For a 07' WRX, I want to keep the 17" rim size (maybe wider?) I need some input from someone other then the guy selling me my new tires and or summer rims (Summer drive pavement use only, Im going to a different setup for winter) My budget is tight I may just change tires and keep my stock rims? What kind of offset is good? if I buy new rims? A set that looks nice but are they good/light/strong? Definatley new to this
the T\As are a popular choice, i looked into these they have good reviews for everything besides rode noise, i think your offset is 50 or 48, but it could be 52, check tire rack.com, or subaru.com i dont think u wanna go less then 48
What is the smallest wheel size that will fit 16" or does it need to be a 17" to clear the Calipers? Just asking for my winter tire needs. I'm thinking some cheap steel rims with some sticky Tires, Maybe this?
I have 17x8" Drag-31 with offset of +47 and they are less than 20lbs too. You could get a good deal from Discount tire if you buy a package deal. I always liked Falken Azenis 615 or Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 as a cheaper set of performance tires. And for the winter option check for sale threads there are some 16" WRX wheels for cheap and they will clear your 07 WRX brakes. I have a set of 16" WRX wheels wraped in Dunlop M3 Sport winter tires. I had them for three seasons now.
Why 205 in the winter narrower tires? And in the summer wider 225 make alot of sense, I have some Potenza RE070 that are worn out almost no tread and the 225 width works well. What about these tires.
Summer tires and winter tires are two completely different animals. For winter tires, you want as narrow and as tall a tire as possible. Why narrower? You want less of a contact patch so that the weight of the car forces that tire into the snow and helps it to cut through the snow to the pavement beneath. If you ever look at WRC cars for their snow setups the tires look like bicycle tires. They're very narrow, and they have a tall aspect ratio to help give extra cushion to the rim. Your thinking for winter tires should be to go as tall and narrow as possible and on as small a rim as you can fit. 205/55/16 tires on a 16in rim that will clear your brakes is an ideal setup. I'm considering dropping the coin on 15in wheels that will clear my brakes so I can go back to my RS winter setup, which was either 185/65/15 or 195/60/15 depending on what rims I had mounted up. Summer tires are a completely different situation, and will be dictated by what you want out of the car. There are so many variables regarding width, aspect ratio, weight and functionality (Do you plan on driving the car mainly on the street? Will this be a track only car? Will it get driven in rain?) that you have to take everything into account before you buy. Your stock offset is somewhere around +53 to +55. Just slapping the widest set of tires you can find on your car isn't going to guarantee good handling. In fact, it could even slow your car down due to extra unsprung weight and you may find yourself with a less than ideal handling situation. You can actually play around with your tire sizing and give yourself a gearing advantage due to the circumference of the tire being more or less than stock. Learn what each of those numbers and letters mean on a tire. Tirerack has a good breakdown of what each of those numbers like Treadwear, Traction, Temperature, Speed Rating, etc all mean. Those are all going to play a part in your selection. If you want a tire that's going to last longer than a summer, look for something with a treadwear rating that's more than 100. To give an example of this, for my wagon with my 17s I can run one of two sizes. 225/45/17 or 215/45/17. I chose the 215s because they're lighter, I get slightly better acceleration due to the slightly smaller overall diameter of the tire and the fact that those two outweigh whatever extra minute amount of grip I would get with a 225 series tire. So, what is it that you want out of the tire and wheels? Do you want to improve your cars handling or do you just want it to look cool? Will this be a daily driver?
i like my Goodyear eagle gt's they work well in both snow and summer driving. they are a bit spendy 130 a piece but i like them alot.
I wouldn't go with the Nitto Nt-01 because it is pretty much a track tire. Once that tire is about half way through it's life it will pretty much loose all if it's tread except for the two grooves that go around the tire and that tire is pretty soft so I would be suprised if those tires were pretty much done after one summer. I just ordered a set of Nitto NT-05's for my summer wheels, I am hoping that they come in today. I also hoe they do pretty good since they are cheaper than the stock tires.
since it doesn't look like anyone's said it - offset is dependent on wheel width. As your wheel width changes from stock, so must your offset. I believe this is to keep the forces on the wheel bearing properly aligned, i.e. if your offset is way off you'll wreck your stuff quicker.
The term for this is scrub radius. It is the difference between the wheel centerline and the steering axis. This also affects your bumpsteer, among other things.
Maybe read the sticky tire thread that is in this forum section :dunno: http://www.mnsubaru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23001
Thanks for the advice everyone, This was helpful ^ I went to TireRack and got some good tires for a nice price I picked the Falken Azenis 615 I went with my stock wheels but a 225 width. I should have them on in a couple days, Thanks to everyone for their input. -Michael I liked them alot but your right, there isn't much for thread. Maybe when I have a car setup for the track I'll get some serious track wheels, I bet they would be great @ BIR!
Thanks Brian the info was good and it makes alot of sense, I'm surprised by how little I knew (I still have alot to learn) about tires and they are so important for traction, which is why we all drive AWD Subarus!
As for the RT-615's I have them on my car and they work pretty slick on the streets, but after watching this I had second thoughts about going to BIR with them. It could have been user error or cold tires but needless to say the car had RT-615's on it. [youtube]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/phf_sLQ000I&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/phf_sLQ000I&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube]
Yeah, thats not good, I really hate the part where is tire rolls past the rest of the vehicle with part of the linkage still attached.
sumitomo hrtzIII's love them, and a decent price too. got them on tire rack shipped to my door is less than 48 hours. you dont want to much tire if your not planning on tracking or racing it, just get a good dd drive summer tire, dont go for looks go for how well it handles...especially in rain..my last tires sucked in rain and almost killed me on the freeway.
Wasn't this posted previously and I'm sure by now there's an explaination for the crash. Without any further information besides reviewing the video I'd probably say it wasn't the tires that caused the accident, but a driving error. Looked like a weight transfer issue. Again, that's my take from looking at the video... Michael, I had Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3's and loved them. Very good wet weather, very good dry grip, and excellent all around street tire (not track)
The most important distinction to make here is buying a street tire vs a track tire. A dedicated track tire will actually perform worse on the street because you'll never get it up to it's operating temperature where it'll provide the best grip. The reverse can be said for a street tire on the track, where it's very easy to go past it's optimum temperature and overheat the tire. I wouldn't worry too much about the video. I can pull up video of every kind of race car and street car crashes with all different tires from full on race slicks to crappy snow tires. Like Dave said, it looked to me like he may have lifted at some point and that was enough to transfer the weight to the front and get the car to rotate. Don't mind my sarcasm earlier, I take every opportunity I can to poke fun at Ryan You'll like the RT615s, I've known several people who've run them and enjoyed them. Do be careful in the rain, and once the temp hits 40 or so you'll want to switch to your winter tire setup. Don't even think about snow or ice with them. Enjoy the new shoes!
My current favorite for a max performance street tire is the dulop Z1 Star Spec. they are amazingly grippy, stick and turn in better than the RT-615s, aren't noisy, and are only bested in the wet by the super expensive Toyo R1Rs. they just hook up always, and work excelent. We've tagged 150+ autox runs on our set of 235/40-17 Star Specs, and they still have enough meat to be used as a rain tire. The RT-615 is still a pretty damn good tire. just be careful your first couple times in the rain and feel your way through it. They're still better than their older brother the 215s, but i definitely wouldn't pick up a set for rains.
