I have about 240whp next year and I drive an Integra type-R. I wonder how wide the tires should be on a 15 inch rim. 225 or 205 .......maybe 225 in front and 205 in the rear....... . what are you Auto X gurus thinking?


[Modified by austrian ITR, 9:30 AM 12/20/2001]

 

I'm thinking 225mm, myself. Front and rear.

 

I think the 225mm bulges too much on a 15" ITR rim. When autoXing, you'll be cornering very hard, so you need still sidewall support. I've also heard that some 225mm tires rub at full lock. I'd consider a 215mm.

 

No R compunds in 215.. Also, if he has 240 hp, his car is not stock, so and aftermaket wheel would be nessesary, and 225s would be the choise..

 

If he goes 225 won't he want to go with a wider wheel, or do ITR's come with a 15x7 wheel?

 

Christian, I thought you had 16" rims. Are you going to use 15" rims for autoX? A 225mm will fit a 15" USDM ITR rim, but like I said, it would bulge too much for my comfort to autoX with it. You would need a wider rim for 225mm, and possibly need to roll your fender lip to prevent rubbing. Are you looking for only R compound, or something to double as a good daily driver like RE010 or Azenis?

 

Depends on the tire, but in general a 225 will squeeze onto a 6.5" wide wheel and perform okay, but of course far from ideal and funny wear characteristics. My budget track wheel/tire setup right now has 225/50-15s on a 15x6.5 Preulde wheel. Due to the bowing-in of the sidewalls, the center of the tread is wearing faster than the outer edges.
You may also find that unless you have a wheel with a large offset, a 225 will rub your rear upper control arm unless you get 5mm wheel spacers. https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=102967

 

I'd advise a 7 in wide wheel and 225's all around.

You can run the stock wheels with 225's and I've have autocrossed my R the last two years that way, but it's definitely better to go with a wider wheel.

 

Or those beautiful 15x7.5 SSR Competitions will take a 225 just fine.

Jon

 

Jon, do those come in a 4x114.3 bolt pattern? Tirerack does not seem to think so. At least they don't show a 15" SSR Competition for my car.

 

Just because tirerack doesn't have them, doesn't mean they aren't available. I'll check into it and let you know privately, although the last time I checked, they still weren't available anywhere.

Jon

 

Thanks guys, lets clear some things up!

I want to use my stock 15inchers for autoX, they are 6.5inch wide. I know a bit to small for 225. MY fenders are pulled more than 1 inch, cause my old street tire setup was 17x8.5 offset 30, 225/35/17. :D RICE!!!!!!! So I trade them in for Volk TE37 16x8 offset 38 and use 215/45 or 225/40/16 for daily driving.

I realy don´t want to buy a 4th set of rims, cause I´ll order 2 pieces of 15x7 inch Volk TE37 gravel for DRAG too.

I have now my heavy 17x8.5 inchers offset 30
my 16x8 Volk TE37 offset 38
my stock ENKEI 15x6.5 offset: don´t know
and my 15x7 Volk TE37 gravel 3.75kg (8.26 lbs)

Do you US guys have the same stock rim like me? ENKEI

So what should I do? Buy 4 pieces of Volk gravel in 15"? Should I race on the 16inchers? DAMN! I need 4 set rims

 

The US Type R comes with 15x6s made by Enkei.

The fast setup for autox is run 225s in front with 205s in the rear (the rear really doesn't need the extra grip of the 225). I ran that setup with Kumhos last year and Hoosiers this year and the wear I experienced was pretty even across the face of the tire.

Although the 225 on a 6" isn't ideal, it IS better than running a 205. The stiff sidewalls of the R tires are the only reason we're able to get away with this.

Also, you can run the 225s all around for the benefit of getting to rotate them, but you're not going to gain much. With 225s all around, you end up buying 4 new tires when they wear out. With the 205s in the rear, you might actually go through 3 or 4 pairs of fronts (buying 2 at a time instead of 4) before needing a new pair of rears...your choice of how often you want to replenish your tire supply.

 

On that topic... If the rears are lasting 3-4x at long as the fronts, will you have heat-cycled either Kumhos or Hoosiers to death by the time you actually run them out of tread? Or does it not make much of a difference at the rear end of the car?

 

I'm running 225/45 front and 205/50 rears on Mazda Millenia 15" rims for autoX. I'm not sure how much the rears are going to get cycled b/c on the short courses in my area they really don't build up much heat at all besides, if they do get hard and greasy it's fine with me... I like my cars like I like my women; loose and a handful FWIW, before I broke down and bought the 225/45's I actually ran part of last season on 205/50 Victoracers up front and 195/55 stock RE010's on the back. Can you say "Oversteer"? It was actually a pretty cool setup but you couldn't even think about braking if the wheel wasn't dead straight ahead and the ITR gods would punish you terribly for trail braking

 

OH, our stock rims are also 6", it was my fault.

I hope we have a 225 in 15", cause we have only the Yokohamas over here. It is the common autoX tire. No Khumos and Hoosiers.

Does the 225 with the rims offset 50 realy rub in the rear?

 

If your car is FI, you might want to look into some 16s and bigger tires combo. I have about 260 Hp at the wheel and use to run 225 45 15 in front and 205 50 15 in the rear running only 8psi and all you will experience is spinning the wheel everywhere, especially you have a itr gear box. Going with bigger wheels and tires will help you get better traction buy spreading the gear further apart and you will be able to stay in the second gear longer ( hopefully the whole way).

I would go with at least 225 45 16 in front which have a 24" overall diameter, I'm getting 225 50 16F and 205 50 15 R for the next season.

One question for you though. When you are running the fat 16s and 17s tires what size of a spacer did you use if any?

 

205 will be fine. All the autoX's I ahve been to have been for fun, to me they are all for fun, the driving schools, and autoX's. Learning and fun You'll be fine on 205's after you burn them up, try a 225 if you think you need a little more rubber. good luck

Bryan

 

b18cturbo: I need no spacers, cause the offset is more than enough.

 

Is your car lowered any at all?? If so your really gonna rub the **** out of those in tight turns. Go with a 215 for the first year and see how it goes. That or go down to a 14" or 13" rims.

 

My car is lowered with springs about 1,5 inch. No rubbing. The fenders are pulled realy much, so I have no problem with the 17x8.5 offset 30 and wearing 225. I have done autoX last season 2 times, no rubbings with the 17inchers.

 

The rear of the car really doesn't make *that* much of a difference. I ran some Hoosiers in the rear for the first part of last year, swapped them inside-out and ran them some more before getting new rears before Nationals. If your setup all of the sudden goes to massive oversteer without changing anything else, maybe it's time for some new rear tires! Personally, I do the "thumbnail in the tread" test to see if my tires have gone hard. Combine that with looking at the tread depth and color and you can get a pretty good idea on when Hoosiers are dead.