Aegwyn11

Time for some R-tarded questions. I apologize in advance...feel free to flame me if I deserve it

Its about time to replace my tires, so I think I'm gonna go ahead and upgrade to bigger wheels too. I'm thinking 18" and something much wider than my current 17" stockers. The reason I want to upgrade is primarily for performance with looks a distant second. Bigger contact patch along with a little lighter wheels won't be a bad performance upgrade I'm thinking...

I'm leaning towards Enkei PF01's. I found a guy's car that has 18" RPF1's in +15 and 9.5/10.5 that I really like, so thats what I thought I wanted. He said that he's running 255/35 and 275/35, so I figured I'd copy him and all would be well.

Started looking for tires and ran into a wall. I was interested in the Toyo R1R's...they stop at 265/35. Hows abouts the Bridgestone RE-11's I said to myself. Same problem...they stop at 265/35 as well (275/40 is available for them).

So enough back story...questions:

1) So I'm wondering if I should stay at whatever size would match 265 for my rears so that I have more flexibility in tire selection?
2) What size wheel would mate up with 265 tires? 10" wide?
3) OR should I just stick with 10.5" wide wheels and 275 tires and deal with the limited tire selection?

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Just do the 10.5 wheel with a 275/40 and you'll be fine, 255/40 would be the matching front. There are many other combo's available 265/35 front and 285/35 rear etc etc

Guilty1s

iTrader: (12)

Advan AD08s.... 285or295/30.... FTW

Starspecs are definately the best value.. Awesome tires and cheep... 275/35

RE-11s... some of the best street tires you can buy...275/35

I just put some Michellin PS2 295s on a 10.5 19"... OMFG.. amazing...

davidv

iTrader: (2)

Yes. The wider the tire the more limited the selection. And more expensive.

Consider the fact and make a choice.

Aegwyn11

So I did some more research....I went out and collected available tire size data from at least one high performance tire from each manufacturer. I also included a couple of "track" tires in the mix. These included:

Yoko AD08
Bridgestone RE11
Dunlop Direzza Z1 (starspec)
Toyo R1R
Toyo R888
Continental EC DWS
Michelin PS2
Falken 452
Kumho XS
Pirelli P Zero
Nitto NT05
Hoosier A6

I took all the info and put it into an Excel pivot table so that things can be sorted and hidden easily. Its attached here in case anyone else wants to make use. I also put in pricing that was grabbed from across the web for 265/35/18 size on all models (except the Hoosier...275/35/18 for that). This gives you a quick baseline comparison of the price brackets each tire falls into.

Based on the info I got out of this, my initial impression that 255/35/18 and 275/35/18 would limit me isn't nearly accurate. That combo only drops out 6 of the above options. FYI, for that number to get better, you would need to be using some combintation of 245/40/18, 255/35/18, and 265/35/18 (these three sizes are available in all or almost all the brands).

I realize I'm probably agonizing over this more than most people do, but I view new wheels as a decent sized investment that I really don't want to have to make again just because I was a dink and didn't research my decision on the front end...