fuel economy, increase unsprung mass (counts ~8x more than sprung mass), and makes braking worse (at the same tire pressure).

Wheel widths should be matched to tire widths. So, figure out what you want your tire widths to be, and work backwards from them. Stock widths are pretty great for street use. For the street, I wouldn't want anything wider than a 245 up front.

Wider wheels also weight more, all else equal. Looking at a 225 vs 275 PS4S, the tire weight difference is 4 lbs. Figure the wider wheel to match adds 2 lbs. (4 + 2) x 4 (tires) x 8 (unsprung rotating mass penalty) = 192. So, running 275s on a 9.5" wheel vs 225s on a 8" wheel is like having a 192 lb passenger in the car with you at all times in terms of performance hit.

For the track, heat capacity and ability to rotate becomes more important. 275s square on 9.5 ET35 with a 10mm spacer in the rear is pretty hard to beat, so long as your front sprint perch is above the tire. Everything handling wise really goes to shit as you increase the front offset, so the less you can get away with the better. Some suspension setups have a low front spring perch, which basically forces you to ET25 if you want to run a 275, which is unfortunate.

[Tbonem3]

And what's "best"? EI, what's the goal? Performance, looks, comfort?

[03A08M3]

Quite a broad spread so far!

Personally I prefer a wider rear tire to maximise grip as much as possible.

I can appreciate guys who do a lot of track work running square wheels to allow rotation.

I think in that instance you're more likely to have done some front fender, liner and bumper bracket tweaks to allow a wider front tire too.

The tramlining you get from a wider front tire isn't an issue on the track.