I'm looking at getting a car from a friend of mine. I want to do an occasional Auto-X with it as well as use it for my daily driver. It has 17" wheels on it right now. I'm thinking I want something smaller, 15-16.
I want it to look good but be able to corner. If it was just for runnning the track I would go back to 14's or something but its not.

Thanks for the info.

 

I'm running 17" wheels and I do auto-x but I'm nowhere near competitive....fastest guys run lightweight 15's with contact paches twice as wide as mine. Reason? Smaller wheels= smaller rotational mass= better acceleration + shorter gearing. Tires are also much cheaper.

Since you have the 17's anyways, I would get some cheap lightweight 15's (rota's?) with sticky rubber as your auto-x/track wheel. Then you can be competitive at your local auto-x but still be able to roll around "in style" on tha streets when all is said and done

I still have the iCy hOt stock gsr blades so I'll probably be using them to auto-x once I get some decent tires on them.


Shingo

 

Also, one of the local gsr guys in DSP is running 13" wheels (yes, 13") That's probably the smallest you can go, but it's considered a must if you're competiting in DSP.

Oh, and I used to frequent the board back in 2000, didn't post as much, mainly just read. The big crash really hurt traffic to the site...I hope things return to normal someday

Shingo

 

17's are too big for most imports. But what about the big Domestic V8's would they be able to control there car's better with smaller wheels?

 

for a lot of cars brake clearance is an issue. i'd be running thirteen's but they dont clear my brakes. most v8's have pretty big brakes in the front, which is another reason they come with big wheels.

hth

 

Yeah, I bought my wheels orginally for the street and track but now I am just flossin my dope ass steelies with some phat flat black spray painted hubcaps. My car looks like fricking night rider, but everyone around here knows the deal with my car, so it is all good in the hood.

Oh, back to the issue at hand. I like 16's for the performance, tire prices, and looks. Can't go wrong with em' in my opinion.

 

Staying smaller also helps the wallet. 14" performance tires compared to 17" performance tires is a huge difference:
AZENIS Sport (RS)
195/60HR14 $46
205/50VR15 $63
205/55VR16 $78
215/45ZR16 $97
225/45ZR17 $106
245/45ZR17 $111

For the price of one 17" you could have two 14"s. Plus rotational mass is more for a larger wheel and tire making the car accelerate slower and suspension takes longer to adjust to heavier corners.

 

true, but you can't compare the grip of a 245 to a 195. all things being equal, i'd rather have a 17" 245 tire than a 14" 195. 15" 225's work wonderfully for me, however. unless i need to get bigger brakes, which is a possibility, 15's are what im always going to run.

 

Yeah but your car can only use so much tire then it just become extra weight your car has to turn/push/spin. Everyone thinks wider is always better, but there comes a point where you have too much rubber that your car cannot use and it's just extra weight.

The largest contact patch I've seen on a Civic is a 13x8" wheel and 235/??x13" tire.

 

What tires are you using?