jfuredy

I have a 2001 Honda Accord 4 cyl (with two car seats in the back). I drive the car VERY hard, including regular autocross events. My tires are shot, and I am looking at going from the stock 195/65/15 to 225/45-17. Based on what I have read and understand, the width of the wheel should closely match the width of the tire to keep it from rolling over. So, the 225 is about 8.9" wide. If I allow for about 1/2" of wheel thickness outside of each safety bead that tells me that I should ideally be looking for a 7.9" wide wheel, right?

Since there aren't many 17x8s to fit the Accord I gave up and was going to go with a 17x7.5. But when I went to talk to a guy at Discount Tires he told me that the 7" wide wheel is optimum for the 225 tire. Is that really true? That just seems really skinny for a 225 to me.

So what wisdom do you experts have to donate to me? Thanks in advance,
Joe Furedy

syclone

17x7.5

17x8 would be a better choice, but it'll be a hassle getting it to fit.. the 7.5" might need some fender rolling as is...

the 17x7" is a little narrow in my opinion.. it'll fit without problems, but 7.5" is optimal for the tire vs. car.

CivicSiRacer

I've fit 225 on a 7" rim, worked great. Wider is always better - but then ou run into fender clearance issues.

Personally I'd get a 225/45x15" tire instead of a 225/45x17" tire. Lower gearing is always better, plus the tire and wheel are cheaper and you have less problems with fender clearance. Especially if this is an autocross setup.

jfuredy

Thanks for the info guys.

CivicSiRacer,
Yeah, it will be used for autocross, but it will also be my daily driver. Since I drove over 50 miles round trip every day, I don't think I want my speedo to be off, my fuel economy to go down by more than 8%, and my cruising RPMs that much higher (and louder).

Does anyone have any specific experience with a 225/45-17 tire and wheel on a 6th Gen Accord? Will it really require fender rolling even if the car is not lowered?

Thanks again,
Joe

CivicSiRacer

17s will just slow you down. Get 16s then.

jfuredy

CivicSiRacer,
Are you saying that the 17s will slow me down because of the extra weight? Or are you referring to rotational inertia?

One of the main reasons that I want to upsize the wheels is so that I can get a shorter sidewall in order to improve steering/turn-in response. In order to stay with the right diameter tire, and fit on a reasonable width wheel I would end up with a 215/55-16 or a 225/50-16 on a 7" wide wheel.

Am I really going to be able to get the same kind of steering response out of a 55 series tire as I would out of a 45 series? Assuming the same kind of tire in both sizes.

Joe

syclone

you can do what we do.. i run 225/45/17 as a daily driver.. and run 205/50/15 for autocross.

with the exception of the azenis, the 225/45/17 will fit without problems as long as your 17" wheel offset isn't too low. +42 to +45 will clear. i have +40 with azenis and it clears after i cut the rear fender lip.

with the 15's you get noticeably quicker acceleration and it out-benefits the extra grip you get with 225 17's.. initially, my friend used his stock wheels for the 15's, then when he had enough money, he purhcased a set of kosei's..

here's with 17's


here's with 15's at autocross. This isn't me, someone borrowed my car.

DakarM

at the same time you are reducing side wall height you are increasing the width of the tires so the turn in probably wont improve much. I went from 225/45/17 to 245/45/17 and there was a noticible difference in turn in response. When I put the stock 225/45/17 back on, the response was back to what it was before (obviously).


I'm with Syclone, get some nice 15" for autox. 205/50/15 will have a much shorter side wall than 225/4517 anyways. Thus improving turn in.

GreenEX

I'm assuming that you are running in F Street Prepared (in which case, wheel size is totally open and R-compounds are allowed,) if you are in Street Touring wheel width is limited to 7.5" and tires must have a Treadwear rating of at least 140 (unless equipped from the factory with a lower rating tire, not the case with Accords.) Since you have a 4 cylinder, and consequently 4-lugs, about the biggest you'll be able to reasonably find will be 17x7.5, which is fine for 225s, and gives you a little bit of a sidewall for that occasional bump with the curb (not that you would bump it, but if someone else did, then those nice new wheels might not be so happy.) If I'm not mistaken, however, a more appropriate upgrade would be 235/45-17s to keep your speedometer reading correctly. With 235s, an increase to 17x8s would be in order, and short of special ordered wheels, the best way to do that would be to swap V6 Accord brakes onto your car. The V6 offers 5-lugs, and if you have a drum brake rear at the moment, swapping to rear disc will also be nice. And as a recommendation, a good 17x8 with 235 combo comes right off of the 04-up Acura TL, just swap in the centercaps from of 03-up CR-V or Element and the look will be complete.

syclone

it's safer to assume he's running sts from his statement. sts is limited to 225.. so you can't use 235. in addition, 225/45/17 is the optimal size for your speedometer. the total diameter will be 0.2mm shorter than the factory size. with 235/45/17, the total diameter will be 8.8mm taller. harmful for speedo accuracy and acceleration.

swapping the v6 brakes into the accord is illegal for autocross in both fsp and sts. he'll be put into sm.