Talk to me about staggered diameters!

kyngfish · kyngfish's Garage

Hi,

So I think I'm going to go bigger as well as wider with my wheels. Sitting around waiting for 16x9 Fuchs to show up doesn't seem like a great plan, and the 16 inch tire options aren't great.

I'm considering the Fikse, and to get the look I want without murdering my wallet right now, I was thinking I'd do the rears first, and shift my 7x16s to the front, then sometime in the middle of next year, do the fronts.

Can anyone think of why staggered diameters are a terrible idea? Do they look OK as long as the finish and the style are similar?

Pics?

wayner · 08:00 AM

Back in the day some of the RSRs ran much larger diameter rear tires.

Keep in mind these were race teams and they may have made other appropriate changes to the suspension settings, but from what I was told, since widths were limited by the rules, they figured they could go to bigger contact patches by increasing the diameter.

(This would be a different shaped contact patch mind you).

Some people will tell you never to do such thing, but then they are not thinking more like a corporate lawyer than a race engineer who is willing to experiment and make the appropriate adjustments.

kyngfish · kyngfish's Garage

Love your car by the way.

wayner · 07-25-2016, 07:59 AM

Thanks

Wheels make the car

IROC · IROC's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyngfish

Hi,

So I think I'm going to go bigger as well as wider with my wheels. Sitting around waiting for 16x9 Fuchs to show up doesn't seem like a great plan, and the 16 inch tire options aren't great.

I'm considering the Fikse, and to get the look I want without murdering my wallet right now, I was thinking I'd do the rears first, and shift my 7x16s to the front, then sometime in the middle of next year, do the fronts.

Can anyone think of why staggered diameters are a terrible idea? Do they look OK as long as the finish and the style are similar?

Pics?

There's no problem with doing this. I ran 8x16s in the front/9x17s in the rear for years. And, since you asked for a pic...

wayner · 07-25-2016, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IROC

There's no problem with doing this. I ran 8x16s in the front/9x17s in the rear for years.

That will never work

kyngfish · kyngfish's Garage

Those are 9s? They look huge! Narrow body? What was the offset? Have a side pic?

bdonally · 07-25-2016, 09:40 AM

of course, as long as you can always turn the same direction the circle track practice of larger diameter on the right is always worth considering.

Bill Verburg · Bill Verburg's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyngfish

Hi,

So I think I'm going to go bigger as well as wider with my wheels. Sitting around waiting for 16x9 Fuchs to show up doesn't seem like a great plan, and the 16 inch tire options aren't great.

I'm considering the Fikse, and to get the look I want without murdering my wallet right now, I was thinking I'd do the rears first, and shift my 7x16s to the front, then sometime in the middle of next year, do the fronts.

Can anyone think of why staggered diameters are a terrible idea? Do they look OK as long as the finish and the style are similar?

Pics?

The larger the difference between front and rear tire diameters the harder it is to set the car up, additionally modern cars w/ ABS and AWD need very closely matched tire seats for those systems to operate properly.

IROC · IROC's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyngfish

Those are 9s? They look huge! Narrow body? What was the offset? Have a side pic?

Yeah, 9s. Narrow body. I am not exactly sure of the offsets (backspacing), but I believe they are "standard" 5.5" backspacing. The fronts are ~5.75" backspacing. 245/45-16s in the front and 275/40-17s in the rear. Here's a side pic:

I recently (like two weeks ago) refurbished these wheels with some new 17" wheel halves from HRE for my fronts, so now the fronts are 8x17 and I have 225/45s on them. Wheels only:

kyngfish · kyngfish's Garage

Looks awesome actually. I assume you went for a narrower sidewall on the 17s? Does having the wider tire and deeper offset mess with your suspension?

IROC · IROC's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyngfish

Looks awesome actually. I assume you went for a narrower sidewall on the 17s? Does having the wider tire and deeper offset mess with your suspension?

My goal at the time was maximizing the amount of tire I could fit in the fenders - hence the 245/275 combo. In reality, the 275/40s were a little tall in the rear, but there weren't (still aren't?) a lot of options for something that wide with an OD at 25" or less.

No ill effects on the suspension. There have been lots of discussions over the years on optimal tire/wheel setups, but having personally experimented with a lot of different combinations, I like the 245/275 combo the best. It is a heckuva lot of tire on a 2400 lbs car.

Bleedsblue · 07-25-2016, 11:40 AM

I'm doing this on both of my cars right now, though it's mainly to take advantage of tires I already had in my possession. On the 911, it's also because I don't care about having more tire than a 225 up front, and there are still plenty of sticky, streetable 225s in 16. However, I want something wider in the rear, hence the 17.

kyngfish · kyngfish's Garage

Doesn't look off at all. Are they zuffs in the back and fuchs in the front? What's the sidewall on back and front? Back looks thinner?

Bleedsblue · 07-25-2016, 12:27 PM

Ha, you over-estimate me, sir. They are Euromeister rear and Maxilite front. The back is 255/40/17, front is 225/45/16 (so 1" shorter, effectively lowering the front and I like the shorter sidewall).

I haven't tested this set-up at autocross; it's basically just tiding me over until I finish rebuilding my 16x9 and 16x7.5 BBS RS.

KTL · 07-25-2016, 01:04 PM

Brent,

What tire are you using in 225/45-16 size? That tire size is a needle in a haystack these days.

Thanks
Kevin

Bleedsblue · 07-25-2016, 01:13 PM

Kevin-

Dunlop Z2 Star Spec, and I know, now it's just those, the R1R, and some slicks in that size, basically. I ran them all around on 16x7 and 8 BBS and the car was noticeably faster in a straight line due to the light weight and short profile, but it just was not enough rear tire for autocross.

impactbumper · 07-25-2016, 01:23 PM

**** it Brent, i am copying your ass on this

Bleedsblue · 07-25-2016, 01:48 PM

I'd be honored, Berkster

I'll be testing the set-up at autocross later this summer. In the future I'd love to either source 951 Fuchs or get the Maxilite 16x7s widened to 16x8 to really situate that 225 up front. And of course lighter 17s would be the ticket out back.

RarlyL8 · RarlyL8's Garage

I'm running 16's up front and 17's in the rear as well. So far so good.