I use my Civic for Road Race only and til now everybody was running 15x7 wheels with 205/50/15 tires. Recently lots of people (Integras, Tiburons, etc) have gone to 17x8 wheels with 235 tires and are getting great results at the track. Can I do the same on my Civic? I know I can fit 17x7 Wheels but the 235 tires won`t perform as good since they won`t strech out so 17x8 seems to be a lot better.

Thanks
Jay

 

What track have you been racing at? SpeedRicer?

17x8 is way too big. And I guarentee you won't have better results in an EK or EG with 17x8 compared to 15 or 16x7.

If it was an 01+ then you'd have some point.

 

You could, but why would you? I can assure your going to have better results with 15x6.5/16x7.

 

Its just that the other cars improved their braking distance and and are cornering way better with the 17x8 wheels with 235 tires than with the 15x7 with 205 tires.

It seems that with more rubber on the ground (235 tires) I could get shorter stopping distances and and better cornering.

I did forget to tell you about one thing, our track is really short and threshold braking is done at 90% of the turns and there are about 6 turns. There is only 1 long straight.

 

If your worried about breaking, I would suggest upgrading your brakes. Smaller wheels are going to allow you to accelerate faster.

 

What kind of offsets will you be running?


I could run 17x10 +12 on my car. No wide body required.

 

Honestly its goign to depend more on your tire compound and wheel weight than anything. Lighter wheels translate into better braking. The acceleration coudl be a factor too....it would be logical. Thats not somethign I'd adress via wheels however.

 

bigger the wheels slower acceleration, and plus i had 205/40/17s which were 17x7 on my 92 si and they rubbed like hell, so i would assure you that 17x8 with 235's will rub like hell...it would be best for your civic to stay with 15 or 16s

 

How about just getting some really sticky rubber rather than trying to fit 17" wheels?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by xEnderx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Honestly its goign to depend more on your tire compound and wheel weight than anything. Lighter wheels translate into better braking. The acceleration coudl be a factor too....it would be logical. Thats not somethign I'd adress via wheels however.</TD></TR></TABLE>
If he wants to go with wheels, so be it. But for racing, I wouldn't go bigger than 15s.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sockvtec &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">bigger the wheels slower acceleration</TD></TR></TABLE><TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Deemeetree &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How about just getting some really sticky rubber rather than trying to fit 17" wheels?</TD></TR></TABLE>
^^^ the answer. Stay with a lighter wheel in 15x7. Or even a 15x7.5 if you want every bit of traction you can get.

Don't do what others say, who cares if they go with 20s??? You can reach a point where you will have a bigger wheel thats lighter than a smaller wheel (ei 17" vs 15" ) and the 15" wheel is going to outbrake the bigger one because of its smaller mass.

 

I have OZ Superleggeras 15x7 which are very light. We all run Toyos RA1. I also have the 11" wilwood brake kit with 4 piston calipers.

 

Almost forgot, the car weights 2000 Lbs with out driver