I was reading about wheel size and am interested in new wheels. However I'm not sure what size I should get. The car will be primarily for daily road use, but I want it to look sweet. Right now I have 17" wheels, if I get 18", will it effect the road feel significantly or will it still be comfortable?

 

And so we meet again.
Despite the arguments about the "motion of the ocean" size does matter. Now let's talk about wheels.
If you search, you'll see that 18 and 19 are used successfully. 20 is pushing it. To find out more research on gearing and unsprung weight affecting handling.
Hey, look, you'll probably have a car designed by midnight...

 

the bigger the wheel the smaller the sidewall on the tire. You would see the car ride to be a lot stiffer, but might see improvement in handling since you going to be using a wider better street tire.

for racing you would better of sticking to 17s

 

Just out of curiosity how did you end up with a Touring manual transmission with 17-inch wheels?

 

I have a Enth with 17s and driven my friends touring with 18s and noticed quite a bit of difference in the ride comfort. I may sound like an old man, but I like my smooth ride better than handling/looks. I have had ultra low profile tires on previous cars and to be honest, its just not worth the headaches over a long period of time.

Now, the Stock 18's aren't that bad if they run/feel anything like the OEM, its just the 17s are that much more comfortable.

 

let me ask you this... if you are looking for comfort over handling.. why would you buy a sports car that has a stiff suspension should have bought something with a softer ride...say a honda or may be an altima

 

don't be scared of low profile tires...i have 20's and there is a marginal difference between my stock 17's and the 20's as far as ride quality...i think it's totally worth it...especially since i get much better grip with the wider tires...get at least 19's if you're worried about looks...i think 19's will be perfect...get 20's if you're concerned more about looks

 

+1 on the difference, the car seems so much more confident on the road with the wider tires and bigger rims. quality difference is marginal. not sure about 20's on a Z, they just seem too big for my tastes but many people do like them.

 

+1 Your absolutely correct!

 

I definatly wanted a sports car for several reasons, the Z was the most comfortable of the lot that I could afford. I'm not totally inflexible when it comes to some trade offs.

 

You ignored my question wizzdumb77. Very rude. The next time that you ask a question, I will do the same.

 

I would stick to 17s. If you want something to look nice just get a nice, high quality, lightweight 17" JDM wheel. You'll spend less on tires and you can increase the width of the wheels as much as you want for better traction, it's not like that is something exclusive to larger diameter wheels. I can say one advantage to an 18" wheel is that since the wheel is of a larger diameter it takes more effort to spin so you can get on the throttle sooner when exiting a corner with less chance of wheel spin. But, don't let anyone tell you a 19" or 20" wheel on a Z is for performance anything. Unfortunately alot of Z owners here in south FL ride on rediculously large wheels because they simply must have attention. Even though 99% of the time the girls are giggling because the guy riding 10 ft back from his steering wheel and sitting on "dubs" just looks plain silly.

Best Regards,

Reav

 

I had no intention of ignoring you, I just haven't been able to respond, or even read the messages until now (1/18/06 6:44) . Sorry if you felt ignored.