-Trav-

iTrader: (37)

I got a little too excited and had to post up my rears, but still waiting for the fronts to arrive.

This is a 265/40/18 on an 18x8:




I'm loving this look. PS2's tend to run narrow and the round shoulder compliments the larger fit. Pics of the front this week.

-Trav-

iTrader: (37)

Forgot to mention, running a 20mm spacer with rolled fenders/ slight pull.

freddys 350z

I did the same thing when i first got my car. found some contisport3 tires for cheap. 265-35-18 .

Bmurray350z

iTrader: (34)

aren't the touring wheels staggered 18x8/8.5?

-Trav-

iTrader: (37)

The 06+ five spokes are staggered but unfortunately not the v1's. Freddys those would've created way too much gap for my height, otherwise I would've gone the 35 route which would've fit better I'm sure. These sizes maintain the oem OD and f/r height difference almost exactly.

freddys 350z

they were only 150 for almost new tires(set) that usally run 300 each. couldn't pass it up.

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Looks like crap and most important, will handle like crap. Buy wider wheels.

Waiz

iTrader: (57)

Way too much sidewall, they are OEM wheels just stick to OEM profile

-Trav-

iTrader: (37)

I respect your opinion but I like how it looks. But hey maybe I'm biased, being my car and all...this isn't a track car, it's a daily commuter car. I will never come close to pushing the limits, so I will be fine.

Waizzz, been there done that the sidewall is actually shorter though.

-Trav-

iTrader: (37)

Totally feel you on that. I picked this pair up for 100 with 8/32 of tread. Had to give them a try, not to mention be a guinea pig and test them out in case others were curious.

Not well received, as expected. Lol.

-Trav-

iTrader: (37)

I'd like a little bit of clarification on this if you could. I've done a bit of research and it's my understanding that some race classes have limits on wheel size but with tires it's whatever you can cram in (as you can tell I don't have track experience). According to what I've read some of these guys go as wide as a 305 on an 8-9"" which sounds ridiculous, but they claim to put down better lap times as they go wider. They're sacrificing "feel" and response however.

I'm taking all this with a grain of salt since I'm going off hearsay and do not have my own experience. I would just like to clear it up since you are saying it will handle poorly, but to me better lap times sounds like an improvement in handling. You have a lot of track experience it seems, so are all these people just imagining things? I'm sure the type of event will have plenty to do with it, but I would just like to hear a bit more.

This is directed towards terrasmak but anyone else who may have experience i.e. Mike (03threefiftyz) are welcome to respond.

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

That is mostly for autocross ( low speed racing ) the tires they run also have a much stiffer sidewall design that will better handle the sidewall rollover better. Also they run a much lower profile tire (285/30-18) is the common 350Z size fore your wheels.

When I bought my car I run 9's front and back for the street with a 275/40 rear, it sucked , the same tire mounted on a 10.5 later was a huge difference.

It has been proven time and time again that tires handle better with the widest recommended wheels.

03threefiftyz

iTrader: (25)

Warning: Long Post Below

Tire sizing it critical to performance. Moreover, a specific tire, whether it be be compound or construction, will perform differently on the same width wheel. Even within the specific world of extreme street tires, construction and compound varies greatly. Ex: The sidewall on an RS3 is softer than a Dunlop Z2 or Bridgestone RE-11A. What does that mean? In general, the RS3 will like a little more stretch and require more air than the other two mentioned. Take a 275/35/18 for example. I would run a 10.5-11" wide wheel with an RS3, but I would imagine with a dunlop, the gain in traction would diminish after 10" width due to construction.

Track duty:
Disclaimer: I have some track experience, but my claim to fame is more on the autocross side of things. I also don't have a lot of first hand experience on the new generation of extreme street tires.

Again, tire sizing it critical. See above on street tire example. Unless you run in a class with a spec max wheel width...there is no reason not to maximize the performance of the tire. This means as wide a wheel as possible until you hit the point of diminishing return. In TT and W2W racing, tire size restrictions are more common than wheel width. That said, there are still classes that max wheel width, but leave tire size open. There is a couple of reasons to squeeze on the most tire you can. First, heat management. A stuffed tire tends to take longer to heat up, but on the flip side, it will also diminish that heat more slowly if you over cook them. Second, even though not ideal, generally a stuffed tire will generate more max grip, even if it doesn't feel like it. Third, tire wear. The stuff tires, when inflated properly, will tend to last longer (this also goes along with the heat management part). Lastly, many classes have restrictions on performance upgrades. This can, and does, include limiting factors on alignment. The stuffed tire can be more friendly to camber challenged cars. A stuffed tire helps keep you off the sidewall in these cases. Most of what I just wrote above would be much more focused on R-comp tires, and to a lesser extent street tires. Since there are basically no W2W series that use a 140+tw tire as spec, take what I wrote above as R-comp focused.

Autocross:

This is where things get a little crazy. Stock classes are where you see lunacy in terms of stuffed tires. That said, it is still a balancing act. For a great many years, Acura ITR's dominated DS. The winning combo on those cars was to run a 275mm tire on a 6" wheel up front. It looked ridiculous and probably felt just the same. That said, you can't do that with street tires. These guys were all running Hoosier A's, which have a MUCH stiffer sidewall than any street tire. In fact, the 275mm craze didn't really happen until the A6 came out. This was because prior to that, the "hot" tire was the kumho v710, which had a softer sidewall and could not tolerate being stuffed like that.

The easiest way to equate how this "feels" is to compare it to how a dedicated racing wet tire feels in drying conditions. It squirms around and generally feels like ****. That said, it was faster, and it became the defacto set-up to compete in DS for a few years before the modern Audi TT's started to dominate.

Another example:
A good buddy of mine campaigned a celica in GS this year. In fact the car finished 1st and 3rd at Nationals this year. They tested comprehensively both a 225 and 275 on the 6" wheel. Time after time, the times were almost same. The 275 would slightly outperform the 225 on sweeper heavy courses, but the 225 would shine in transition heavy courses. In the end, they ended up bringing a set of both 225's and 275's, and running whichever suited the course best. At Nationals they ran the 225 both days. In the end...it worked. Again, this was on A6's.

On the street tire side of things in autocross:
Generally speaking, only STR runs the max size tire on the required wheel width max (255 on 9's). ST and STS, which are generally miatas, crx's and EF civics that win at the National level run a 195 toyo. This tire is an anomaly on the street tire side. We affectionately refer to this tire as the "pixie dust" tire in the autocross world. The max wheel width for the class is a 7.5" wide wheel. This width could easily hold a much wider tire, but time in and time out...the 195 reigns supreme. Similarly, and on the other side of the car spectrum, STX has a 9" max wheel, but is occupied by larger, heavier cars (RX8, Twins, E36's, etc). The winning car this year, Jeff Hurst in an RX8, won on 235's...even though the max tire size is a 265. In fact, there was not a car in the STX grid (60+ cars) that was on the max tire size. STU has no wheel width restrictions, but AWD cars are limited to a 245mm tire (RWD is 285mm). All the top STU AWD cars were running on 9.5" after extensive testing.

In summary, in testing (and practice), all the ST category cars tend to run a tire with a slight to moderate stretch. It just flat works better that way.

For what it's worth, I run a 315 A6 on all 4 on the BSP car. I use an 11" wheel up front and 12" wide out back. The 315 on the 11 is "square" and slightly stretched on the 12". It's clear from video and pictures that the 315 moves around a lot more on the 11 than the 12. All things being perfect, I would run the 12" up front if I didn't have to increase front width.

Pic of a 315 on an 11 (left) and 12 (right):


Don't know if that helps the person who asked...

-Trav-

iTrader: (37)

Ok thanks for the clarification, makes sense. My tires' sidewall is on the soft side, so being oversized for the wheel probably wont help matters.



Greatly...thank you sir, very informative.


Im still going to run this just for the hell of it. I got the tires cheap enough...I'll update this when fronts are on for those who may be interested.