originally my car had 195/55/15 tires on it.
as of right now, i have 205/50/15 on the car
i still am riding on the original 97 gs-r rims (AKA LS mesh)

i need a new set of tires, so should i go back to the original tire size or keep my current size?

i need to know this asap, i'm ready to order today!!

 

I say stick with your 205's

Better traction

 

doesn't really matter, just depends on:
-what tires are available in each size
-how much you want to spend on tires
-personal preference

you'll get a lot of people telling you to stick with 205's cause they'll grip better. But really its hard to say that without talking about the same brand and model of tire. My old 195-55-15 potenza's were just as wide as most 205's out there. And my new 195-55-15 es00's are super narrow.....so ACTUAL contact patch width will vary quite a bit. Also, when I was shopping for the es100's the 205-50-15's were significantly more expensive....too much to justify the increased width.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HatchedGTI &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I say stick with your 205's
</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

i ended up sticking with 205's

got a set of hankook ventus to try out

 

195/55 is an oddball size.

with 205/50 your choices are more and the diameter is smaller. they look better, too.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 91IntegGS &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">doesn't really matter, just depends on:
-what tires are available in each size
-how much you want to spend on tires
-personal preference

you'll get a lot of people telling you to stick with 205's cause they'll grip better. But really its hard to say that without talking about the same brand and model of tire. My old 195-55-15 potenza's were just as wide as most 205's out there. And my new 195-55-15 es00's are super narrow.....so ACTUAL contact patch width will vary quite a bit. Also, when I was shopping for the es100's the 205-50-15's were significantly more expensive....too much to justify the increased width.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually contact patch area remains the same, regardless of tire size, given the same inflation pressure and same weight on the tire. Only the shape of the contact patch changes when the tire size is changed.

205 tires are better suited to 6.5"- or 7"-wide wheels. The sidewalls will roll over more during hard cornering on a stock 6"-wide wheel, vs. using 195 tires.

When I was ready to order 195/55 ES100's, Yokohama was backordered for weeks, so I got 195/50 ES100's. The smaller diamter effectively increases the final drive ratio, and makes for a noticeable increase in acceleration. They're also MAD cheap, I think I paid $64 each from Discount Tire, with FREE shipping. Speedometer and odometer are thrown off a tad more, but that really doesn't matter too much to me. The speedo reads high, so it helps keep me at a legal speed, even though I think I'm going faster.

 

damn...you beat me to the punch by 5 mins Patrick!

 

ok, I didn't know about the area thing...just the size, good to know. But still, that wasn't exactly my point. My point is that not all 195's are the exact same width, and not all 205's are the exact same width. So 195's are not always as narrow as people think.

 

ii wouldve gone with a 195/50
much more tire selection

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wannabe_si &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">ii wouldve gone with a 195/50
much more tire selection </TD></TR></TABLE>

Actually I think there is more of a selection in 205/50 than 195/50, but like was mentioned earlier, some tires like ES100's are significantly more expensive in the 205/50 size ($20 difference between 195/50 and 205/50 ES100's ).

 

Check the specs section at tirerack and you'll find that the diameter of tires in a given size can vary quite a bit. I believe the stock Michelins that came with Integras were given as turning 890 revolutions per mile. If you can find a tire, like the 205/50-15 ES 100 that turns 894 revs/mile, you won't change anything significantly on your speedometer reading - it's less than 0.5% difference.