Tire Size for 17" Volans....

[OJ's DNA]

Nice feedback, I guess I'll pick up the 215's on Monday then. While we are on the subject, as I noted earlier my front wheel is flush with the wheel well, the rear however looks to be a full 1 to 2 inches deep inside the wheel well, has anyone run a bigger tire on the back than the front? I don't think you could really tell the difference but my point is that a bigger tire would "fill-up" all that space the rear wheel appears to have.

[JRL]

Would look good, but would NOT work well on a FWD car
JRL

[OJ's DNA]

why do you say that?

[billr99]

Quote, originally posted by OJ’s DNA »

why do you say that?

The use of a tire with a larger contact area on the rear will induce a tendency for more understeer or less oversteer. The use of such a tire on the front would do the exact opposite. Now, since the 850 understeers in its stock or slightly modified (short springs, upgraded non-adjustable shocks) configuration, what you are suggesting would merely make a bad situation worse.

Now with all this said I asked IPD once about the affects of using a 5-10mm spacer on the back to acheive the appearance that you are after. Scott responded that one of the guys at IPD uses a rear spacer and autocrosses an 850; and found no signficant increase in understeer as a result. So if you take that all as fact (because a wider track at the rear should also induce more understeer in theory), a set of spacers in the rear might be a better setup to use. I also think in the case of using reasonable sized spacers in the rear, you could probably balance the car using air pressures and get something usable; all the while, making it look closer to "normal".

Cheers,

[OJ's DNA]

Thanks for the idea of a spacer in the rear - that would help me get the effect I'm looking for.

[Meek]

Keep in mind the small but significant speedo error that you will have. The guy I bought my R from did the no-no and got 205/55/16 instead of 205/50/16's and I have a good 5% error on the pessimistic side (going faster than the speedo says)(Yes, I know there is typically speedo error anyway). I thought I was going 65 officer ....

If you are mathematically impaired like most people in the world, go to Miata.net and they have a tire/wheel size calculator there.

PS .99 cents is not 99 cents nor $0.99!!!!! .99 cents is almost a penny though...It's in every store. Cracker Barrel yesterday, any food store etc...